Configure connections

Certain tools perform processing that may be sensitive to the order of the input or output connectors. For example, the Select tool's inputs are order-sensitive because the Select tool’s configuration references input fields on a specific input number. The following table explains which tools are sensitive to connection order, and why.

Tool	In/Out	Connector name	Reason
Splitter	Out	Output	When Splitter is configured for Round-robin, the records are sent to outputs in a specific order.
Merge	In	Input	When Merge is configured for Left to right or Round-robin, the records are read from inputs in a specific order.
Select	In	Input	The tool's configuration references fields by input connection number.
Window Compare	In	Alias	Multiple Alias/Trivial (noise) inputs may be connected. The tool's configuration references the connections on the Alias input by number.
RDBMS Input	In	Input	When the tool is configured for dynamic key query, multiple inputs may be connected. These are referenced by input connection number.
Query Indexed Table	In	Input	When the tool is configured for dynamic key query, multiple inputs may be connected. These are referenced by input connection number.

These tools have a Connection Order tab on their Properties pane to help you manage the order of those sensitive connections. This tab lists the names of the tools on the "other side" of the connectors. (You can assign custom names to tools from their context menus or on their Execution tabs). To alter the order of input or output connections, drag and drop list items.

Selecting an item in the list also highlights the corresponding connection on the canvas.