Re: Exporting data from Oracle to other DBMSs

aa937_at_FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Noreen Dertinger) wrote:
> Can one export data from Oracle, in comma delimited format, or any other
> way so that the files can be used by other popular database programs, such
> as DBase 4. Can Oracle database files be converted into the MARC format?
> I would like to find out what other database formats Oracle
> can export to?

The actual Export utility in Oracle writes to proprietary files that can be ported to other computers, but are only understood by Oracle. I don't believe that Oracle can export to the native formats of any other database.

> What precautions would I need to take if I were to use Oracle to
> export to other DBMSs.

Wear a CSA approved hard hat and safety boots (just kidding). I can't think of any "precautions", actually.

> Right now I am not using Oracle but the DBMS I am using now can not
> export files for use by the popular DBMSs and I would like to find out
> if Oracle or another DBMS would. The database has to be text based,
> relational, and be able to also have links with other desktop
> applications such as MS Word v2 for Windows, etc.

I don't think that any major RDBMS can read or write the native files of another RDMBS. However, in any database, you should have commands or tools which allow you to write data into ASCII format, either in fixed columns or delimited format. You can do this in Oracle by writing small procedures in SQL*Plus, or using SQL*ReportWriter without the usual page headings and page breaks. Once you have an ASCII file, you should be able to read it into any other RDBMS.

In some desktop applications, it's possible to directly query an SQL database. I've heard of this being done in Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect, although I don't recall whether it was accomplished by third-party software or not. In addition, desktop development tools such as Visual Basic can be set up to directly query and update any SQL database over a network. Received on Mon Jun 19 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST