1. LET‟S TALK DYNAMIC….
SSIS EXPRESSIONS AND
VARIABLES
Jason Yousef, MS MCITP MCTS

2. Why would you listen to me!
• Sr. Database Engineer.
• SQL BI & SQL Developer Trainer.
• Started with SQL Server 7.

3. Agenda
 Overview (Variables / Expressions).
 Variables – Data Types, scope, Namespace and naming conventions.
 Variables – Debugging using Breakpoints.
 Variables – User & System Variables using „Package Configurations‟.
 Variables – Using .NET in a Script Task. (Control Flow)
 Variables – Using .NET in a Script Component. (Data Flow)
 Expressions and Dynamic SSIS.
 Expressions - Operators, Functions, Literals and Casting.
 Using the Expressions builder and the Expression Tester Application.
 Common String, Numeric, NULL, Conditional and Date & Time examples.
 Q & A.

4. Overview
 Variables:
 A place holder for your values, used to store and
pass values between tasks and containers
internally or between packages (child and parent
packages).
 Expressions:
 Anexpression is a combination of multiple
operators and functions and could reference
multiple columns or variables to yield a single

5. Variables
Right click (Designer)  Variables
SSIS (Menu)  Variables
View (Menu)  OTHER WINDOWS 
Variables

6. Variables – Date Types
Data types are .Net data types
SSIS supports the following data types:
Boolean Byte Char
DateTime DBNull Double / Decimal
Int16 Int32 Object
SByte String UInt32
UInt64 Int64 Single
 http://tinyurl.com/ssisDT

7. Variables – Scope , NameSpace
A way to organize your package and limit
your variables to a certain task using
Scopes or NameSpaces.
As variables’ names are unique, you can
have the same name across multiple
‘Scopes’ or ‘Name spaces’

8. Variables – Naming Conventions
 Name: Name of your variable. Preferable and
suggested to use a meaningful Camel Case name,
including its data type abbreviation, such as:
 StrFName: For a string data type variable.
 IntTotalSales: For an integer data type variable, you can
also specify if it‟s Int16, Int32 or Int64. (too much!)
 DTSalesDate: For a Date Time variable.
 BoolFileFound: For a Boolean variable, holds a flag (0

9. Variables – Breakpoints
 Debugging values.

10. Variables – Package
Configurations
 Read & write to system and User variables
using ‘Package Configurations’

11. Variables – Reading / Writing Using
.Net
Script Task (Control Flow)

12. Variables – Reading / Writing Using
.Net
Script Component (Data Flow Task)

13. Variables using .NET
Demo

14. Expressions - Overview
 used to assign values to variables, update or populate
properties at run time, define constraints in precedence
constraints, and provide the expressions used by the
For Loop container.
 The language is somehow similar to the curly braces
languages (C++,C# or Java ).
 Almost any task in SSIS, if not all, can use expressions
to make its properties dynamic.
 “Execute SQL Task” dynamic SQL query.
 “Derived Column” validate or assign value to a column.
 “Conditional Split” to split a column based on a specific condition.
 “Precedence Constraints“ direct the flow to a different route based on a
custom condition within the Control Flow.

15. Expression Builder
 SSIS 2005, 2008

16. SSIS 2012 Expression Task

17. Expression Editor & Tester Tool
 http://expressioneditor.codeplex.com/

18. Expressions - Literals
Hard coded info that you provide when building expressions (Numeric, String and
Boolean) to give more info about the expression‟s value.
 Numeric
Numeric literals checked for decimal points before getting
casted to DT_UI4, and to DT_NUMERIC if there‟s a
decimal. To override use one of these suffixes.

19. Expressions - Literals
 Boolean (True OR False)
 String
Escape Description
n New Line
b Backspace
” Creates a Double Quotes
t Tab
Creates a backslash, used for URLs

20. Expressions - Operators
+ Add or (Concatenate) - Subtracts or (Negates
)
* Multiply / Divide
|| Logical OR && Logical AND
== Equal != Un Equal
?: Conditional < Less Than
> Greater Than <= Less Than or Equal
>= Greater Than or Equal & Bitwise AND

21. Expressions - Casting
 Converts an expression from one data type to a
different data type. DT_BOOL True / False
 Implicit - Automatically DT_DBDATE Date
 Explicit – Using CAST DT_DBTIMESTA Date & Time
MP
DT_I4 Four-byte, signed
integer.
DT_DECIMAL Decimal with precision
DT_NUMERIC and scale
DT_WSTR Unicode character

22. Most commonly used
expressions
Demo

23. SSIS 2012 New Expressions
Demo

24. Questions & Contact Info
 Email: JasonYousef@aol.com
 Blog: www.jasonyousef.com
 Twitter: @Huslayer
 Speaker Rating : http://spkr8.com/t/18591
Thanks for coming!