Re: How do I ensure order of rows loaded by SQL Loader?

Thanks Jim for your response.
The correct order is the order specified in the CSV file. The first record is the name of a person with a tag attached to it 'Contact'. The next 4 records are just names without the keyword 'Contact' in them, so I know that these 4 people are associated with the first 'Contact'. The next record is again a 'Contact', so I know that this is a new contact and then again there are people associated with this contact. So if I traverse by order I know which people to associate with what contact. So that's why the order bocomes important. You are right that I can define a column having sequence numbers but the problem is I am loading the data using sql loader. How do I insert sequence numbers while loading the data from sql loader? Is there any way a sequence number is auto inserted in a column?

Thanks.
Puneet

"Jim Kennedy" <kennedy-downwithspammersfamily_at_attbi.net> wrote in message news:<P5Fsb.135158$mZ5.935009_at_attbi_s54>...
> If you don't have any column to order by then how would you know what the
> right order is? By definition the data in a table is unordered and you
> select a group or ret of records and unless you specify an order then you
> can't guarantee the order it comes back. Why not have an extra column that
> is the seeded with a sequence and order by that?
> Why is the order not important? If you don't have a primary key how do you
> distinguish one row from another?
> Jim
> "Puneet" <puneet.bansal_at_wipro.com> wrote in message
> news:4c276d80.0311122127.562b3607_at_posting.google.com...
> > Hi everybody !
> > I am loading a CSV file into Oracle 8i table using SQL Loader
> > utility. The data is in such a format that the order of the records is
> > of paramount importance. But when I retrieve the data from the table
> > it can be in any order, isn't it?
> >
> > My doubts are:
> > Does SQL Loader always load the records in the same order as that of
> > the data file?
> >
> > If yes then how can I ensure that when I retrive the records they are
> > always in the same order as the one specified in CSV file? (The table
> > is just a temp table and it doesn't have any primary key or any column
> > I can order by.) Will 'order by rowid' solve the problem?
> >
> > Thanks for your time and help.
> >
> > Puneet
Received on Thu Nov 13 2003 - 06:04:11 CST