How to append a string value in the column value in Copy Activity in ADF

Question

In below copy activity screen shot , i am trying to create a new column(PartitionKey) whose value is same as DocType column. I would also like to insert one string value along with Doctype value. something like concat("recoding",$.Doctype) as value of PartitionKey. I am unable to do so and would like to know if this is possible to do.

I want this because I get error for some items where DocType key is not present. and I would like to avoid that.

The error message i get is below and I am not sure for which item this error occurs as there are thousands of items getting copied.

ErrorCode=DuplicateColumnNotFound,'Type=Microsoft.DataTransfer.Common.Shared.HybridDeliveryException,Message=,Source=,''Type=Microsoft.DataTransfer.Common.Shared.HybridDeliveryException,Message=Column name '$.DocType' to be duplicated is not found in the source data. Please check the source column name

Answer 1

Hi @Ankit Kumar ,

Thanks for using this forum and posting your query.

1. The reason for this error is because you are using an incorrect syntax $.DocType, it should be just the column name as DocType . This would avoid the error and copy the values of DocType column to your newly added column PartitionKey.
2. For the additional requirement of concatenating a string value to this additional column - I don't think this is possible within copy activity and Copy activity is not intended for this purpose. If you would to do a data transformation then I would recommend you to please use Mapping Data flow in ADF which is better suited for transformations. Here is a list of supported transformations by Mapping dataflow : Mapping data flow transformation overview
   You can use a Derived column transformation which would help to achieve your requirement.

Hope this info helps. Do let us know if you have further query.

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