Informatica Power Center:

What is the difference between active and passive transformation?

An active transformation is a transformation that changes the number of rows when the source table is passed through it. For example, Aggregator
transformation is a type of active transformation that performs the aggregations on groups such as sum and reduces the number of rows.
A passive transformation is a transformation that does not change the number of rows when the source data is passed through it, i.e., neither the
new rows are added, nor existing rows are dropped. In this transformation, the number of output and input rows are the same.
Mapping: Mapping is a pipeline or structural flow of data that describes how data flows from source to the destination through
transformations.
What is session?
A session is a property in Informatica that have a set of instructions to define when and how to move the data from the source table to the target
table. A session is like a task that we create in workflow manager. Any session that you create must have a mapping associated with it. Session must
have a single mapping at a time, and it cannot be changed. In order to execute the session, it must be added to the workflow. A session can either
be a reusable or non-reusable object where reusable means that we can use the data for multiple rows.
What is Designer?
A designer is a graphical user interface that builds and manage the objects like source table, target table, Mapplets, Mappings, and transformations.
Mapping in Designer is created by using the Source Analyzer to import the source table, and target designer is used to import the target table.
Workflow:
Workflow is a set of instructions used to execute the mappings.The workflow contains various tasks such as session task, command task, event wait
task, email task, etc. which are used to execute the sessions.It is also used to schedule the mappings.All the tasks are connected to each other
through links inside a workflow. After creating the workflow, we can execute the workflow in the workflow manager and monitor its progress
through the workflow monitor.
Workflow Monitor?
Workflow Monitor is used to monitor the execution of workflows or the tasks available in the workflow. It is mainly used to monitor the progress of
activities such as Event log information, a list of executed workflows, and their execution time.
Source Qualifier transformation that selects the records from multiple sources, and the sources can be relational tables, flat files, and Informatica
PowerExchange services. It is an active and connected transformation. When you add the source tables in mapping, then Source Qualifier is added
automatically.
Expression Transformation?
Expression Transformation is a passive and connected transformation. It is used to manipulate the values in a single row. Examples of expression
transformation are concatenating the first name and last name, adjusting the student records, converting strings to date, etc. It also checks the
conditional statements before passing the data to other transformations. Expression transformation uses numeric and logical operators
Sorter Transformation?
It is an active transformation.It is used to sort the data either in ascending or in descending order, similar to the ORDER BY clause in SQL.
Aggregator Transformation?
Aggregator transformation is a connected and active transformation. It is used to perform aggregate functions over a group of rows such
as sum, average, count, etc., similar to the aggregate functions in SQL such as sum(), avg(), count(), etc.
Filter Transformation?
Filter transformation is an active and connected transformation. It filters out the rows which are passed through it, i.e., it changes the
number of rows which are passed through. It applies the filter condition on the group of data. This filter condition returns an either true or
false value.
Joiner Transformation?
o Joiner Transformation is an active and connected transformation. It allows you to create the joins in Informatica, similar to the joins that
we create in database. In joiner transformation, joins are used for two sources and these sources are:
1.Master source 2.Detail source
o Master outer join :In Master outer join, the resultset contains all the records from the Detail source and the matching rows in the master
source. This join will be similar to the Right join in SQL.
o Detail outer join: In Detail outer join, the resultset contains all the records from the Master source and the matching rows in the Detail
source. This join will be similar to the Left join in SQL.
o Full Outer Join: In Full outer join, the resultset contains all the records from both the sources, i.e., Master and Detail source.
o Normal join, the resultset contains only the matching rows between Master and Detail source. This join is similar to the inner join in SQL.

Router Transformation?
Router transformation is an active and connected transformation. Router transformation is similar to the filter transformation as both the
transformations test the input data based on the filters. In Filter transformation, you can apply only one filter or condition, and if the condition is not
satisfied, then a particular is dropped. But in Router transformation, more than one condition can be applied. Therefore, we can say that the single
input data can be checked on multiple conditions..
lookup Transformation?
o Lookup transformation is active as well as passive transformation. It can be used in both connected and unconnected mode.It is used to
look up the data in a source, source qualifier, flat file, or a relational table to retrieve the data. We can import the definition of lookup from
any flat file or relational database, and an integration service queries the lookup source based on the ports, lookup condition and then
returns the result to other transformations.