The simplest way to create a Load table is to use the drag-and-drop functionality of WhereScape RED.
Drag and drop can be used for all connection types and the process is the same in all cases.

  1. Browse to the source system connection (Browse > Source Tables).
  2. Create a drop target by double-clicking the Load Table object group in the left pane. The middle pane should have a column heading of Load Table Name for the leftmost column.
  3. Select a table or file in the right pane and drag it to the middle pane. Drop the table or file anywhere in the middle pane.
  4. Answer the prompts to create the Load table.
  5. When using targets, you can also change the predefined Target Location settings in Tools > Options > Storage. At the time of the table object's drag and drop, the Add a New Metadata Object window enables you to edit the Target Location and Data Type Mapping, so the table object's location can be changed on a table-by-table basis. The Data Type Mapping field is automatically set, based on the source and the Target Location selected, but can be changed if needed.


The option Add meta data columns to table is selected when creating Load tables that are used in creating Data Vault objects. If this option is selected, two DSS columns (dss_record_source and dss_load_date) are included in the metadata for the table and are populated by transformations. These two DSS columns could equally be applied to other Load tables not used in a Data Vault system but are particularly important to comply with the Data Vault standards. Refer to Data Vaults for details.


WhereScape RED supports loading tables of up to 2048 columns. However, this maximum number of column loading restrictions can be lower than the target database or tools permit. 
The target database will provide users with the appropriate warning if the maximum number of columns loaded is breached at runtime.

When creating a Load table in WhereScape RED by dragging and dropping a source table, RED reads the structure of the table in the source system and attempts to construct an equivalent Load table in the data warehouse. There are occasions when the Load table creation will fail due to incompatible data types in the target data warehouse. The remedy is to change the data types of the particular attributes that are causing the load failure. Once corrected, the Load table is created. The table load must be tested to ensure that data can be INSERTED into the Load table from the source table. If the load fails then the data may need to be explicitly converted to the destination data type, using a column transformation that is executed during the load (refer to Load Table Column Transformations for details). Incompatible data types that cause Load table creation errors are typically caused by:

  1. User defined data types in the source database.
  2. Incorrect data type mapping during Load table definition in WhereScape RED.
  3. Data types that cannot be inserted into (e.g. identity columns in SQL Server).