Search in txt file using PL/SQL

Question

Is there any way to search for a string in a text file using a PL/SQL block??
Thnks in advance.
Ashish

Answer 1

Richard:
It would depend on the nature of the text file, but it could be done for most plain text files. If there is some consistent delimiter, that is, the text file is fielded in some way, you could define an external table with the appropriate structure then use normal SQL queries against the particular fields from the file.
If the file is just plain text with no fields, you could create an external table something like:
CREATE TABLE myexternal (
   line VARCHAR2(4000),
ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
(TYPE oracle_loader
DEFAULT DIRECTORY mydirectory
ACCESS PARAMETERS
(RECORDS DELIMITED BY newline
  BADFILE 'textfile.bad'
  DISCARDFILE 'textfile.dis'
  LOGFILE 'textfile.log'
  (line CHAR(4000) NULLIF line = blanks))
    LOCATION ('textfile.txt'))
REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITEDThen use normal sql to search the contents of that file.
I have not done any benchmarks on this, but my gut feel is that it would be significantly faster than using utl_file to loop over the lines looking for specific content.
In one of our warehouse load programs, we process a text file that is typically about 7Mb in under 30 seconds.
John