Book Image

Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook

Book Image

Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook

Overview of this book

Pentaho Data Integration (PDI, also called Kettle), one of the data integration tools leaders, is broadly used for all kind of data manipulation such as migrating data between applications or databases, exporting data from databases to flat files, data cleansing, and much more. Do you need quick solutions to the problems you face while using Kettle? Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook explains Kettle features in detail through clear and practical recipes that you can quickly apply to your solutions. The recipes cover a broad range of topics including processing files, working with databases, understanding XML structures, integrating with Pentaho BI Suite, and more. Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook shows you how to take advantage of all the aspects of Kettle through a set of practical recipes organized to find quick solutions to your needs. The initial chapters explain the details about working with databases, files, and XML structures. Then you will see different ways for searching data, executing and reusing jobs and transformations, and manipulating streams. Further, you will learn all the available options for integrating Kettle with other Pentaho tools. Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook has plenty of recipes with easy step-by-step instructions to accomplish specific tasks. There are examples and code that are ready for adaptation to individual needs.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Writing an unstructured file


A standard file generated with Kettle is a file with several columns, which may vary according to how you configured the Fields tab of the Output step and one row for each row in your dataset, all with the same structure. If you want the file to have a header, the header is automatically created with the names of the fields. What if you want to generate a file somehow different from that?

Suppose that you have a file with a list of topics for a writing examination. When a student has to take the examination, you take that list of topics and generate a sheet like the following:

Student name: Mary Williams
-------------------------------------------------------------
Choose one of the following topics and write a paragraph about it
(write at least 300 words)

1. Should animals be used for medical research?
2. What do you think about the amount of violence on TV?
3. What does your country mean to you?
4. What would happen if there were no televisions?
5. What would...