What is a flat file source?

< 1 min read

A flat file source is data received as a simple file instead of a database connection.
Common formats I worked with were CSV and Excel from third-party vendors.
In one project, a logistics partner dropped a daily shipment file in an SFTP folder.
Our ETL picked the file, validated columns, and loaded it into a staging table.
We handled issues like missing headers, wrong delimiters, and encoding problems.
Unlike databases, there’s no primary key or constraints, so we added validation rules.
We also archived processed files to avoid duplicate loads.
Flat files are common for integrations where direct DB access isn’t allowed.
They’re simple but need strong data quality checks.

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