Converting .xls to .csv file using pl/sql

Question

Hi All,
i have a directory say 'C:\datafile\'. I will be getting .xls file into this directory. I need to change it to .csv and load into oracle tables using sql loader.
Any inputs on this..
thanks..

Answer 1

Etbin wrote:
Even if there's only table data to deal with it will be quite demanding to ignore just colors, font types, formats, sizes you name it the "innovative" users can think of.Even if it had no additional formatting by users and was just a spreadsheet populated with table style data, it would still be nigh on impossible to read the contents intelligently, using any of the file access facilities available as standard in PL/SQL (e.g. UTL_FILE)...
Just looking at the contents of the file in notepad, where many of the bytes are unmappable to readable characters...
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     d          ü©ñÒMbP?_   *    +    ‚   €          %   á   Á      ƒ    „    ¡ "   á               à?      à?  U                       á            á            á            á            á            á       ý
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       ½        @   4@ ×  ¢  d 8 * 2 2 2 > ¶    @                          ï    7   (Note: it was cut short, this is just an example)
Let's face it, you just wouldn't want to try and decipher that. That's what Microsoft have provided ODBC drivers for.