You can format flat file data to meet the requirements of your back–end system or application. The Format Service property in the flat file schema editor enables you to specify the service you want to invoke for a particular field when convertToValues or convertToString is called. For example, when using the convertToValues service to convert a date field in a flat file into an IS document, you can specify that a particular format service be invoked for that field during parsing. To alter the format of the date field, you might invoke a service that changes the format of the field from YYYYMMDD to MMDDYYYY.

For information about how to specify field format services, see Format Services.