Introduction
An easy-to-overlook function in an OLE DB Source adapter is the Preview button.
Dummy Data
To tinker with the Preview button, let’s first create some dummy data in a Data Flow Task. There are a couple ways to create dummy data in a Data Flow, one way is to use an OLE DB Source. Drag it onto the data flow canvas and open the editor. Select (or create) a Connection Manager and set the Data Access Mode to “SQL command”. Enter the following T-SQL statement:
Select ‘A’ as [Group], 112 as [Number]
union all
Select ‘B’, 219
union all
Select ‘A’, 111
union all
Select ‘C’, 311
union all
Select ‘A’, 117
union all
Select ‘B’, 211
Now that we have some dummy data, click the Preview button to get a look at a sample of the data returned – up to 200 rows:
This is some cool functionality – especially when I’m creating aggregates or invoking some Case logic.
:{> Andy
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