Extenal table stores data in different format

Question

I used the following statement I found at
http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96652/ch12.htm
exaclty.
CREATE TABLE emp_load (first_name CHAR(15), last_name CHAR(20), year_of_birth CHAR(4))
ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tab_dir
ACCESS PARAMETERS (RECORDS FIXED 20 FIELDS (first_name CHAR(7),
last_name CHAR(8),
year_of_birth CHAR(4)))
LOCATION ('foo.dat'));
Alvin Tolliver1976
KennethBaer 1963
Mary Dube 1973
And when I select from table I get three rows, but the format is all wrong.
SQL> select * from emp_load;
FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME YEAR
Alvin Tolliver 1976
hBaer 196
Kennet
Dube 197
Mary
Can anybody please tell me what's going on here??

Answer 1

$ cat foo.dat
Alvin Tolliver 1976
Kenneth Baer 1963
Mary Dube 1973
$ sqlplus scott/tiger
SQL*Plus: Release 9.2.0.4.0 - Production on Wed Jan 25 11:35:16 2006
Copyright (c) 1982, 2002, Oracle Corporation.  All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.4.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Oracle Data Mining options
JServer Release 9.2.0.4.0 - Production
SQL> CREATE TABLE emp_load (first_name CHAR(15), last_name CHAR(20), year_of_birth CHAR(4))
  2  ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tab_dir
  3  ACCESS PARAMETERS
  4  (records delimited by newline
  5  FIELDS terminated by ' '
  6  )
  7* LOCATION ('foo.dat'))
SQL> /
Table created.
SQL> select * from emp_load;
FIRST_NAME      LAST_NAME            YEAR
Alvin           Tolliver             1976
Kenneth         Baer                 1963
Mary            Dube                 1973
SQL>