Replacing Data Conversion

The Replacing Data Conversion package provides a component that can be used in place of the standard Data Conversion. But it completely replaces the original column instead of adding a differently named column. Blanket conversions can also be performed with one click (i.e. all DT_STR to DT_WSTR).

This component replaces the column in the Data Flow instead of adding a new column with a different name. In order to do so, it is coded as an asynchronous component - it copies the data from the input buffer to a new output buffer. As such, it will probably be less efficient than the Data Conversion component in SSIS. This behaviour/architecture was intentional (for my purposes), but the code could be modified to add columns instead of replacing them, making the component synchronous.

- The "simple" mode makes setting up conversions of lots of columns from one data type to another extremely quick and easy. For example, converting all DT_WSTR columns to DT_STR takes one or two clicks, instead of... a lot. - Allows the column name to be preserved after the data type conversion.

- This is an asynchronous component. It performs a memory copy to create a new output row for each row that arrives on its' input. It is not a blocking component - it is able to process input rows immediately, behaving more like a Union All component than a Sort component. - This is coded in .Net instead of C/C. The Data Conversion component included in SSIS uses native code, and as such, will run faster.