Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle
Subject: Re: NEWBIE: file structure for ORACLE
References: <31F91991.41C6@interport.net>
Alan Macaluso writes:
>Howdy all,
>I'm relatively new to SQL/Oracle. I understand a bit of SQL. I've
>recently installed Oracle (Solaris) but have not configured it
>completely.
>Although it's not completely configured, I am going to have to start
>capturing user data (name, address, phone, etc) -- most likely some kind
>of delimited file (tab, semi-colon....).
>My question is this: is there some standard/prefered way to structure
>the file for import into Oracle??
>Any help, tips, suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.
>Alan Macaluso
Alan,
There is no standard way to structure the file for loading into Oracle. The
SQL*Loader program is flexible enough to be used with any delimeter, be it
spaces, tabs, commas, etc.
The best delimiter is a character that is not contained in any field. For
instance, if one field is a name, such as "Alan Macaluso" or an address, such
as "23 Broadway Ave", then a space would not be ideal as a delimiter.
You can specify when loading the delimiter by commands such as
TERMINATED BY ","
TERMINATED BY WHITESPACE (spaces and tabs)
ENCLOSED BY '"'
See the Oracle Utilities User's Guide for more specifics on SQL*Loader.
My personal preference is comma-delimited fields, with a line feed after each
record.
Good luck!
-Ari Kaplan
Independent Oracle DBA Consultant
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