Headers appear in external table

I have defined several external tables over text files that have been built in the same way - in excel, then saved as a csv file.
Most of them work fine but there is one that always returns the column headers as data. I cant understand how this happens for this one file when they are all built in the the same way. I have checked the ddl for the external tables and they are equivalent.
I realise I could set it to skip 1 row but I am loathe to do that because if this is some sort of bug then it may be resolved later resulting in the first row of data being lost - a problem that may not become obvious until found by end users.
I have tried rebuilding from scratch and get the same result.
Has anyone else faced this situation?

I don't know what the exact trick is that OWB does,
but when you sample the file you use for the external
table and tell OWB to use the first row for the
header names, it won't use the first line as a data
line, even though there's nothing to be found in the
external table definition that indicates that.Hi,
that's no trick. If you sample the file and use the first row for column names the first row only disapears in the wizard. The resulting external table definition doesn't contain a skip row statement in this case automatically. The reason why you don't recognize this is because per default the loader writes no bad files. So the header row is normally ignored (because it doesn't match the structure) and you don't find it in the external table. If you will configure your external tables based on a file with an header and a skip parameter = 0 to produce a bad file (Bad File Name = file.bad) you will find the header row in this bad file then.
The only right way ist to configure the skip parameter - not to repress the resulting errors.
In this special file I guess the header matches the structure of the external table, so it isn't ignored but loaded into the external table.
Regards,
Detlef

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4EA3 external table default directory not appearing

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Dynamic reading headers external table

Hi,
I have a lot (over 200) of different databases (acces, filemaker, excel, etc) which should be converted to Oracle. An application import (not Oracle) module exists but that application is very slow in importing. I wants to try to speed up this process by loading or quering these files as an external table.
Evey imported database has a different layout, columns etc. Also the number of columns are very high, about 80. Is there any way to dynamically read the file to be imported to extract the column names and map them as input for the create table for the external file? After that it's more easy to query that external file. In the current situation I have to create the table manually and that takes a lot of time.
Or does anyone have a suggestion for another import proces with sqlloader, datapump, or....?
Thanks,
Paul

Paul van Rixel wrote:
Hi,
I have a lot (over 200) of different databases (acces, filemaker, excel, etc) which should be converted to Oracle. An application import (not Oracle) module exists but that application is very slow in importing. I wants to try to speed up this process by loading or quering these files as an external table.
Evey imported database has a different layout, columns etc. Also the number of columns are very high, about 80. Is there any way to dynamically read the file to be imported to extract the column names and map them as input for the create table for the external file? After that it's more easy to query that external file. In the current situation I have to create the table manually and that takes a lot of time.
Or does anyone have a suggestion for another import proces with sqlloader, datapump, or....?
Thanks,
PaulThere is no way to dynamically read the file to be imported to extract the column names for an external table - the names must be hard-coded.
This may be doable in a different way, however, depending on how much work you want to do and pain you're willing to endure to accomplish it.
The easiest way is probably have a different external table for each layout with the proper definitions.
Doing this dynamically might be possible but will probably be harder. Dynamic solutions can range from PL/SQL/Java/whatever procedures to read, parse, collect, and insert the data dynamically using data embedded in the files themselves. This will be very hard. Possiblities include using UTL_FILE and possibly pipelined functions which can use UTL_FILE internally defining table output externally.
Some tools offer GUI interfaces to manual file loading. Apex, for instance, can read and load a file derving column names from the first record. Perhaps this is something like what you want to do
Good luck!

Error while selecting date from external table

Hello all,
I am getting the follwing error while selecting data from external table. Any idea why?
SQL> CREATE TABLE SE2_EXT (SE_REF_NO VARCHAR2(255),
2        SE_CUST_ID NUMBER(38),
3        SE_TRAN_AMT_LCY FLOAT(126),
4        SE_REVERSAL_MARKER VARCHAR2(255))
5 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (
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7    DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tables
8    ACCESS PARAMETERS (
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10      FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
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15        country_language CHAR(50)
16      )
17    )
18    LOCATION ('SE2.csv')
19 )
20 PARALLEL 5
21 REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;
Table created.
SQL> select * from se2_ext;
SQL> select count(*) from se2_ext;
select count(*) from se2_ext
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
KUP-04043: table column not found in external source: SE_REF_NO
ORA-06512: at "SYS.ORACLE_LOADER", line 19

