SSIS flat file export adding extra characters during CRLF - sql

Question

I am working in Windows using SQL Server 2008 R2 and VS 2008.
I haven't been able to find any other incidence of this happening via google, but I'm having an issue with SSIS not recognizing the CRLF code in my SQL query. The problem is two fold:
In notepad, the flat file does not come out in columns. It is
just one long string of text (although this resolves in notepad++).
When viewed in notepad++, the first row of data is indented by
two characters and each subsequent row is indented even further!
Basically this file will be unreadable at the other end.
Here's an example how I'm currently approaching it:
Select col1, col2, col3, char(13)+char(10) CRLF
Which produces data like this:
Col1 Col2 Col3 CRLF
xxxx xxxx xxxx
xxxx xxxx xxxx
xxxx xxxx xxxx
Other things I have tried include:
Using declare #crlf (returns the same results)
Using only char(13) or only char(10) (returns the same results)
Using Col3+char(13)+char(10) (returns results in single line)
I think I'm missing just a small piece of the puzzle here, but I can't figure out what that piece would be. Your help is much appreciated.
Throwing in some requested screenshots here:
You can see here where the extra characters are starting to sneak in.

Answer 1

On the Advanced tab of the Flat File Connection Manager the InputColumnWidth might not be set correctly. I'm guessting the last column containing the CRLF, it should be 2 long.

Answer 2

I use the exact same dev stack you list, and I don't include the CRLF in the SQL query, I only use the row delimiter in the SSIS output connection.
In the SSIS package, edit the output connection. It displays the Flat File Connection Manager. In the "Columns" tab (well, not quite a tab, but pick Columns from the list on the left side) here is a "Row Delimiter" and I specify my CRLF there.
There is also a "Header Row Delimiter" on the "General" tab, but that only applies to the header row.
Unless there is a reason you are trying to embed a line break in the middle of a query row?
EDIT: Some more troubleshooting questions ...
1) Are you writing your file to a network drive or a local drive? Try setting to a local drive in case any automatic mapping is going on.
2) What is your data source? I usually use an OLEDB source, but if you are having trouble, maybe try a flat file input source and see if it can mimic a simple input to a simple output.
3) How are you getting your file to look at it? Are you logged on to the server and using Notepad there? If not, try that to see if the problem happens when you are getting the file to look at.
4) Are there any special characters in the data that might interfere? Try a query that returns a few constants.
EDIT 2: I saw your comment, I'll switch one of mine to fixed width and get back to you shortly - did you check to see if you made the width too short and it's clipping the termination characters?
EDIT 3:
I have to go for tonight, I'll look at this more tomorrow and get back to you, and clean my messy and confusing post up. I made a package that I tried to match yours as closely as I could but I started with a copy of an existing one instead of a fresh start and it got stuck in a half-baked state. I'll make a fresh one from scratch tomorrow.
BTW, Are all of your rows the same width? If not, have you tried Ragged Right instead of Fixed Width?
EDIT 4: Adding more ...
Over the weekend I continued to play with this and noticed that you can get SSIS to add the row delimiter for you. When you first create the Flat File Destination and edit it, you get the choice to create a new flat file connection manager, and one of the options is to add a column with CRLF. Unfortunately, this has the annoying side effect of always including a heading of "Row Delimiter Column" if you include column names in the output file. You can get around it by specifying a header row instead of building it from field names, but appending the CRLF in your SQL statement is probably a lot less work than that.
.
And for anyone else continuing to play with this, using a delimited flat file but forcing the fields to fixed length in a data transform (Derived Column) or in the SQL query also worked, but was more complicated. Within the Derived Column transform I replaced my input column (Nums) with SUBSTRING(Nums + REPLICATE(" ",4),1,4) where 4 is the field width. To do the same thing in the SQL query I used CONVERT(CHAR(4), Nums) as Nums.