Re: DBase III migration to Oracle

ODBC will not do the job for you because there is a limit of 254 charcters per field (unless you know your memo fields are < 254 characters each, which is unlikely). You will first need to export you dBase data to a text file, and then use sql loader to upload the data into Oracle. You will need to know or learn how to use sql loader and write control files for it. There is a probelm with embedded carriage returns, as sql loader treats them as end of row markers, but there is a way to handle it. I've not yet tried this (the following was clipped from a web site), so I don't know for sure if this works:

"SQL Loader control files use line feed or CR to signify the end of the record. Some programs allow data entry of these characters (most commonly as part of a description or text field). When SQL Loader encounters these line feeds, it assumes the end of the record and generates errors.

To get around this:

1. when you generate the ascii file, put a field delimiter after each column (including the last) - I use the '|' character as the delimiter.
2. in the SQL Loader control file, add the line: continueif last !='|'

This will cause SQL Loader to correctly interpret data where line feeds or CRs are a legitimate part of the data."

HTH
Alan Shein

Josef Buergi <josef.buergi_at_bluewin.ch> wrote in message news:81us78$c96$1_at_bw107zhb.bluewin.ch...
> Hello
>
> I have to migrate a Dbase III db to Oracle. The dbase file itself is not a
> big issue, but what I'm worried about are the memo fields. They are in a
> separate file and I don't know how to get them into a delimitted ascii
file
> (key;memo).
>
> Has anybody a workaround how to get memo fields from Dbase in any way into
> Oracle ? I'm not a DBase crack, that's why I'm asking.
>
> Any help is really welcome .....
>
> Please replay to josef.buergi_at_ascom.ch
>
> Greetings from Switzerland
>
> Josef
>
>
>
Received on Wed Dec 01 1999 - 17:16:27 CET