Creating subflows to reuse parts of your DataStage job design

You can use subflows to make parts of your job design reusable.

A subflow is a group of stages and links. You can use subflows to simplify and modularize your job designs by replacing complex areas with a single subflow stage. Subflows are referred to as containers in traditional IBM® DataStage®.

IBM DataStage provides two types of subflows:

• Local subflows. These subflows are created within a data flow and are only accessible to that flow. To edit a subflow, double-click the subflow icon. The main purpose of a local subflow is to simplify a complex design visually by grouping processing logic into a container, which makes it easier to understand.
• Subflow. These subflows are shared with other data flows. They are stored on the platform the same way that flows are. They can be inserted and reused in many data flows.

To create a local subflow, click the shift key, select stages, right-click the canvas and select Create local subflow. To create a subflow, create a local subflow, right-click on it, and click Create subflow.

In a data flow, you can use all or a subset of columns that are output of the subflow in the stage that follows the subflow.