It would appear that you external table definition and the external data file data do not match up. Post a few input records so someone can duplicate the problem and determine the fix.
HTH -- Mark D Powell --

Showing Text file as external table without trimming spaces

Hi all:
I am trying to display a text file from db sever with original spacing.
Well it's not entirely related to APEX.
This is how external table is created:
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(rowline varchar2(255))
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       TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
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       fields notrim
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REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED;
on the first line of the aaa.text (its a report), it shows something like:
Sat Dec 29                                                                Page 1
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Sat Dec 29 Page 1
all above is done in sql workshop /sql command in APEX 4.2.1 (db 10.2.0.5)
Is there any way to preserve the spaces between "29" and "Page"?
(the result compressed all spaces in-between to 1 space).
I think the ideal way is to invoke client's notepad to open the server's text file.
anyway to generate the link?
Thanks
John

Well, I have tried to download the file using below procedure.
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How can I make the rolumn and row headers appear on the printed sheet?

I am working in Numbers'09. I want to print out my chart with the column letters and row numbers showing.
How can I make the rolumn and row headers appear on the printed sheet?

g,
Those annotations are called "Labels", and they are only visible during editing when a cell selection is made within the table. If you need to have the labels on your final output, you can create labels in Text Boxes and position them adjacent to the table.
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Remove Enter Sign in External Table

Dear Gurus,
I have external table with show 'enter sign'.
I thought it was blank space but not.
How to remove it?since function TRIM can't remove it.
Records delimited by newline -> is that any syntax to prevent enter sign appear?
Thank you
Regards
JOE

This seems to be a TOAD issue - pl ask in the TOAD forums - http://toadworld.com/Discussions/tabid/824/Default.aspx
HTH
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IGNORE COMMENTS IN EXTERNAL TABLE FILE

I currently have a partitioned table, split by month going back some 7 years.
The business have now agreed to archive off some of the data but to have it
available if required. I therefore intend to select month by month, the data
to a flat file and make use of external tables to provide the data for the
business if required. Then to remove the months partition thus releaseing
space back to the database. Each months data is only about 100bytes long, but
there could be about 15million rows.
I can successfully create the external table and read the data.
However I would like to place a header in the spooled file but the only method
I have found to ignore the header is to use the "SKIP" parameter. I would
rather not use this as it hard codes the number of lines I reserve for a
header.
Is there another method to add a comment to a external tables file and have the
selects on the file ignore the comments?
Could I use "LOAD WHEN ( column1 != '--' )" as each comment line begins with a
double dash?
Also, is there a limit to the size of an external tables file?

When I added the lines to attempt to
exclude the Header lines to be:
RECORDS DELIMITED BY newline
NOBADFILE
NODISCARDFILE
NOLOGFILE
SKIP 0
LOAD WHEN ( cvt_seq_num LIKE '--%' )
FIELDS
TERMINATED BY ","
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL
REJECT ROWS WITH ALL NULL FIELDS
( cvt_seq_num INTEGER EXTERNAL(12)
I got:
select * from old_cvt_external
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPENcallout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
KUP-00554: error encountered while parsing access parameters
KUP-01005: syntax error: found "identifier": expecting one of: "equal,notequal"
KUP-01008: the bad identifier was: LIKE
KUP-01007: at line 6 column 33
ORA-06512: at "SYS.ORACLE_LOADER", line 14
ORA-06512: at line 1
When I moved the line I got:
RECORDS DELIMITED BY newline
NOBADFILE
NODISCARDFILE
NOLOGFILE
SKIP 0
FIELDS
TERMINATED BY ","
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
MISSING FIELD VALUES ARE NULL
REJECT ROWS WITH ALL NULL FIELDS
LOAD WHEN ( cvt_seq_num LIKE '--%' )
I got:
select * from old_cvt_external
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
KUP-00554: error encountered while parsing access parameters
KUP-01005: syntax error: found "load": expecting one of: "exit, ("
KUP-01007: at line 11 column 11
ORA-06512: at "SYS.ORACLE_LOADER", line 14
ORA-06512: at line 1
So it appears that the "LOAD WHEN" does not work.
Can you please suggest anything else?

