SQL*Loader and pipe on unix

Question

On unix is it possible to pipe the data to be loaded in to SQL*Loader instead of reading it from file? I have a program that generates data that is to be loaded, and it is a bit waste of time to first save it to file, just to read it back in.

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible :
TEST@db102 SQL> desc test1
Name                                                  Null?    Type
A                                                              VARCHAR2(20)
B                                                              VARCHAR2(20)
TEST@db102 SQL> exit
Disconnected from Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
[ora102 work db102]$ cat test1.dat
aaaaa,bbbbb
ccccc,ddddd
eeeee,fffff
[ora102 work db102]$ cat test1.ctl
load data
replace
INTO TABLE test1
fields terminated by ','
trailing nullcols
a, b
[ora102 work db102]$ cat test1.dat | sqlldr test/test control=test1.ctl
SQL*Loader: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Mon Sep 25 14:29:50 2006
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Commit point reached - logical record count 3
[ora102 work db102]$ sqlplus test/test
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Mon Sep 25 14:29:58 2006
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
TEST@db102 SQL> select * from test1;
A                    B
aaaaa                bbbbb
ccccc                ddddd
eeeee                fffff
TEST@db102 SQL>