How to modify source column in Copy Activity of Azure Data Factory

I am trying to copy data from a csv file into a database table. I created a pipeline in Azure Data Factory and added a Copy Activity. I set the source and the destination datasets.

During the copy operation, I want to prefix the values of the column Col1 in the source csv file with a fixed string. At the bottom of the Mapping section in the UI, there is an option such as "Add dynamic content". I guess I would be able to add an expression here for such a mapping but I could not find any information on how to do that.

What is the correct way of accomplishing this?

Adding a dynamic column value in copy activity supports only the ADF parameter /function values which would be common for all rows.

As of now there is no direct support to modify a column at row by row level in copy activity.

You can do it via 2 ways:

1. use copy activity to copy into staging table and then use an SP activity to modify from staging table to final tables
2. use dataflow derived column transformation

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/data-flow-derived-column

• As directed by @Zorkolot and @Nandan, copy data activity in general is to deal with moving files/folders from different sources to different sinks.
• Since the requirement is to add a fixed string prefix to an existing column, you need to use dataflows. Dataflows can help with manipulating/converting data as required.
• You can use derived column transformation as shown in the below. I have added pre string as a prefix to id column.

• Another way is to use one copy data activity and a script activity to copy to the database and write an update query with concat function on the required column with prefix with a query like this:

update t1 set <your_col>=concat('pre',<your_col>)

• Another way would be to use Python notebook to add the prefix to required column and then move it to database.