Data dictionary syntax

Each line in a data dictionary defines a field in fixed-width flat file, using the syntax described here.

<Variable_name>, <"ASCII string" or "ASCII Numeric">, <Length_in_bytes>, <Decimal_point >, <Format>, <Comment>

The <Decimal_point > value specifies the number of digits following the decimal point and is valid for ASCII Numeric fields only. For ASCII string fields, the value should always be 0.

Unica Campaign does not use the Format and Comment fields. For best results, use "Unknown" for the format value and leave the Comment field blank.

A data dictionary file looks similar to the following example:

CellID, ASCII string, 32, 0, Unknown, 
MBRSHP, ASCII string, 12, 0, Unknown, 
MP, ASCII Numeric, 16, 0, Unknown, 
GST_PROF, ASCII Numeric, 16, 0, Unknown, 
ID, ASCII Numeric, 10, 0, Descriptive/Names, 
Response, ASCII Numeric, 10, 0, Flag, 
AcctAge, ASCII Numeric, 10, 0, Quantity, 
acct_id, ASCII string, 15, 0, Unknown, 
src_extract_dt, ASCII string, 50, 0, Unknown, 
extract_typ_cd, ASCII string, 3, 0, Unknown,

For example, the line:

acct_id, ASCII string, 15, 0, Unknown,

means that a record in the file has a field called acct_id, which is a 15-byte string with no decimal point (as the field is a string) with an unknown format and empty comment string.