# Conditional data reading from Flat file **URL:** \ **Category:** CloverDX Platform\ **Created:** [July 14, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/conditional-data-reading-from-flat-file/554 "2009-07-14T00:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tava.amitava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c6cbf5/32.png) [@tava.amitava](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/tava.amitava)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/conditional-data-reading-from-flat-file/554/1 "2009-07-14T00:00:00Z")
Hi, I am trying to read some data from a flat file which has header, body and footer. The body content type is described in meta file. While reading the file using skipFirstLine attribute I can escape the first line, but the footer is giving an error message that it is not matching as per meta file. How can I resolve this problem. Also all the data has a mode section to identify it is header, body or footer like: 0|HEADER|2009-07-10|FILE NAME| 1|ABC|A B C| 1|CDF| C D F| 2|FOOTER please note the end of file is in the last line itself. Tha graph is running well if I give same number of delimiters and a paragraph after last line. Ex: 0|HEADER|2009-07-10|FILE NAME| 1|ABC|A B C| 1|CDF| C D F| 2|FOOTER|| Can any one please help me sorting out this problem. Thanks, Amit ---
**Author:** ![twaller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@twaller](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/twaller)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2009, 11:30am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/conditional-data-reading-from-flat-file/554/2 "2009-07-14T11:30:29Z")
Hello Amit, As regards your question, I would like to advise you not to forget the possibility of the **Data policy** attribute. You can switch its default setting (_Strict_, which causes fails of the graph by each error). You can select the other two options: either _Controlled_, which saves errors to console, or _Lenient_, which ignores errors and does not save them. In both cases, graph does not fail. If you want to parse the mentioned file, set the **Skip first line** to _true_. And switch **Data policy** to any other value than the default _Strict_. It will work, of course, if you do not want to save also the footer. Best regards Tomas Waller ---
**Author:** ![mzatopek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@mzatopek](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/mzatopek)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/conditional-data-reading-from-flat-file/554/3 "2009-07-15T09:36:46Z")
Or you can consider to use the MultiLevelReader component. ---
**Author:** ![tava.amitava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c6cbf5/32.png) [@tava.amitava](https://forum.cloverdx.com/u/tava.amitava)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.cloverdx.com/t/conditional-data-reading-from-flat-file/554/4 "2009-07-15T17:14:45Z")
Thanks for your help. By setting the datapolicy attribute in reader component to lenient the graph ran successfully.