Utl_file how to start reading from a certain position?

Question

Hi all,
i'm currently using utl_file to read a text file and import to db. i have managed to do it. however i would like to avoid reading the first line as it is the header. i would also like to avoid the last line as it is the footer.
how do i use the function of get line to start reading at a certain position? i am also able to get the length but i do not know how to make it start reading from a certain position.
the length of the first line will always be 9 and length for the last line would be 51.
here's my code so far:
set serveroutput on
declare
vSFile   utl_file.file_type;
vNewLine VARCHAR2(4000);
file_name VARCHAR2(200) := 'read.txt';
v_exist     BOOLEAN;
v_length number;
blocksize   NUMBER;
temp_value varchar2 (4000);
BEGIN
  vSFile := utl_file.fopen('MYDIR', file_name,'r');
  IF utl_file.is_open(vSFile) THEN
    LOOP
      BEGIN
        utl_file.get_line(vSFile, vNewLine);
        IF vNewLine IS NULL THEN
          EXIT;
        END IF;
      EXCEPTION
        WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
          EXIT;
      END;
    END LOOP;
    UTL_FILE.FGETATTR('MYDIR',file_name,v_exist,v_length,blocksize);
    dbms_output.put_line(v_length);
    COMMIT;
  END IF;
  utl_file.fclose(vSFile);
END read_demo;

Answer 1

Hi,
utl_file has an fseek procedure for moving the file pointer around in a file, either absolute or relative number of bytes.
It's in the documentation, I'm surprised you didn't see it there when you looked before going to the hassle of asking us a question.
Andre