Time for action – reading all your files at a time using a single Text file input step and regular expressions

You could do the same thing you did above by using a different notation. Follow these instructions:

1. Open the transformation and edit the configuration windows of the input step.

2. Delete the lines with the names of the files.

3. In the first row of the grid, type C:\pdi_files\input\ under the File/Directory column, and group[1-4]\.txt under the Wildcard (Reg.Exp.) column.

4. Click the Show filename(s)... button. You'll see the list of files that match the expression.

   

5. Close the tiny window and click Preview rows to confirm that the rows shown belong to the four files that match the expression you typed.

What just happened?

In this particular case, all filenames follow a pattern—group1.txt, group2.txt, and so on. In order to specify the names of the files, you used a regular expression. In the column File/Directory you put the static part of the names, while in the Wildcard (Reg.Exp.) column...