Thursday, 5 March 2026

Copy and Modify Stages

In IBM Infosphere DataStage, both Copy Stage and Modify Stage are simple processing stages used in parallel jobs, but their purpose is different.

 

Copy Stage

Definition :

The Copy Stage is used to pass data from input to output without changing the data.

It simply copies rows from the source to the target.

Example Design

Sequential File → Copy Stage → Dataset

Input:

Emp_ID   Name
101      John
102      Mary

Output (same data):

Emp_ID   Name
101      John
102      Mary

When Copy Stage is Used

1.    Splitting data into multiple outputs

2.    Passing data without transformation

3.    Improving parallel processing

4.    Debugging jobs

Example – Multiple Outputs

                → Target1
Source → Copy →
                → Target2

Same data goes to both targets.

No transformation
Very fast
Minimal processing


2️. Modify Stage

Definition

The Modify Stage is used to change column values or data types using simple expressions.

It is faster than Transformer because it performs simple transformations.

Example

Input:

Name = john
Salary = 5000

Modify stage expression:

Name = upcase(Name);
Salary = Salary * 1.10;

Output:

Name = JOHN
Salary = 5500


3️ .Common Modify Stage Operations

Data Type Conversion

string_to_int(Age)

Change Column Value

Salary = Salary + 1000

Convert Case

Name = upcase(Name)


4️. Copy vs Modify Stage .

Feature

Copy Stage

Modify Stage

Transformation

No

Yes (simple only)

Performance

Very fast

Faster than Transformer

Expressions

Not allowed

Allowed

Use Case

Data duplication

Simple data modification


5️. Real-Time Scenario

Scenario

Source sends customer names in lowercase, but target requires uppercase.

Design

Source → Modify Stage → Target

Expression

Customer_Name = upcase(Customer_Name);

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Copy and Modify Stages

In IBM Infosphere DataStage , both Copy Stage and Modify Stage are simple processing stages used in parallel jobs , but their purpose i...