DataStage provides three types of stages:
- File and Database Stages
- Dynamic Relational Stages
- Processing Stages
Each stage has a set of predefined and editable properties.
The following are some of the delivered server job database stages:
- ODBC
- UniVerse
- UniData
- Oracle
- Sybase
The delivered server job file stages are:
- Sequential file
- Hashed file
- Complex flat file
- Folder
Dynamic Relational Stages (DRS):
- Read data from any DataStage stage.
- Read data from any supported relational database.
- Write to any DataStage stage.
- Write to any supported relational database.
DataStage Processing Stages:
- Reads the data from the source.
- Processes, transforms, or converts the data read from the source.
- Writes the processed data to the target.
Processing Stage Types
This table describes the different types of Processing Stages:
| Processing Stage | Description |
|---|---|
| Transformer | Transformer stages perform transformations and conversions on extracted data. |
| Aggregator | Aggregator stages group data from a single input link and perform aggregation functions such as COUNT, SUM, AVERAGE, FIRST, LAST, MIN, and MAX. |
| FTP | FTP Stages transfer files to other machines. |
| Link Collector | Link Collectors collect partitioned data and pieces them together. |
| Interprocess | An InterProcess (IPC) stage is a passive stage which provides a communication channel between WebSphere DataStage processes running simultaneously in the same job. It allows you to design jobs that run on SMP systems with great performance benefits. |
| Pivot | Pivot, an active stage, maps sets of columns in an input table to a single column in an output table. |
| Sort | Sort Stages allow you to perform Sort operations. |
Transformer Stages
Transformer stages enable you to:
- Add, delete, or move columns.
- Apply expressions to data.
- Use lookups to validate data.
- Filter data using constraints.
- Edit column metadata and derivations.
- Define local stage variables, and before-stage and after-stage subroutines.
- Specify the order in which the links are processed.
- Pass data on to either another transformer stage, or to a target stage.