Can you explain how and for what it can be used?
Add custom table insert feature
Hi
Please see this article about custom table inserts. It is used to insert data into a table based on a custom SQL script. For example, the below shows a custom insert based on a union statement from three tables.
Note that Custom Table Inserts do not keep lineage (you would need to use Advanced > Object Dependencies). It is usually better to use a view in the layer below or same layer as those can keep lineage intact.
Hi
There are several use-cases.
Here is one that i used it for recently: I had a table that contained a primary key, a timestamp, a status (and other fields). I only need the last record for every Primary Key for each day. I made a custom table insert for that. I could also have made a custom view, but with the custom table insert I could implement the rest of the business logic the TimeXtender-way instead of doing T-SQL in the view.
I would still use Custom Views in that scenario: only use the Custom View for the selection of the last record per key. You can drag any Custom View onto the Tables node to make a physical table out of it and do any regular transformations there. The filling of that table is done through the view.
Alternatively you can use a Query Table on the source to do the selection logic there and remove the need for one of the physical tables.
I tend to avoid Query tables containing busines logic in order not to put any additonal load on the source system. As for the custom view approach, you would get a regular table insert. I like the Custom Table insert so that I have the code with the table instead of having to navigate to Views to find it.
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