Parse External Data in a Dataset

Specifies the single character that separates rows (or records) in your source data files.

In most delimited files, rows are separated by a new line, such as the line feed character, carriage return character, or carriage return plus line feed. Line feed is the standard new line representation on UNIX-like operating systems. Other operating systems (such as Windows) might use carriage return individually, or carriage return plus line feed. Selecting

Any New Line

causes Workday to recognize any of these representations of a new line as the row delimiter.

Specifies the single character that separates the fields (or columns) of a row in your source data files. Comma and tab are the most common field delimiters.

Specifies the default name of each field. You can change the field names in the Parse stage after you finish defining the parsing options.

Field names must follow naming validation rules.

Workday automatically treats the first line in each source file as a header row instead of as a row of data. If you don't want to use the first line as names for your fields, deselect the

Field Names

check box.

Specifies the single character used to escape the

Quote Character

or another instance of the

Escape Character

when a

Quote Character

is specified. Workday reads an escape character as data only if it's escaped with another escape character.

If your data values contain quote characters as data, those characters must be escaped and the entire field value must be enclosed with the

Quote Character

. If not, then Workday assumes that the quote character denotes a new field.

For comma-separated values (CSV) files, it's common practice to escape field delimiters by enclosing the entire field value within double quotes. If your source data uses this convention, then you should specify a

Quote Character

.

Some delimited files use the quote character to enclose individual data values. The quote character is typically the double quote character (

"

).

If a field value contains a field delimiter as data, then the field value must be enclosed in the

Quote Character

, otherwise Workday assumes that the field delimiter denotes a new field.

If a field value contains the quote character as data, then the field value must be enclosed in the

Quote Character

and it must be escaped, either by the

Escape Character

or another quote character.

If a field value contains a row delimiter (such as a new line character) as data, then the field value must be enclosed in the

Quote Character

and

Field values contain new lines

must be selected.

Suppose that you have a row with these 3 data values:

weekly special
wine, beer, and soda
"2 for 1" or 9.99 each

If the field delimiter is a comma, the quote character is a double quote, and the escape character is a backslash, then a correctly formatted row in the source data looks like:

"weekly special","wine, beer, and soda","\"2 for 1\" or 9.99 each"

Specifies the number of lines at the beginning of the file to ignore when reading the source file while creating and publishing the dataset. To use this with the

From First Table Row

option, ensure that the line containing the field names is visible and is the first remaining line.

Check this option if your source data might contain new line characters as part of a field value.

When enabled, Workday reads the new line characters inside quote characters as part of the field value instead of as a row delimiter. Workday interprets any row delimiter character outside of quote characters as a new record.

Enabling this option might impact the time to publish a dataset if Workday reads very large source files.

Note that you might get unexpected results if you enable this option and the source file has malformed data (such as when a field value has either an opening or closing quote character, but not both). Try to ensure that your source data is well formed when using this option.