Iterative Macro Output mode confusion

[Arch]

I have a question about the Output Mode for an Iterative Macro. In the attached iterative macro I was careful to have the same fields in the same order for the inputs as well as the looping fields. However, when I selected the option for "All iterations will have the same output schema" in the Interface Designer Output Mode section, I get an error message that the schema changed between iteration 1 and 2. Selecting the second option, "Auto Configure by Name," allows the macro to run without error. So I'm wondering why the macro does not work with the Output Mode selection of "All iterations will have the same output schema." There must be something that I missing.

The attached macro is the same one I posted here, in response to a different question I had about iterative macros, but I thought this question deserved it's own thread.

Thanks.

[scottj · Accepted solution]

I ran the Metadata Compare tool from the Data Investigation tool group and found one column that had a different data type on the output.

I changed the Select (297) in the Macro to make that field a Byte, change the Iteration to auto, and ran without error.  I would give this a try.

[Arch]

Thanks! I wasn't aware of the compare tool, so that is good to know. I suspected there was some small thing I was missing, but couldn't figure it out.

[Arch]

So this begs the question of whether there is a processing time penalty for using the Auto Configure option versus the "All iterations will have the same output schema" option. There was a post about using the Auto Configure option when the person was processing Excel workbooks that had somewhat different schema. Why would you use one or the other of these options? It's not clear to me when it's better to not use the Auto Configure option.

Thanks.