Five Techniques for Loading Flat File Data into Oracle Tables

Mingguang Xu
Office of Institutional Research
The University of Georgia
SQL Loader
}  External Table
}  Oracle Warehouse Builder
}  Toad Data Loading Wizard
}  SQL Developer
} 
Comes with Oracle server and client install
}  Traditional
}  Can be used on either server side or client
side
}  Easy to build into a Unix/Linux script
}  Need to write a control file
} 
A feature starting from Oracle 9i
}  Pros: flat files can be treated as tables
}  Cons: make database less portal
}  Use case: server log file, auditing files
} 
Pros: technically simple:
Step 1. create or replace directory ext_table_dir as ‘/ext_table_data’;
Step 2. create table ext_table (col1 varchar2(5),…..
)
ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
( TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tab_data
ACCESS PARAMETERS (
RECORDS DELIMITED BY NEWLINE
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL
( col1 CHAR(5),…… )
LOCATION (‘file1.txt',‘file2.txt') )
PARALLEL 5
REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;
Cons: Data less portable, but good for Server side log
files.
} 
} 
Pros: generate DDL for new table matching
the flat file structure; generate control file
Cons: have to learn how to use the tool; only
generate control file
Pros: generate control file; can be scheduled
as a job
}  Cons: the target table must be pre-exist in
DB
} 
Pros: intuitive; can directly use excel file
}  Cons: cannot be programmed
} 
OWB
}  Toad
}  SQL Developer
} 
OWB Demo
OWB Demo
OWB Demo
Step 1. import flat file
OWB Demo
Toad SQL Load Wizard Demo
Toad SQL Load Wizard Demo
SQL Developer Demo: case 1, load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo: case 1, load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo - case 1: load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo - case 1: load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo - case 1: load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo - case 1: load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo - case 1: load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo - case 1: load data into a new table
SQL Developer Demo - case 2: load data into an existing table
Questions?
Email to: [email protected]