Uploading Importing text file & crosstab display

Question

<p> I want to upload a text tab delimited file into our db, currently we
are uploading it to a temp table in the db, do some validation checks and write
to a table when done. I have two questions:</P>
<p> 1) Is there a more efficient way of upload/importing flat files into
the db via forms, like loading data into a non db data block and working on the
data via loops rather than sql in a temp table.</P>
<P> 2) I want to present the data to the user(for verification) via a form
screen as they have read it in, the only way I can think of doing this, is
populating a temp table and then using a data block based on a stored procedure
that contains a dynamic pivot query package since I don't know the
number of columns that the file will contain. Data blocks can do either
vertical or horizontal alignment but not grid.</P>
<P> File will take the format of: </P>
           col1           col2            col3
row1    data_r1c1   data_r1c2   data_r1c3
row2    data_r2c1   data_r2c2   data_r2c3
row3    data_r3c1   data_r3c2   data_r3c3
row4    data_r4c1   data_r4c2   data_r4c3
<BR>
     <P>Thank you in advance </P>

Answer 1

Thank you for your reply
1) It's a utility for users and so it has to be through forms
Presently I think it is better to read it in to a temp table then I can use sql for validation which would be faster than looping through blocks. But with this approach I'm just a little worried about Lost Updates e.g. what if someone is changing scores in the regular update screen while another person is trying to import them via the import utility.
2) I have to use a stored procedure because I don't know how many columns a user will want to load in, sometimes it could be 2,3 or 5 etc. So basically I am looking at a way of presenting the data from it's stored format in it's read in format i.e. file format
File format =
         col1           col2            col3           coln
row1  data_r1c1   data_r1c2   data_r1c3   data_r1cn
row2  data_r2c1   data_r2c2   data_r2c3   data_r2cn
row3  data_r3c1   data_r3c2   data_r3c3   data_r3cn
rown  data_rnc1   data_rnc2   data_rnc3   data_rncn
It is stored in the temp table as
row1    col1   data_r1c1
row2    col1   data_r2c1
row1    col2   data_r1c2
row2    col2   data_r2c2
Example
         Test1    Test2    Test3    Test4
John   54        45         70         65
Jane   38        55         72         70
Stored in the temp and subsequently written to Student Score table as
Student    Test      Score
John        Test1    54
John      Test2      45
John      Test3      70
John      Test4      65
Jane      Test1      38
Jane      Test2      55
Jane      Test3      72
Jane      Test4      70