Importing '|' delimited text data in a db

Question

Hi
I am a new newbie to the Oracle world, and would like some help on the following;
I have a 1,2Mb text file of data that I was to import into an oracle database. basically
what I need, is a block that does this.
Lets say there are 5 columns in the text file
separated by |'s containing both alpha-num and number chars.
Anyone ??
Thanks
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Answer 1

Dear Mike,
What you need to do is use an Oracle utility called SQL*Loader that comes with the database software.
Let us assume that your text data is stored in a file called 'C:\TEXTFILE.DAT' and the data from this file is to be stored in a table called NEW_TABLE which is defined as follows:
create table NEW_TABLE
FIELD1 NUMBER(10),
FIELD2 VARCHAR2(10),
FIELD3 VARCHAR2(50),
FIELD4 VARCHAR2(30),
FIELD5 NUMBER(10)
Now you have to create the following SQL*Loader control file called, say TEXTFILE.CTL and place it in the "C" drive:
load data
INFILE 'c:\textfile.dat'
BADFILE 'c:\textfile.bad'
DISCARDFILE 'c:\textfile.dsc'
INSERT
into table NEW_TABLE
fields terminated by '|'
(FIELD1, FIELD2, FIELD3, FIELD4, FIELD5)
Finally you have to invoke the SQL*Loader utility from the command line as follows:
sqlldr userid=<YOUR_NAME>/<YOUR_PWD> control='c:\textfile.ctl'
where <YOUR_NAME> and <YOUR_PWD> are the ORACLE username and password respectively for the schema in which NEW_TABLE exists.
Ciao!
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