KeyLookup Failure! WHY?

vimalvik · Post by **vimalvik** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:58 am

hi ppl,
my lookup stage failed and as a result my job gets aborted.I then changed the failure mode to CONTINUE and made the job to run.
I wud be pleased to know why the keylookup possibly failed and wat effects will it bring if we run using CONTINUE mode.

Thanks in advance,

cheers,
R.Vimal

ray.wurlod · Post by **ray.wurlod** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:55 pm

The key lookup failed because the key did not exist on the reference input link. The job aborted because you had set the "lookup failed" rule to FAIL. By setting it to CONTINUE you allow the job to continue to run; any columns mapped from the reference input link will contain NULL (it becomes effectively a left outer join). If that's not what you want draw a reject link from the Lookup stage and set the lookup failed rule accordingly. The reject link can then handle any row for which the key does not exist on the reference input.

vmcburney · Post by **vmcburney** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:12 pm

Once you have set your mode to continue (or reject) be on the lookout in testing for unexpected lookup misses such as comparing a trimmed string to an untrimmed string, or comparing char to varchar, or comparing on a duplicate key.