Re: Specifying datatypes in SQL*Loader, why?

damorgan wrote:

> Probably the fact that SQL*Loader is an antique. A functional antique
> ... but an antique.
>
> Daniel Morgan
>
>
>
> Morten wrote:
>
>

>>I would think, that the loader deduced the data types from
>>the table it's inserting into, yet we have the option to
>>specify eg. CHAR. I can understand SEQUENCE, DATE (format)
>>and such, but why the primitive types - I'm certainly
>>missing something here.
>>
>>Morten
>>

The data types are the types of the data in the file, not the table. This means that you can SQL*Loader to load binary files if you can work out the file format.

e.g. you have a table with a single numeric row

The file could contain 1 as either:
real numeric information (Hex:0001 binary file) a text representation of the number 1 ( '1' = ASCII(49) = Hex:0031 )

LOAD DATA (the binary file)
INFILE ...
APPEND
INTO TABLE small_table
FIELDS ...
(
number_column INTEGER
)         

OR (the text file)

LOAD DATA
INFILE ...
APPEND
INTO TABLE small_table
FIELDS ...
(
number_column INTEGER EXTERNAL (1)
)

OR (again the text file)

LOAD DATA
INFILE ...
APPEND
INTO TABLE small_table
FIELDS
(
number_column CHAR (1)-- The data in the file is stored as text ) Received on Thu Feb 07 2002 - 23:46:51 CET