# Content tab

![Content tab](/files/aNGZEo7OIOOjiySGsD2u)

In the **Content** tab, using the following options, you can specify the format of the source files.

| Option                              | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
| ----------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Filetype**                        | Select either CSV or Fixed length. Depending on the file type you select, a corresponding interface appears when you click **Get Fields** in the **Fields** tab.                                                                                                                                          |
| **Separator**                       | Specify the character used to separate the fields in a single line of text, typically a semicolon or tab. Click **Insert Tab** to place a tab in the **Separator** field. The default value is semicolon (;).                                                                                             |
| **Enclosure**                       | Specify an optional character used to enclose a field if that field contains a separator character. The default value is double quotation marks (").                                                                                                                                                      |
| **Allow breaks in enclosed fields** | Not implemented.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| **Escape**                          | Specify one or more characters to indicate if another character is a part of a regular text. For example, if a backslash (\\) is the escape character and a single quote (') is an enclosure or separator character, then the text `Not the nine o\’clock news` is parsed as `Not the nine o’clock news`. |
| **Header**                          | Select if your text file has a header row (first lines in the file). You can use **Number of header lines** to specify the number of times the header line appears.                                                                                                                                       |
| **Footer**                          | Select if your text file has a footer row (last lines in the file). You can use **Number of footer lines** to specify the number of times the footer row appears.                                                                                                                                         |
| **Wrapped lines**                   | Select if you work with data lines that have wrapped beyond a specific page limit. You can use **Number of times wrapped** to specify the number of times the line is wrapped. Headers and footers are never considered wrapped.                                                                          |
| **Paged layout (printout)**         | Select when other text handling options (above) fail on a text file designed to be output to a line printer. You can use **Document header lines** to skip introductory texts and **Number of lines per page** to position the data lines.                                                                |
| **Compression**                     | Select if your text file is in a ZIP or GZip archive. Only the first file in the archive is read.                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| **No empty rows**                   | Select if you do not want to send empty rows to the next steps.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| **Include filename in output**      | Select if you want the file name to be part of the output, and use **Filename fieldname** to enter the name of the field that contains the file name.                                                                                                                                                     |
| **Rownum in output**                | Select if you want the row number to be part of the output. You can use **Rownum fieldname** to enter the name of the field that contains the row number. Select **Rownum by file** if you want to allow the row number to be reset per file.                                                             |
| **Format**                          | Select the file format, which can be either DOS, UNIX, or mixed. UNIX files have lines terminated by line feeds. DOS files have lines separated by carriage returns and line feeds. If you specify mixed, no verification is done.                                                                        |
| **Encoding**                        | Select the text file encoding to use. Leave blank to use the default encoding on your system. To use Unicode, specify UTF-8 or UTF-16. On first use, the PDI client searches your system for available encodings.                                                                                         |
| **Length**                          | <p>Select the length of the field according to its type:</p><ul><li>Characters</li><li>Bytes</li></ul>                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
| **Limit**                           | Specify a limit on the number of records generated from this step. Specify zero (`0`) for an unlimited number of records.                                                                                                                                                                                 |
| **Be lenient when parsing dates?**  | Clear the check box if you want strict parsing of data fields. If selected, dates like `Jan 32nd` become `Feb 1st`.                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| **The date format Locale**          | Specify the locale to use to parse dates written in full, such as `February 2nd, 2006`. For example, parsing February 2nd, 2006, on a system set to French (fr\_FR) would not work because February is called Février in that locale.                                                                     |
| **Add filenames to result**         | Select to add file names to a resulting list of file names.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.pentaho.com/pdia-data-integration/10.2-data-integration/pdi-transformation-steps-reference-overview/text-file-input-cp/options-text-file-input-reuse/content-tab-kettle.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.
