Understanding the Mapping Data Flow Activity in Azure Data Factory


Azure Data Factory is used for ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) operations in Azure. We do have multiple activities to move data from source and destination. However, we cannot do many data transformations using the general activities of Azure Data Factory.

Microsoft has introduced a Mapping Data Flow activity to do the transformation within the Azure Data Factory. In this article, we will understand what Mapping Data Flow activity is and how it works, and use cases of Data Flow activity.

What is the Mapping Data Flow activity?

Mapping Data Flows are visually designed data transformations in Azure Data Factory. As