SQL-LOADER problem (VARCHAR2)

Could anyone maybe help with the following problem...?

We have a DB with student information on it. The DB is not yet "live", however, meaning that updates/inserts/deletions can not take place by means of forms...yet. These actions are performed on data on our mainframe and uploaded nightly to the Oracle DB using SQL-LOADER.

Table A contains information about the student. Table B contains information about the subjects offered. Table C contains information about the student and the subjects he takes.

Table A and C are maintained by means of forms (3). Table B is being populated by the above-mentioned nightly uploads.

The subject codes are stored as VARCHAR2(5). On the mainframe they are stored as PIC XXXXX (COBOL). When we upload these subject codes using SQL-LOADER, we find that eg. the subject 'BOT' is NOT stored as 'BOT', but as 'BOT ' - trailing spaces - even though it is defined as VARCHAR2(5). This causes all kinds of problems.

We can do an update on the table right after the load setting all subject codes = rtrim(themselves), but we are looking for a way IN SQL-LOADER to get around this problem.

Any comments ? Received on Wed Dec 06 1995 - 00:00:00 CET