FastExport is known for its lightning speed when it comes to exporting vast amou nts of data from Teradata

and transferring the data into flat files on either a mainframe or network-attached computer. In addition, FastExport has the ability to except OUTMOD routines, which provides the user the capability to wri te, select, validate, and preprocess the exported data. Part of this speed is achieved because FastExport takes full advantage of Teradata's parallelism. In this book, we have already discovered how BTEQ can be utilized to export data from Teradata in a variety of formats. As the demand increases to store data, the ever-growing requirement for tools to export massive amounts of data. This is the reason why FastExport (FEXP) is brilliant by design. A good rule of thumb is that if you have more than half a million rows of data to export to either a flat file format or with NULL indic ators, then FastExport is the best choice to accomplish this task. Keep in mind that FastExport is designed as a one-way utility-that is, the sole purpose of FastExport is to move data out of Teradata. It does this by harnessing the parallelism that Teradata provid es. FastExport is extremely attractive for exporting data because it takes full adva ntage of multiple sessions, which leverages Teradata parallelism. FastExport can also export from multiple tables during a single operation. In addition, FastExport utilizes the Support Environment, which provides a job restart capabi lity from a checkpoint if an error occurs during the process of executing an export job. How FastExport Works When FastExport is invoked, the utility logs onto the Teradata database and retr ieves the rows that are specified in the SELECT statement and puts them into SPOOL. From there, it must build blocks to s end back to the client. In comparison, BTEQ starts sending rows immediately for storage into a file. If the output data is sorted, FastExport may be required to redistribute the sel ected data two times across the AMP processors in order to build the blocks in the correct sequence. Remember, a lot of rows fit into a 64K block and both the rows and the blocks must be sequenced. While all of this redistribution is o ccurring, BTEQ continues to send rows. FastExport is getting behind in the processing. However, when FastExport starts sending the rows back a block at a time, it quickly overtakes and passes BTEQ's row at time processing. The other advantage is that if BTEQ terminates abnormally, all of your rows (whi ch are in SPOOL) are discarded. You must rerun the BTEQ script from the beginning. However, if FastExport terminates abnormally, all the selected rows are in worktables and it can continue sending them where it left off. Pretty sma rt and very fast! Also, if there is a requirement to manipulate the data before storing it on the computer's hard drive, an OUTMOD routine can be written to modify the result set after it is sent back to the cli ent on either the mainframe or LAN. Just like the BASF commercial states, "We don't make the products you buy, we make the pro ducts you buy better". FastExport is designed off the same premise, it does not make the SQL SELECT statement fast er, but it does take the SQL SELECT statement and processes the request with lighting fast parallel processin g!

FastExport Fundamentals #1: FastExport EXPORTS data from Teradata. The reason they call it FastExport is because it takes data off of Teradata (Exports Data). FastExport does not import data into Teradata. Addition ally, like BTEQ it can output multiple files in a single run. #2: FastExport only supports the SELECT statement. The only DML statement that F astExport understands is SELECT. You SELECT the data you want exported and FastExport will take care of t he rest. #3: Choose FastExport over BTEQ when Exporting Data of more than half a million+ rows. When a large amount of data is being exported, FastExport is recommended over BTEQ Export. Th e only drawback is the total number of FastLoads, FastExports, and MultiLoads that can run at the same time, which is limited to 15. BTEQ Export Teradata Utilities-Breaking the Barriers, First Edition does not have this restriction. Of course, FastExport will work with less data, but the speed may not be much faster than BTEQ. #4: FastExport supports multiple SELECT statements and multiple tables in a sing le run. You can have multiple SELECT statements with FastExport and each SELECT can join information up to 64 tables. #5: FastExport supports conditional logic, conditional expressions, arithmetic c alculations, and data conversions. FastExport is flexible and supports the above conditions, calculati ons, and conversions. #6: FastExport does NOT support error files or error limits. FastExport does not record particular error types in a table. The FastExport utility will terminate after a certain number of errors ha ve been encountered. #7: FastExport supports user-written routines INMODs and OUTMODs. FastExport all ows you write INMOD and OUTMOD routines so you can select, validate and preprocess the exported data