Apress.Expert.Oracle.Database.Architecture.9i.and.10g.Programming.Techniques.and.Solutions.Sep.2005

CHAPTER 15 ■ DATA LOADING AND UNLOADING 659
For example, if we alter our DEPT table again:
ops$tkyte@ORA10G> alter table dept add last_updated date;
Table altered.
we can load it with the following control file:
LOAD DATA
INFILE *
INTO TABLE DEPT
REPLACE
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
(DEPTNO,
DNAME,
LOC,
LAST_UPDATED date 'dd/mm/yyyy'
)
BEGINDATA
10,Sales,Virginia,1/5/2000
20,Accounting,Virginia,21/6/1999
30,Consulting,Virginia,5/1/2000
40,Finance,Virginia,15/3/2001
The resulting DEPT table will look like this:
ops$tkyte@ORA10G> select * from dept;
DEPTNO DNAME LOC LAST_UPDA
---------- -------------- ------------- ---------
10 Sales Virginia 01-MAY-00
20 Accounting Virginia 21-JUN-99
30 Consulting Virginia 05-JAN-00
40 Finance Virginia 15-MAR-01
It is that easy. Just supply the format in the control file and SQLLDR will convert the date
for us. In some cases, it might be appropriate to use a more powerful SQL function. For example,
if your input file contains dates in many different formats: sometimes with the time
component, sometimes without; sometimes in DD-MON-YYYY format; sometimes in DD/MM/YYYY
format; and so on. You’ll learn in the next section how to use functions in SQLLDR to overcome
these challenges.
How Do I Load Data Using Functions?
In this section, you’ll see how to refer to functions while loading data.
Using functions in SQLLDR is very easy once you understand how SQLLDR builds its
INSERT statement. To have a function applied to a field in a SQLLDR script, simply add it to the
control file in double quotes. For example, say you have the DEPT table from earlier, and you
would like to make sure the data being loaded is in uppercase. You could use the following
control file to load it: