18 External Tables Examples
Examples using external tables.
The following table lists examples of how to create external tables using various access drivers and methods.
Table 18-1 Where to Find Examples of Using External Tables
| For an Example That Shows ... | See ... |
|---|---|
Creating a partitioned external table using the ORACLE_LOADER access driver
|
Example 18-1 |
Using the ORACLE_DATAPUMP access driver to create a subpartitioned external table and how to use a virtual column to partition the table
|
Example 18-2 |
Creating a partitioned external table using the ORACLE_HDFS access driver
|
Example 18-3 |
Creating a partitioned external table using the ORACLE_HIVE access driver
|
Example 18-4 |
| Loading data from a CSV file, with no access parameters | Example 18-6 |
Loading data from a CSV file, with no access parameters and:
|
Example 18-7 |
Loading data from a CSV file with no access parameters and:
|
Example 18-8 |
| Loading data as in previous example except that only the first file has a row of field names | Example 18-9 |
| Loading data using two data files | Example 18-10 |
| Loading data when most fields in the data file use default settings for the access parameters but a few do not | Example 18-11 |
| Loading LOBs | Example 18-5 |
| How data type conversion can cause problems | Data Type Conversion During External Table Use |
- Using the ORACLE_LOADER Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
This topic describes using theORACLE_LOADERaccess driver to create partitioned external tables. - Using the ORACLE_DATAPUMP Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
The example in this section shows how to create a subpartitioned external table. - Using the ORACLE_HDFS Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
The example provided in this section shows how to create a partitioned external table using theORACLE_HDFSaccess driver. - Using the ORACLE_HIVE Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
To create a partitioned external table for anORACLE_HIVEtable, you need a partitioned Hive external table. - Loading LOBs From External Tables
External tables are particularly useful for loading large numbers of records from a single file, so that each record appears in its own row in the table. - Loading CSV Files From External Tables
This topic provides examples of how to load CSV files from external tables under various conditions.
Parent topic: External Tables
18.1 Using the ORACLE_LOADER Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
This topic describes using the ORACLE_LOADER access driver to create partitioned external tables.
Example 18-1 Using ORACLE_LOADER to Create a Partitioned External Table
This example assumes there are four data files with the following content:
p1a.dat:
1, AAAAA Plumbing,01372,
28, Sparkly Laundry,78907,
13, Andi's Doughnuts,54570,
p1b.dat:
51, DIY Supplies,61614,
87, Fast Frames,22201,
89, Friendly Pharmacy,89901,
p2.dat:
121, Pleasant Pets,33893,
130, Bailey the Bookmonger,99915,
105, Le Bistrot du Chat Noir,94114,
p3.dat:
210, The Electric Eel Diner,07101,
222, Everyt'ing General Store,80118,
231, Big Rocket Market,01754,There are three fields in the data file: CUSTOMER_NUMBER, CUSTOMER_NAME and POSTAL_CODE. The external table uses range partitioning on CUSTOMER_NUMBER to create three partitions.
-
Partition 1 is for
customer_numberless than 100 -
Partition 2 is for
customer_numberless than 200 -
Partition 3 is for
customer_numberless than 300
Note that the first partition has two data files while the other partitions only have one. The following is the output from SQLPlus for creating the file.
SQL> create table customer_list_xt
2 (CUSTOMER_NUMBER number, CUSTOMER_NAME VARCHAR2(50), POSTAL_CODE CHAR(5))
3 organization external
4 (type oracle_loader default directory def_dir1)
5 partition by range(CUSTOMER_NUMBER)
6 (
7 partition p1 values less than (100) location('p1a.dat', 'p1b.dat'),
8 partition p2 values less than (200) location('p2.dat'),
9 partition p3 values less than (300) location('p3.dat')
10 );
Table created.
SQL> The following is the output from SELECT * for the entire table:
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_xt
3 order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
13 Andi's Doughnuts 54570
28 Sparkly Laundry 78907
51 DIY Supplies 61614
87 Fast Frames 22201
89 Friendly Pharmacy 89901
105 Le Bistrot du Chat Noir 94114
121 Pleasant Pets 33893
130 Bailey the Bookmonger 99915
210 The Electric Eel Diner 07101
222 Everyt'ing General Store 80118
231 Big Rocket Market 01754
12 rows selected.
SQL> The following query should only read records from the first partition:
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_xt
3 where customer_number < 20
4 order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
13 Andi's Doughnuts 54570
2 rows selected.
SQL> The following query specifies the partition to read as part of the SELECT statement.
