Informatica Questions - 17

Q. What is a source qualifier? What is meant by Query Override?

A. Source Qualifier represents the rows that the PowerCenter Server reads from a
relational or flat file source when it runs a session. When a relational or a f
lat file source definition is added to a mapping, it is connected to a Source Qu
alifier transformation.
PowerCenter Server generates a query for each Source Qualifier Transformation wh
enever it runs the session. The default query is SELET statement containing all
the source columns. Source Qualifier has capability to override this default que
ry by changing the default settings of the transformation properties. The list o
f selected ports or the order they appear in the default query should not be cha
nged in overridden query.
Q. What is aggregator transformation?
A. The Aggregator transformation allows performing aggregate calculations, such
as averages and sums. Unlike Expression Transformation, the Aggregator transform
ation can only be used to perform calculations on groups. The Expression transfo
rmation permits calculations on a row-by-row basis only.
Aggregator Transformation contains group by ports that indicate how to group the
data. While grouping the data, the aggregator transformation outputs the last r
ow of each group unless otherwise specified in the transformation properties.
Various group by functions available in Informatica are : AVG, COUNT, FIRST, LAS
T, MAX, MEDIAN, MIN, PERCENTILE, STDDEV, SUM, VARIANCE.
Q. What is Incremental Aggregation?
A. Whenever a session is created for a mapping Aggregate Transformation, the ses
sion option for Incremental Aggregation can be enabled. When PowerCenter perform
s incremental aggregation, it passes new source data through the mapping and use
s historical cache data to perform new aggregation calculations incrementally.
Q. How Union Transformation is used?
A. The union transformation is a multiple input group transformation that can be
used to merge data from various sources (or pipelines). This transformation wor
ks just like UNION ALL statement in SQL, that is used to combine result set of t
wo SELECT statements.
Q. Can two flat files be joined with Joiner Transformation?
A. Yes, joiner transformation can be used to join data from two flat file source
s.
Q. What is a look up transformation?
A. This transformation is used to lookup data in a flat file or a relational tab
le, view or synonym. It compares lookup transformation ports (input ports) to th
e source column values based on the lookup condition. Later returned values can
be passed to other transformations.