I’m importing a flat file into a database using a Data Flow Task in SSIS. The file is very simple: it contains three comma-separated values per row. Whenever I run this task, however, I receive a warning from the Flat File component:
Warning: 0x8020200F: There is a partial row at the end of the file.
This warning seems to happen regardless of the size of the file: even with only a handful of rows in the file, visually validated (with extended characters and whatnot visible) I still receive it. Moreover, it doesn’t seem to matter whether I have a blank row at the end of the file or I just end it without a trailing CR+LF.
How can I get rid of this warning so I can run my package with WarnAsError enabled?
(BTW, it seems someone else may have had a similar problem in There is a partial row at the end of the file, though it wasn’t much of a question.)
I have found three things to try if you encounter this problem. In at least two out of the three cases, SSIS was ignoring rows of my input file with only the above warning to show for it. Because of that, I do not recommend ignoring this warning!
Step 1: verify that your flat file is valid
This error will appear when you have an invalid input file. This can be especially hard to detect if your input file has millions of lines, as mine do, but it’s vital that you discover file format violations because SSIS will happily give you this warning and continue on its way without importing the offending lines or, in some cases, the lines after the offending lines. The easiest way I found to discover a problem with the source file is to check the number of rows that are being imported successfully. If it’s vastly different than the number you expect in your flat file, something may have gone wrong in the middle somewhere.
Step 2: try a dummy line at the end (fixed-width only)
If you are using a fixed-width format input file, Microsoft may have a helpful KB article for you. Basically, they suggest that you add a dummy line at the end of the file.
I am not using fixed-width files, so I can’t say how useful this technique is.
Step 3: turn off text qualification for non-text
This is the tricky one, because I believe the TextQualified property is True by default. If your input file uses non-text fields (integers, etc.), then you must tell SSIS that it should not expect those columns to be qualified as text. Essentially, your input file will be invalid in spite of looking perfectly valid.
TextQualified is a property of the columns in your Flat File Connection Manager.
To change it, open up your connection manager, click “Advanced”, and then click on a non-text column. Make sure the TextQualified property is set to False. You will need to do this for all of your non-text columns.