The Aggregator Transformation in Informatica is one of the most used transformations in real-time. This transformation performs a function similar to the SQL Server Aggregate functions.
The Informatica Aggregator Transformation operations include the following:
- COUNT: It will count the number of values in this column. Null values are included in the count if you select (*) as the input column. Otherwise, null values ignored.
- SUM: Calculate the Sum of the Column values.
- AVG: Calculate the Average of the Column values.
- MIN: Finding the Minimum Column value.
- MAX: Finding the Maximum Column value.
- Median: Calculate the Median of the column values.
- Stddev: Calculate the Standard Deviation of the column values.
- Variance: Calculate the Variance of the column values.
In this article, we explain the steps involved in configuring the Aggregator Transformation in Informatica to perform a few of the operations, as mentioned above.
Configure Aggregator Transformation in Informatica
Before we start configuring the Aggregator transformation in Informatica, First connect to the repository service.
To connect with the Informatica Repository service, we have to provide the Admin Console Username and Password you specified while installing the Server.
Create Informatica Aggregator Transformation Source Definition
Once you connected successfully, Please navigate to Source Analyzer and define your Sources. In this Informatica Aggregator Transformation example, we are using [Dim Geography] and [Fact Reseller Sales] from the SQL Server database as our source definitions. Please visit Database Source to understand creating source definition
Create Aggregator Transformation Target Definition
Please navigate to Target Designer and define the Informatica Aggregator Transformation Target. In this example, we are using the already created (Aggregator Transformation) SQL table as our target definition. Please refer Create Target table using Source Definition article
Create Informatica Aggregator Transformation Mapping
To create a new mapping for Informatica Aggregator Transformation, Please navigate to the Mappings menu and select the Create.. option. It opens the Mapping Name window.
Here, you have to write a unique name for this mapping (m_Aggregator_Transformation) and click the OK button.
Next, Drag and drop the [Dim Geography] and [fact Reseller Sales] source definitions from the Sources folder to the mapping designer. Once you drag the source, the PowerCenter designer automatically creates the default transformation called the source qualifier.
As we all know that the [Dim Geography] and [fact Reseller Sales] tables have the Primary and Foreign key relationship. So, we removed one source qualifier and added the required fields from both tables to single source qualifier.
Create Aggregator Transformation in Informatica
In order to create Aggregator Transformation in Informatica, Please navigate to Transformation menu in Menu Bar and select the Create.. option as we shown below.
Once you click on the Create.. option, Create Transformation window will open as shown below. Please select the Informatica Aggregator Transformation from the drop-down list and specify the unique name (agg_Geography_Sales) for this transformation and click on Create button
Once you click on the Create button, the Aggregator Transformation will add to the mapping designer. Please connect the Source definition with the transformation by dragging the required fields.
From the below screenshot you can observe that we are excluding the unwanted columns like Spanish Country name, Keys, IP address locator etc.
Double click on the Informatica Aggregator transformation to perform aggregations on the source. From the below screenshot you can see the list of available properties in the Transformation tab:
- Select Transformation: By default, it will select the one. you clicked on.
- Rename: This button will help you to rename the Aggregator transformation to a more meaningful name.
- Make Reusable: If you check mark this option then, it becomes the reusable transformation.
- Description: Please provide a valid description of this Informatica aggregator transformation.
Below screenshot will show you the list of available options in the Ports tab of a Informatica Aggregator Transformation:
- Port Name: List of available column names. By clicking the New column button you can add new columns and by clicking the scissors button you can delete the unwanted columns.
- I: Columns that are check-marked under this section are the Aggregator transformation Input columns.
- O: Columns that are check-marked under this section are the Aggregator transformation Output columns. If you unchecked any column then, that column will not be available to load in a target table. From the below screenshot you can observe that we unchecked this port for five columns (Unit Price, Product Standard Cost, Total Product Cost, Sales Amount and Tax Amount) because we want to restore these columns with new fields (holding the aggregated data)
- V: Please check mark this if it is variable
- Expression: Here you can write the custom expression for the particular column.
- Group By: Please checkmark the Column that you want to use for Group by, it is just like the GROUP BY Clause in SQL SELECT queries. In this example, we want to group the data by English Country Region Name, State Province Name and City.
We added 5 new columns using the New Port button. We are going to use these new columns to store the Aggregated information such as Sum, Mean, Median, Count etc..
TIP: All these new columns are output ports only so, please check mark O
Let us write the custom expression to get the information we required. To do this, Click on the arrow button beside the o_UnitPrice. This will open the Expression Editor to write a custom expression. Here, we want to find the average of the Unite Price so select the AVG() function from the list of aggregate functions.
In this Informatica Aggregator Transformation example, we are calculating the Average of Unit Price, Sum Product Standard Cost, Median of Total Product Cost, Standard Deviation of Sales Amount and Variance of Tax Amount and Group by English Country Region Then by State Province Name and Then by City.
TIP: We select some random function, we suggest you follow your business logic to get more meaningful results.
The list of available options in the Informatica Aggregator Transformation Properties tab. If your data is pre-sorted, please select the Sorted Input option.
TIP: Selecting the Sorted Input option will improve the performance of the Aggregator transformation in Informatica.
Once you finish configuring the aggregations, Click OK to close the window. Next, Drag and drop the target definition (aggregator transformation) from Targets folder to the mapping designer and connect the aggregator transformation with the target definition.
Please use the Autolink.. option to connect them.
Before we close the Mapping, Let us validate the Informatica aggregator transformation mapping by going to Mapping Menu bar and selecting the Validate option.
Create a Workflow for Aggregator Transformation in Informatica
Once we finish creating the Mapping we have to create the workflow for it. PowerCenter Workflow manager provides two approaches to create a workflow.
In this Informatica Aggregator Transformation example, we are going to use the manually created Workflow that we created in our earlier posts. Once we created the workflow, our next step is to create a session task for our mapping.
Create a Session
There are two types of sessions:
For this Informatica Aggregator Transformation example, we are going to create Non-reusable Session. Please navigate to Tasks Menu and select the Create option to open the Create Task window. Here you have to select the Session as Task type (default) and enter a unique name (S_Aggregator_Transformation) for the session.
Once you click on the Create button, a new window called Mappings will open. Here you have to select the mapping you want to associate with this session. We are selecting the mapping (m_Aggregator_Transformation) that we created earlier (in Step 3).
Double click on the Session Task to configure it. Although we have to configure Sources, targets, and some common properties, we already explain them in Session’s article.
The Aggregator Transformation in Informatica workflow is a valid one. Now, Let us start the Workflow by navigating to Workflows menu and selecting the Start Workflow option.
Once you select the Start Informatica Aggregator Transformation Workflow option, the PowerCenter Workflow monitor will be opened to monitor the workflow. From the below screenshot you can observe that our workflow is executed without any errors.
Let us open the SQL Server Management Studio to check whether we successfully performed aggregations using the Aggregator Transformation in Informatica.
