Informatica Transformation Types

A transformation is a repository object that generates, modifies, or passes data. The Designer provides a set of transformations that perform specific functions. For example, an Aggregator transformation performs calculations on groups of data.

Transformations can be of two types:

Active Transformation: An active transformation can change the number of rows that pass through the transformation, change the transaction boundary, can change the row type. For example, Filter, Transaction Control and Update Strategy are active transformations.

The key point is to note that Designer does not allow you to connect multiple active transformations or an active and a passive transformation to the same downstream transformation or transformation input group because the Integration Service may not be able to concatenate the rows passed by active transformations. However, Sequence Generator transformation(SGT) is an exception to this rule. A SGT does not receive data. It generates unique numeric values. As a result, the Integration Service does not encounter problems concatenating rows passed by a SGT and an active transformation.

Passive Transformation: A passive transformation does not change the number of rows that pass through it, maintains the transaction boundary, and maintains the row type.

The key point is to note that Designer allows you to connect multiple transformations to the same downstream transformation or transformation input group only if all transformations in the upstream branches are passive. The transformation that originates the branch can be active or passive.

Transformations can be Connected or UnConnected to the data flow.

Connected Transformation: Connected transformation is connected to other transformations or directly to target table in the mapping.

UnConnected Transformation: An unconnected transformation is not connected to other transformations in the mapping. It is called within another transformation, and returns a value to that transformation.