What is a schema.ini file?

What is a schema.ini file and what does it do?

A schema.ini file tells IFP how a text data file is formatted i.e. which columns of data are in the file. They are primarily used during data importing. Each schema.ini file may contain information on one or more data files in a folder. Schema.ini files can be viewed in Notepad - an example is shown below:

This particular example is based on a file called SAPPandLActual.Txt, as can be seen in the top line. The File Name must exactly match the data file name. The example shows that this is a fixed length format i.e. columns are separated into numbers of characters. There are no column headers in this data file.

What happens if the schema.ini file is missing?

If this file is missing then all data will be put into one column when imported, hence the schema.ini is key to importing the data file correctly.

What happens if the column widths are wrong?

If the wrong column width is entered then all characters will be shifted one way or another, meaning information will appear in the wrong columns.

Do I need a schema.ini file in every source data folder?

Yes, a schema.ini is required in each folder that you wish to import text data from.