Oracle External Table SELECT FROM problem from workstation

At Solaris Oracle database server console.
Created directory on the Solaris server as Oracle owner.
As SYS created oracle directory object on that Solaris directory
Granted read/write to SCHEMA_OWNER on that oracle directory object.
Using OS Oracle user, moved a tab-delimited flat file into the Solaris directory.
Logged on a SCHEMA_OWNER using SQLPLUS on the Solaris database server.
Ran external table script in SQLPLUS.
External table was created.
Ran Select * from ext_table.
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Logged on as SCHEMA_OWNER using SQLPLUS on Windows workstation.
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ORA29400 data cartridge error
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Thank you for your response.
I am not creating the external table on the workstation.
In both cases,
from the Solaris console
and from the Windows workstation
the external table is being created on the Solaris file system
in an Oracle Directory object
running an SQL script from SQLPLUS prompt.
The external table creator, schema owner, has read and write permissions
granted by SYS on the oracle directory object.
The problem is:
Logged in as the schema owner,
you can select * from ext_table from the Solaris console SQLPLUS,
but you can not select * from ext_table from the Windows workstation SQLPLUS.
You can DROP TABLE ext_table from the Windows workstation SQLPLUS.
You just cannot select * from ext_table from the Windows workstation SQLPLUS.
I guess as a test,
I can drop from the ext_table creation script the references
to discardfile, badfile, and logfile,
and remove this other file objects from the equation...
which appears to be a file permissions problem.

Problem with external tables

Hi
I able to create external tables ,but unbale to query
I had followed the below steps
sql> conn system/manager;
Connected
SQL> select * from emp;
EMPNO ENAME DEPTNO
100 mmm 10
200 yyy 20
300 zz 30
SQL> spool emp.dat
SQL> select empno ||','||ename||','||deptno from emp;
EMPNO||','||ENAME||','||DEPTNO
100,mmm,10
200,yyy,20
300,zz,30
sql>create directory x as 'd:\oracle\y'
Directory is created
SQL> create table ext(empno char(4),ename char(10),deptno char(2))
2 organization external (type oracle_loader default directory x access
parameters(fields terminated by ','
3 (empno,ename,deptno))
4 location('emp.dat'));
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SQL> select * from ext;
select * from ext
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
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ORA-06512: at "SYS.ORACLE_LOADER", line 14
ORA-06512: at line 1
Thanks inadvance
Mohan

Yea - there's nothing here that shows that you are pointing at that dir when you do the spool command.
Also, the headers went into the file. There should only be data. Edit the file and clean it up.
Maybe start with a very simple hand-edited file with 1 field, and get that to work.
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Problem with file used by external table

Hi all,
following situation:
I am creating my file on unix/solaris and ftp it to oracle server which is running on windows.
I am getting following error when I try to do select on the external table I get:
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ORA-29400: data cartridge error
KUP-04020: found record longer than buffer size supported, 524288, in D:\corona\flat_files\input\CORE.PROGRESS.TXT
ORA-06512: at "SYS.ORACLE_LOADER", line 52
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File->Conversions->UNIX/MAC to DOS-> Save it and ftp to windows server.
I have already tried to call unix2dos in my shell script, but I keep getting the same error.
Here is the CREATE TABLE:
CREATE TABLE EXT_TRACKING_DATA_PROGRESS
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Are you FTP-ing the file to the Windows machine in ASCII mode? Or in binary mode? Binary mode won't convert the line breaks from Unix to Windows, which would appear to be the problem.
Justin

External Table in a XDB Resource

Hi,
is it possible to create an external table in a XDB resource (i.e. /home/public) like in a normal directory?
Thanks in advance
Best regards
Martin

