If you are familiar with SQL Service Integration Services (SSIS), then you must understand the difference between Control Flow and Data Flow. The concepts apply to Azure Data Factory as well.
Control Flow Activity is an activity that affects the path of execution of the Data Factory pipeline. E.g. for each activity, which creates a loop if conditions are met.
Data Flow Transformations are the used where we need to transform the input data e.g. Join or Conditional Split.
Let’s look at some of the differences between Control Flow activities and Data Flow Transformations
| Control Flow Activity | Data Flow Transformation |
|---|---|
| Affects the execution sequence or path of the pipeline | Transforms the ingested data |
| Can be recursive | Non recursive |
| No source/sink | Source and sink are required |
| Implemented at the pipeline level | Implemented at the activity level |
We will have a look at various control flow activities in a future post. For now, please refer to the links below to get the current list.
Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/concepts-data-flow-overview
Current list of Control Flow activities:
Azure Data Engineering 
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