title: Complex Flat Files in SSIS
body: <p>SSIS is great at handling flat files where all the records are the same, but not so good when there is a little complexity. </p>
  
  <p>I want to import a file similar to this - </p>
  
  <pre><code>Customer: 2344
  Name:     John Smith
  
  Item     Description       Price    Qty
  543455   Widget 1           4.00      2
  543556   Widget 2           8.00      1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to turn this into the following output - </p>
  
  <pre><code>2344, John Smith, 543455, Widget 1, 4.00, 2
  2344, John Smith, 543556, Widget 2, 8.00, 1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>For the life of me, I can't find a simple way to do this. Has anyone got any suggestions? Or do I need a better ETL tool?</p>