Martin,
Here is another article by Jonanthan Gennick.
http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/03-may/o33xml.html
Foldering an XML View
One particularly exciting XML-related feature in Oracle9i Release 2 is that you can use a SQL/XML query such as I've been developing in this article as the basis for creating an XMLType view. You can then "folder" that view so that its contents appear as XML files in a directory in the XML DB Repository. Next Steps
Whenever you open one of those XML files using Internet Explorer or an application such as Microsoft Excel, the file's contents are constructed on the fly by executing the query to create that particular XMLType view. The Microsoft Office XP version of Microsoft Excel supports an XML file format, so if you generate an XMLType view using the XML schema that Excel expects, you can open spreadsheets containing current data, fresh from the database.
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Note that before running the code in Listing 5, you need to create a folder named /ATTRACTIONS in your repository. It's in that folder that the PL/SQL code creates the XML documents that refer to the view.

Dynamically Update External Table Data

I loaded a data table from an external csv file. But the csv file is an output from a program that appends a new line to the csv file every couple days.
I made a Report with the loaded data, but in a couple days when a few new lines of data appear in the csv file, I want my report to update as well.
Is there a way to create a "Refresh Button" in my application that will load the data from the csv when pressed?
I have oracle database 11g express with APEX 4.1.1

Hi,
what you describe could certainly be achieved, but it would have to be designed and built, it is not going to be provided "out of the box". I would probably go with an external table based on your file and a process that you would build would be callable from the button and this would do some sort of a merge of the external table data into your database table. Apart from being callable on demand, the process could also be made to be a scheduled process that loads the data on a regular basis, say once a day or once an hour, depending on your requirements. To use an external table it is assumed that the file will be available on the database server. If not and the file is available on only a client machine, then doing an on demand load process would still be possible, but a little more difficult.
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Mysterous error external table

I have defined a simple external table :
create table ext_tab_test (
a number
, b number
, c number
organization external (
default directory ext_dir
access parameters (
records delimited by newline
fields terminated by ';'
missing field values are null
location ('test')
reject limit unlimited
where ext_dir points to a directory on HP-UX with read, write permissions, and file "test" is owned by user oracle and all permissions to world.
Still I got the error:
ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
KUP-00552: internal XAD package failed to load
ORA-06512: at "SYS.ORACLE_LOADER", line 19
I have Googled on the combination of KUP-00552 and ORA-06512, but I only got a single hit that is a page of Oracle Japan in Japanese.
I could not find any clue about the cause of this problem.
When I use ORACLE_DATAPUMP, I do not encounter any problems:
create table export_test2
organization external
( type oracle_datapump
default directory ext_dir
location ('test2') )
as select * from dual
create table import_test2
( dummy varchar2(1)
organization external
( type oracle_datapump
default directory ext_dir
location ('test2')
/

See MetaLink Note:373168.1
Cause
The issue is likely caused by Bug 5172459: 'KUP-00552 WHEN QUERYING EXTERNAL TABLES IN 10.2.0.2'
which is still open and active.
According to Bug 5172459, the problem appears to be that the messages file for external tables ( kup<lang>.msb ) for non-english systems
Solution
Need to replace the language specific (non-english) kup<lang>.msb file with the english version.
1. cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/mesg
2. Replace <lang> with your installed languages file.
mv KUP<lang>.msb to KUP<lang>.msb.BAK
3. Copy <us> version over current <lang> copy of kup msb file.
cp kupus.msb to KUP<lang>.msb
4. re-run the select against the external table

Validate External Table Fails

Hi there,
I am new to WB and I am trying to setup a simple project to read from a data file and populate a database table. I have create a 2 locations, a database and the other a file location. I have created a module and have created the external table, and imported the other database table. I already have an external table in my database that reads the data file, but was unable to import it for some reason when I did so it didn't appear, so I created it again in WB. Having done so if I perform validation on it, by right clicking, I get the following error
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Does anybody know what this means? The database module under which I have created my external table and imported my table uses the database location I have created, and my extrenal table uses the file location I have created.
Any help would be much appreciated
thanks, Anil

OK there are few thing that need to be set:
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-- 1. Metadata location --> this is your connection to DB
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-- 2. File locations --> this is directory where your files are
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Headers appear in external table

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