Extenal Table question..

Question

Hi everyone,
I am new to working on "EXTERNAL TABLES".Is it possible to add another column(which is not
in the flat file) with a "defalut value" ?
I am just trying to create a simple "EXTERNAL TABLE"..
question 1
==========
EX:
===
Flat file that i get will be like this (sample)
ENG,England,English
SCO,Scotland,English
IRE,Ireland,English
WAL,Wales,Welsh
If i create a external table like the following everyting would be fine..
CREATE TABLE countries_ext (
  country_code      VARCHAR2(5),
  country_name      VARCHAR2(50),
  country_language  VARCHAR2(50)
ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (
  TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
  DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tables
  ACCESS PARAMETERS (
    RECORDS DELIMITED BY NEWLINE
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
    MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL
      country_code      CHAR(5),
      country_name      CHAR(50),
      country_language  CHAR(50)
  LOCATION ('Countries1.txt','Countries2.txt')
PARALLEL 5
REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;
but i need another column with a "default value" "N"  which is not in flat file
CREATE TABLE countries_ext (
  country_code      VARCHAR2(5),
  country_name      VARCHAR2(50),
  country_language  VARCHAR2(50)
ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (
  TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
  DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tables
  ACCESS PARAMETERS (
    RECORDS DELIMITED BY NEWLINE
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
    MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL
      country_code      CHAR(5),
      country_name      CHAR(50),
      country_language  CHAR(50)
    -- Valid_flag default value "N"  Is it possible to add this
                                     column while creating the external table?
                                     this column is not there in the flat file.
  LOCATION ('Countries1.txt','Countries2.txt')
PARALLEL 5
REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;
quetion2
========
LOCATION ('Countries1.txt','Countries2.txt')
I have multiple files (around 150) which are in the same format.
Do i have to mention all the file names in the location clause? if i have to create a table
on those 150 file?
Ex  LOCATION ('Countries1.txt','Countries2.txt','Countries3.txt','Countries4.txt','Countries5.txt','Countries6.txt','Countries7.txt','Countries8.txt', and so on....)
or
Is it possible to put (countries*.txt)?sorry if this topic have discussed somewhere in the forum.
Thanks
phani

Answer 1

Hi Hoek,
thanks for the reply...
You could also just select an extra 'N' when selecting from your external table:You are correct hoek..we can do like that too..but i would like to know is it possible to
have that column in the table itself ?
ex: when creating the external table..something like the following
valid_flg  default value 'N'  Is it possible to put (countries*.txt)?
Just give it a try?
I tried it before posting this forum..it is not taking the file names like that...and it is throwing error..
is there any other option to specify multiple files?thanks
phani