SQL*Loader and "Variable length field was truncated"

Question

Hi,
I'm experiencing this problem using SQL*Loader: Release 8.1.7.0.0
Here is my control file (it's actually split into separate control and data files, but the result is the same)
LOAD DATA
INFILE *
APPEND INTO TABLE test
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
first_id,
second_id,
third_id,
language_code,
display_text VARCHAR(2000)
begindata
2,1,1,"eng","Type of Investment Account"
The TEST table is defined as:
Name Null? Type
FIRST_ID NOT NULL NUMBER(4)
SECOND_ID NOT NULL NUMBER(4)
THIRD_ID NOT NULL NUMBER(4)
LANGUAGE_CODE NOT NULL CHAR(3)
DISPLAY_TEXT VARCHAR2(2000)
QUESTION_BLOB BLOB
The log file displays:
Record 1: Warning on table "USER"."TEST", column DISPLAY_TEXT
Variable length field was truncated.
And the results of the insert are:
FIRST_ID SECOND_ID THIRD_ID LANGUAGE_CODE DISPLAY_TEXT
2 1 1 eng ype of Investment Account"
The language_code field is imported correctly, but display_text keeps the closing delimiter, and loses the first character of the string. In other words, it is interpreting the enclosing double quote and/or the delimiter, and truncating the first two characters.
I've also tried the following:
LOAD DATA
INFILE *
APPEND INTO TABLE test
FIELDS TERMINATED BY '|'
first_id,
second_id,
third_id,
language_code,
display_text VARCHAR(2000)
begindata
2|1|1|eng|Type of Investment Account
In this case, display_text is imported as:
pe of Investment Account
In the log file, I get this table which seems odd as well - why is the display_text column shown as having length 2002 when I explicitly set it to 2000?
Column Name Position Len Term Encl Datatype
FIRST_ID FIRST * | O(") CHARACTER
SECOND_ID NEXT * | O(") CHARACTER
THIRD_ID NEXT * | O(") CHARACTER
LANGUAGE_CODE NEXT 3 | O(") CHARACTER
DISPLAY_TEXT NEXT 2002 VARCHAR
Am I missing something totally obvious in my control and data files? I've played with various combinations of delimiters (commas vs '|'), trailing nullcols, optional enclosed etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Use CHAR instead aof VARCHAR
LOAD DATA
INFILE *
APPEND INTO TABLE test
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
  first_id,
  second_id,
  third_id,
  language_code,
  display_text    CHAR(2000)
)From the docu:
A VARCHAR field is a length-value datatype.
It consists of a binary length subfield followed by a character string of the specified length.
http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/A87860_01/doc/server.817/a76955/ch05.htm#20324