You can use DBMS_CLOUD procedures to load data from files in a directory, including directories created on attached network file systems. You can also use these procedures to create external tables that you can use to query data.

1. Use an existing directory, create a directory, or attach a network file system for the source files.

   See Create Directory in Autonomous Database for information on creating a local directory on your Autonomous Database instance.

   See Attach Network File System to Autonomous Database for information on attaching a network file system that contains the data you want to load.

2. Load data with a DBMS_CLOUD procedure.

   For example:

   CREATE TABLE CHANNELS
      (channel_id CHAR(1),
       channel_desc VARCHAR2(20),
       channel_class VARCHAR2(20)
      );
   /
   
   BEGIN
    DBMS_CLOUD.COPY_DATA(
       table_name => 'CHANNELS',
       file_uri_list => 'MY_DIR:channels.txt',
       format => json_object('delimiter' value ',')
    );
   END;
   /
   

   The parameters are:

   • table_name: is the target table’s name.

   • file_uri_list: is a directory and file names specification for the source files you want to load.

     You can specify one directory and one or more file names or use a comma separated list of directories and file names. The format to specify a directory is:'MY_DIR:filename.ext'. By default the directory name MY_DIR is a database object and is case-insensitive. The file name is case sensitive.

     See Load Data from Directories in Autonomous Database for more details and example of specifying files in a directory. This also shows information on quoting the directory name to make the directory name case sensitive, and for information on using wildcards.

   • format: defines the options you can specify to describe the format of the source file, including whether the file is of type text, ORC, Parquet, or Avro.