SQL Loader/External Table multiple record delimiters

Question

Hi every one.
I have a strange problem, I have an external csv file which i wish to deal with (external tables or sql loader). This csv is totally not organized in structure and it contains records that are mixed together, meaning that some records are delimited by newline characters. So in short, i want to know if I will be able to load the data in this csv separating records by newline character and another character? So is that possible to have multiple record delimiters specified in the same ctl file?

Answer 1

abohsin,
I think using the Stream record format would be helful in your case. Please explore that.
Using stream record option, instead of the default new line, you can specify a user defined record delimiter.
Check this link.
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14215/ldr_control_file.htm#i1005509
Here is what I did. Not the complete answer, but it might be helpful.
Replace all delimiters witha standard delimiters (in unix)
sed s/HEAD,/**DLM**/g < test.dat >test2.dat
sed s/TAIL,/**DLM**/g < test2.dat >test3.dat
create table t(
  TEXT varchar2(100)
and Use that delimiter as the standard delimiter.
load data
infile "test3.dat" "str '**DLM**'"
into table T
TRUNCATE
fields terminated by 'XXXXX' optionally enclosed by '"'
TEXT
sql> select * from t;
TEXT
1111,2222,
4444,5555,
4444
1111,3333,
8888,6666,
5555
{code}
You should also replace new line charecters with '***DLM***'.
Thanks,
Rajesh.