How to find rejected rows using External Table

Question

Hi all,
I had written a stored procedure to read comma(,) separated flat file using External Tables in oracle 9i with Reject Limit "Unlimited" Option. Sometimes all rows are successfully loaded into external table and sometimes some rows are failed, I can find out those rows from logfile created by oracle. I want to inserted those rows key values into some other table. Can any body suggest/links how to write this.
Thanking you in advance

Answer 1

"Is there a way to have the system truncate the log files besides some O/S utility that will scour the directory every night, week, etc.?"
You can use UTL_FILE.FREMOVE to delete the file, if you have sufficient privileges. You can schedule it using DBMS_JOB if you like or run it before you recreate the file, as demonstrated below. The pl/sql block to check whether the file exists is used for demonstration purposes only and is not necessary. This is just one method. There are various ways to delete or truncate a file. This just seems like the simplest.
scott@ORA92> CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY mydir AS 'c:\oracle'
  2  /
Directory created.
scott@ORA92> DECLARE
  2    v_bfile BFILE := BFILENAME ('MY_DIR', 'test_tab.log');
  3  BEGIN
  4    IF DBMS_LOB.FILEEXISTS (v_bfile) = 1
  5    THEN DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('test_tab.log exists');
  6    ELSE DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_line ('test_tab.log does not exist');
  7    END IF;
  8  END;
  9  /
test_tab.log exists
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
scott@ORA92> EXECUTE UTL_FILE.FREMOVE ('MY_DIR', 'test_tab.log')
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
scott@ORA92> DECLARE
  2    v_bfile BFILE := BFILENAME ('MY_DIR', 'test_tab.log');
  3  BEGIN
  4    IF DBMS_LOB.FILEEXISTS (v_bfile) = 1
  5    THEN DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE ('test_tab.log exists');
  6    ELSE DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_line ('test_tab.log does not exist');
  7    END IF;
  8  END;
  9  /
test_tab.log does not exist
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
scott@ORA92> CREATE TABLE test_tab
  2    (col1 NUMBER,
  3       col2 VARCHAR2(4))
  4  ORGANIZATION external
  5    (TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
  6       DEFAULT DIRECTORY mydir
  7       ACCESS PARAMETERS
  8         (RECORDS DELIMITED BY NEWLINE
  9          BADFILE 'MYDIR':'test_bad.bad'
10          LOGFILE 'MYDIR':'test_tab.log'
11          FIELDS TERMINATED BY ","
12            (col1,
13             col2))
14       LOCATION ('test.dat'))
15  REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED
16  /
Table created.
scott@ORA92> SELECT * FROM test_tab
  2  /
      COL1 COL2
         1 a
         2 b
scott@ORA92> "Or is there a way to prevent the log from being written to every time it's accessed?"
You can use NOLOGFILE as an access parameter to prevent it from being written to, as shown below.
scott@ORA92> CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY mydir AS 'c:\oracle'
  2  /
Directory created.
scott@ORA92> CREATE TABLE test_tab
  2    (col1 NUMBER,
  3       col2 VARCHAR2(4))
  4  ORGANIZATION external
  5    (TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
  6       DEFAULT DIRECTORY mydir
  7       ACCESS PARAMETERS
  8         (RECORDS DELIMITED BY NEWLINE
  9          BADFILE 'MYDIR':'test_bad.bad'
10          NOLOGFILE
11          FIELDS TERMINATED BY ","
12            (col1,
13             col2))
14       LOCATION ('test.dat'))
15  REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED
16  /
Table created.
scott@ORA92> SELECT * FROM test_tab
  2  /
      COL1 COL2
         1 a
         2 b
scott@ORA92> "Is there a way to have the log written only when an error occurs?"
Not that I know of, but that does not mean that somebody else doesn't know how or isn't able to figure out a way. If you do find a way, please post it for the benefit of the rest of us.