Purpose
To indicate that the order of equal-keyed records is to be maintained
Format
/STABLELocation
The option may appear anywhere in the task definition.
Notes
The /STABLE option is valid for sort and merge tasks only.
The terms ‘stable’ and ‘non-stable’ refer to the order in which records with equal key values leave the task.
When a task is stable, the order of the equal-keyed records is completely predictable. For a stable task with a single input file, the original order of equal-keyed records is maintained, i.e. the order of these records is the same in the output file as in the input file. For a stable task with more than one input file, equal-keyed records from a specific input file appear together in the output file. They appear in the same sequence as they did in the input file. The collections of records from the different input files appear in the order in which the input files are specified in the task definition.
When an input file uses wildcards, one input file specification can translate into several input files. Connect ETL will process these files in the order defined by the system locale.
When a task is not stable, the order of equal-keyed records is not predictable; this is the default.
Preserving the original order of equal-keyed records adds a performance overhead to a task. Thus, if you do not require a stable task, do not specify /STABLE.
Example
/stable This option requests that the original order of equal-keyed records be kept intact in the output file.