1. Oracle SQL Loader Utility
Abstract
The document is aimed at describing the procedure to be followed while working with SQL
Loader Utility. Using the tool, we can load the external data coming in various formats like
excel sheet, flat text file, comma Separated Variable (.csv) files and so on.
Case History
Database Administrators may come across some situation, where they need to load the
external data coming from other sources into oracle tables. Before loading the data, they
can restrict/limit/skip the loading with the usage of Control file (.ctl)
Analysis
External data will be of two types like Fixed Data and Variable Data and depending upon the
type of the data, we need to generate the creation of the control file which in turn will
convert the utility tool functioned as per the requirement and ensure that only the qualified
or eligible data is loaded into the the Tables.
Introduction: As discussed above, the data source will be in the form of various types like
.csv and flat text files and hence the loading of the data into the tables has been classified
into types namely Fixed Width and Varied data.
Terminology:
1) Control File: Control file describes the actions to be done by the sql loader and we can use
any text editor to writing a control file. Usually this will be followed by .ctl file extension.
2) In File: In file or input file is the name of the data source file like .csv or .txt which will be
given as a input for the control file to look for the data.
3) Bad file: Bad file is the file which records the rows which got failed during the loading
operation and the cause for the failure. This is a Optional file to provide while executing the
sql loader at the command line
4) Discard File: Discard file is again an optional file, which will store the rows that are not
qualified during the load operation, when a condition like where orwhen has been specified
as a part of the control file.
5) Loading Options: INSERT, APPEND, REPLACE and TRUNCATE
Insert : Loads rows only if the target table is empty.
Append : Load rows if the target table is empty or not.
Replace : First deletes all the rows in the table and then load rows
Truncate : First truncates the table and then load rows.
Varied Data Format ( .csv format or .txt files)
Example:
“10”,”James”,”1000”,”Finance”
“20”,”Stuart”,”2000”,”Design”
“30”,”Mclean”,”3000”,”Media”
“40”,”Sandra”,”8000”,”Architect”
“50”,”Natalie”,”9000”,”Solutions”
Now we have to generate a control file to describe the loading actions for sqlloader utility to
load the data into the table EMP as illustrated below:
load data

2. infile „C:mineemp_data.csv‟
insert into table emp
fields terminated by “,” optionally enclosed by `” ` TRAILING NULLCOLS
( table_column1,
Table_column2,
Table_column3,
Table_column4
)
Note: TRAILING NULLCOLS means if the last column is null then treat this as null value,
otherwise, SQL LOADER will treat the record as bad if the last column is null.
After you have written the control file save it and call SQL Loader utility by typing the
following command
$ sqlldr userid= scott/tiger control=emp.ctl log=emp_load.log
After you have executed the above command SQL Loader will shows you the output
describing how many rows it has loaded.
The LOG option of sql loader specifies where the log file of this sql loader session should be
created. The log file contains all actions which SQL loader has performed i.e. how many
rows were loaded, how many were rejected and how much time is taken to load the rows
and etc. You have to view this file for any errors encountered while running SQL Loader.
Fixed Data Format ( .dat file)
Example:
10 James 1000 Finance
20 Stuart 2000 Design
30 Mclean 3000 Media
10 Sandra 8000 Architect
20 Natalie 9000 Solutions
SOLUTION:
Steps :-
First Open the file in a text editor and count the length of fields, for above example,
employee number is from 1st position to 2nd position, employee name is from 4thposition to
10th position, Salary column is from 11th position to 15th position and finally Department
column from 16th postion to 21st Position.
load data
infile „C:mineemp_data.dat‟
insert into table emp
(
table_column1 position(01:02) integer external,
table_column2 position(03:10) char,
table_column3 position(11:15) integer external
table_column4 position(16:21) char
);
Note:- The datatypes (INTEGER EXTERNAL, CHAR, DECIMAL EXTERNAL) identify the
datatype of data fields in the file, not of corresponding columns in the table.
After writing the control file save it and initiate the SQL Loader utility by typing the following
command

3. $ sqlldr userid= scott/tiger control=emp.ctl log=emp_load.log
Loading Data into Multiple Tables using WHEN condition
We can simultaneously load data into multiple tables within the same session and using
WHEN condition to load only specified rows which meets a particular condition (only equal to
“=” and not equal to “<>” conditions are allowed).
Considering the above mentioned data, our requirement is to load the rows having
department number equals =10 into one table and department number not equal to <>
10 to go into another table.
load data
infile „C:mineemp_data.dat‟
append into table scott.emp1
when (dept_no=‟ 10‟)
(
table_column1 position(01:02) integer external,
table_column2 position(03:10) char,
table_column3 position(11:15) integer external
table_column4 position(16:21) char
)
Into table scott.emp2
when (dept_no<>‟ 10 ‟)
(
table_column1 position(01:02) integer external,
table_column2 position(03:10) char,
table_column3 position(11:15) integer external
table_column4 position(16:21) char
);
Note:- SQL Loader help can be obtained by typing the command
$sqlldr help=Y
userid ORACLE username/password
control Control file name
log Log file name
bad Bad file name
data Data file name
discard Discard file name
discardmax Number of discards to allow
skip Number of logical records to skip
load Number of logical records to load
errors Number of errors to allow
bindsize Size of conventional path bind array in bytes
silent Suppress messages during run direct, use direct path
parfile parameter file: name of file that contains parameter specifications
parallel do parallel load
file File to allocate extents from
readsize Size of Read buffer