title: how to parse a text file in SSIS
body: <p>I have a text file that I want to parse out into several text files.  The file is too large to open in Excel.  So, my best guess is to do this somehow in SSIS.  (Really, because that's all I know how to do at the moment.)  I could do it manually in Notepad++, but I need an automated solution moving forward.</p>
  
  <p>The source text file has no headers, has records with various numbers of columns, all similar records are grouped together, and the file is pipe-delimited.</p>
  
  <p>Here is a sample text file that I want to parse:</p>
  
  <pre><code>A|stuff CRLF
  A|more_stuff CRLF
  B|stuff|more_text CRLF
  B|more_stuff|yet_more_text CRLF
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(The CRLFs are end-of-row delimiters.  As you can see, the number of columns for 'A' records is different than for 'B' records.)</p>
  
  <p>I want to put all records with the same value in the first column into separate text files.  That is, I want to put all 'A' records into one text file, and I want to put all 'B' records into another text file.  I don't want to have to go through a SQL table.  Is this possible in SSIS?  If so, how do I do so?  If not, what tool is best for this situation?</p>