Description

This step allows you to get the value of a variable. This step can return rows or add values to input rows.

Note: You must specify the complete variable specification in the format ${variable}
or %%variable%% (as described in Variables) . That means you can also enter complete strings in the variable column, not just a variable.

For example, you can specify: ${java.io.tmpdir}/kettle/tempfile.txt and it will be expanded to /tmp/kettle/tempfile.txt on Unix-like systems.

See also the Set Variables step.
To convert the Variable into a data type other than String use Select Values - Meta Data tab.
To get system values, including command line arguments, use the Get System Info step.

Options

Option	Definition
Step Name	The name of this step as it appears in the transformation workspace.
Name	Name of the field.
Variable	Allows you to enter variables as complete strings to return rows or add values to input rows. For example, you can specify: ${java.io.tmpdir}/kettle/tempfile.txt and it will be expanded to /tmp/kettle/tempfile.txt on Unix-like systems.
Type	Specifies the field type: String, Date, Number, Boolean, Integer, BigNumber, Serializable, or Binary.
Format	Allows you to specify the format of the field after the type has been determined.
Length	For Number: Total number of significant figures in a number; For String: total length of string; For Date: length of printed output of the string (for example, entering 4 would only return the year).
Precision	For Number: Number of floating point digits. Not used for String, Date, or Boolean.
Currency	Used to interpret numbers with currency symbols. For example, $10,000.00 or E5.000,00.
Decimal	Used to indicate whether to use a period (".") or comma (",") for number values.
Group	Used to indicate whether to use a period (".") or comma (",") for number values.
TrimType	Type trim this field before processing: select either none, left, right, or both (left and right).

Metadata Injection Support (7.x and later)

All fields of this step support metadata injection. You can use this step with ETL Metadata Injection to pass metadata to your transformation at runtime.