IMPORT XML command

Concept Information

Import an XML file

Creates an Analytics table by defining and importing an XML file.

Syntax

IMPORT XML TO table import_filename FROM source_filename [field_syntax] <...n>
field_syntax ::=
FIELD name type AT start_position DEC value WID bytes PIC format AS display_name RULE xpath_expression

Parameters

Name Description
TO table

The name of the Analytics table to import the data into.

Note

Table names are limited to 64 alphanumeric characters. The name can include the underscore character ( _ ), but no other special characters, or any spaces. The name cannot start with a number.

import_filename

The name of the Analytics data file to create.

Specify import_filename as a quoted string with a .FIL file extension. For example, "Invoices.FIL".

By default, the data file (.FIL) is saved to the folder containing the Analytics project.

Use either an absolute or relative file path to save the data file to a different, existing folder:

  • "C:\data\Invoices.FIL"
  • "data\Invoices.FIL"

FROM source_filename

The name of the source data file. source_filename must be a quoted string.

If the source data file is not located in the same directory as the Analytics project, you must use an absolute path or a relative path to specify the file location:

  • "C:\data\source_filename"
  • "data\source_filename"
FIELD name type

The individual fields to import from the source data file, including the name and data type of the field. To exclude a field from being imported, do not specify it.

For information about type, see Identifiers for field data types.
AT start_position

The starting byte position of the field in the Analytics data file.

Note

non-Unicode Analytics 1 byte = 1 character
Unicode Analytics 2 bytes = 1 character

In Unicode Analytics, typically you should specify an odd-numbered starting byte position. Specifying an even-numbered starting position can cause characters to display incorrectly.
DEC value

The number of decimals for numeric fields.
WID bytes

The length in bytes of the field in the Analytics table layout.

Note

non-Unicode Analytics 1 byte = 1 character
Unicode Analytics 2 bytes = 1 character

In Unicode Analytics, specify an even number of bytes only. Specifying an odd number of bytes can cause characters to display incorrectly.
PIC format

Note

Applies to numeric or datetime fields only.

  • numeric fields the display format of numeric values in Analytics views and reports
  • datetime fields the physical format of datetime values in the source data (order of date and time characters, separators, and so on)

    Note

    For datetime fields, format must exactly match the physical format in the source data. For example, if the source data is 12/31/2014, you must enter the format as "MM/DD/YYYY".

format must be enclosed in quotation marks.
AS display_name

The display name (alternate column title) for the field in the view in the new Analytics table.

Specify display_name as a quoted string. Use a semi-colon (;) between words if you want a line break in the column title.

AS is required when you are defining FIELD. To make the display name the same as the field name, enter a blank display_name value using the following syntax: AS "". Make sure there is no space between the two double quotation marks.
RULE xpath_expression

The XPath expression used to select the field contents from the XML file.

XPath is a standard way of accessing data from XML files. For example, acct/title/text() retrieves the text within the <title> tag in the XML file.

Examples

Importing data from an XML file to an Analytics table

You import data from an XML file to an Analytics table named Employees:

IMPORT XML TO Employees "Employees.fil" FROM "emp.XML" FIELD "Empno" C AT 1 DEC 0 WID 6 PIC "" AS "" RULE "/RECORDS/RECORD/Empno/text()" FIELD "First" C AT 7 DEC 0 WID 13 PIC "" AS "" RULE "/RECORDS/RECORD/First/text()" FIELD "Last" C AT 20 DEC 0 WID 20 PIC "" AS "" RULE "/RECORDS/RECORD/Last/text()" FIELD "HireDate" D AT 40 DEC 0 WID 10 PIC "YYYY-MM-DD" AS "" RULE "/RECORDS/RECORD/HireDate/text()" FIELD "Salary" N AT 50 DEC 2 WID 8 PIC "" AS "" RULE "/RECORDS/RECORD/Salary/text()"

Remarks

For more information about how this command works, see Import an XML file.

Identifiers for field data types

The table below lists the letters that you must use when specifying type for FIELD. Each letter corresponds to an Analytics data type.

For example, if you are defining a Last Name field, which requires a character data type, you would specify "C": FIELD "Last_Name" C.

For more information, see Data types in Analytics.

Note

When you use the Data Definition Wizard to define a table that includes EBCDIC, Unicode, or ASCII fields, the fields are automatically assigned the letter "C" (for the CHARACTER type).

When you enter an IMPORT statement manually, or edit an existing IMPORT statement, you can substitute the more specific letters "E" or "U" for EBCDIC or Unicode fields.

Letter

Analytics Data type

A

ACL

B

BINARY

C

CHARACTER

D

DATETIME

E

EBCDIC

F

FLOAT

G

ACCPAC

I

IBMFLOAT

K

UNSIGNED

L

LOGICAL

N

PRINT

P

PACKED

Q

BASIC

R

MICRO

S

CUSTOM

T

PCASCII

U

UNICODE

V

VAXFLOAT

X

NUMERIC

Y

UNISYS

Z

ZONED