Ignore a record in Datamapper

1

I have a text data source, It has a header page followed by data pages. When I extract data, I get a first record full of gibberish from the header page.
How can I ignore the first page and not produce an extracted record?
I can use a condition step to suppress the data selection, but I still get a record full of blank data. I would like to lose that record completely.

2

Hi Stuart,

If the offending record has a unique identifier you can select that identifier and then add a conditional step. This would make the condition for the offending record valuate as true. In the true branch of the condition add a Action step and set its Action to Stop Processing Record. This should ignore the bit you don’t want to extract. You then add the extractions you want in the false step.

Regards,
S

3

( Darn it… Sharne beat me to it… :stuck_out_tongue: )
Inside your condition, use the Action Task and specify “Stop processing record”. This will immediately jump to the next record.

1 Like
4

:rofl: I’m at home multitasking this while looking at various online streams. Sometimes I don’t know when to switch off :slight_smile:

5

Thanks for your suggestion. I already tried that, but I get a first record which is blank (all fields set to default values), whereas what I want is the record to not exist, so that my first real data page becomes record number 1.

6

Your condition should be evaluated at the very top of your data extraction process, prior to extracting any field. As soon as a single field is extracted, then the entire record is stored in the database even if you abort processing, with the rest of the fields containing either the default value you assigned to them or nothing.

The record will be truly and entirely skipped as long as no fields have been extracted when you stop processing the record, even if you assigned a default value to any or all of them.

7

Thanks for your reply. I have tried that already and still get a blank record generated.
My datamapper process looked like this with all the extraction steps in the false branch of the condition

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I changed it to only have the “Stop processing record” action within the condition but I get the same results.
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edit: I have just found that although the deleted record still shows in the Data Model pane in both the DataMapper and Designer, when I produce a Proof Print, it has magically disappeared.
So I have what I want (I think). Its confusing that the Data Model pane does not reflect this.

8

Ooooooooohhhhhh… I should have realised that’s what you meant: in the DataMapper GUI, we intentionally display a grayed out data model pane when the record has been skipped so that you can visually determine which records are being ignored and which aren’t. Otherwise, you would never know if your condition worked (unless you know your data so well that you know instantly which records can be skipped or not).

However, I checked the documentation and this behaviour is not described, so I will submit a request for change.

9

Thanks Philippe. Now I know what to look for.