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_xt partition (p1)
3 order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
13 Andi's Doughnuts 54570
28 Sparkly Laundry 78907
51 DIY Supplies 61614
87 Fast Frames 22201
89 Friendly Pharmacy 89901
6 rows selected.
SQL> Parent topic: External Tables Examples
18.2 Using the ORACLE_DATAPUMP Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
The example in this section shows how to create a subpartitioned external table.
It also shows how to use a virtual column to partition the table.
Example 18-2 Using the ORACLE_DATAPUMP Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
In this example, the dump files used are the same as those created in the previous example using the ORACLE_LOADER access driver. However, in this example, in addition to partitioning the data using customer_number, the data is subpartitioned using postal_code. For every partition, there is a subpartition where the postal_code is less than 50000 and another subpartition for all other values of postal_code. With three partitions, each containing two subpartitions, a total of six files is required. To create the files, use the SQL CREATE TABLE AS SELECT statement to select the correct rows for the partition and then write those rows into the file for the ORACLE_DATAPUMP driver.
The following statement creates a file with data for the first subpartition (postal_code less than 50000) of partition p1 (customer_number less than 100).
SQL> create table customer_list_dp_p1_sp1_xt
2 organization external
3 (type oracle_datapump default directory def_dir1 location('p1_sp1.dmp'))
4 as
5 select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
6 from customer_list_xt partition (p1)
7 where to_number(postal_code) < 50000;
Table created.
SQL> This statement creates a file with data for the second subpartition (all other values for postal_code) of partition p1 (customer_number less than 100).
SQL> create table customer_list_dp_p1_sp2_xt
2 organization external
3 (type oracle_datapump default directory def_dir1 location('p1_sp2.dmp'))
4 as
5 select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
6 from customer_list_xt partition (p1)
7 where to_number(postal_code) >= 50000;
Table created. The files for other partitions are created in a similar fashion, as follows:
SQL> create table customer_list_dp_p2_sp1_xt
2 organization external
3 (type oracle_datapump default directory def_dir1 location('p2_sp1.dmp'))
4 as
5 select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
6 from customer_list_xt partition (p2)
7 where to_number(postal_code) < 50000;
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> create table customer_list_dp_p2_sp2_xt
2 organization external
3 (type oracle_datapump default directory def_dir1 location('p2_sp2.dmp'))
4 as
5 select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
6 from customer_list_xt partition (p2)
7 where to_number(postal_code) >= 50000;
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> create table customer_list_dp_p3_sp1_xt
2 organization external
3 (type oracle_datapump default directory def_dir1 location('p3_sp1.dmp'))
4 as
5 select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
6 from customer_list_xt partition (p3)
7 where to_number(postal_code) < 50000;
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> create table customer_list_dp_p3_sp2_xt
2 organization external
3 (type oracle_datapump default directory def_dir1 location('p3_sp2.dmp'))
4 as
5 select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
6 from customer_list_xt partition (p3)
7 where to_number(postal_code) >= 50000;
Table created.
SQL>
You can select from each of these external tables to verify that it has the data you intended to write out. After you have executed the SQL CREATE TABLE AS SELECT statement, you can drop these external tables.
To use a virtual column to partition the table, create the partitioned ORACLE_DATAPUMP table. Again, the table is partitioned on the customer_number column and subpartitioned on the postal_code column. The postal_code column is a character field that contains numbers, but this example partitions it based on the numeric value, not a character string. In order to do this, create a virtual column, postal_code_num, whose value is the postal_code field converted to a NUMBER data type. The SUBPARTITION clause uses the virtual column to determine the subpartition for the row.
SQL> create table customer_list_dp_xt
2 (customer_number number,
3 CUSTOMER_NAME VARCHAR2(50),
4 postal_code CHAR(5),
5 postal_code_NUM as (to_number(postal_code)))
6 organization external
7 (type oracle_datapump default directory def_dir1)
8 partition by range(customer_number)
9 subpartition by range(postal_code_NUM)
10 (
11 partition p1 values less than (100)
12 (subpartition p1_sp1 values less than (50000) location('p1_sp1.dmp'),
13 subpartition p1_sp2 values less than (MAXVALUE) location('p1_sp2.dmp')),
14 partition p2 values less than (200)
15 (subpartition p2_sp1 values less than (50000) location('p2_sp1.dmp'),
16 subpartition p2_sp2 values less than (MAXVALUE) location('p2_sp2.dmp')),
17 partition p3 values less than (300)
18 (subpartition p3_sp1 values less than (50000) location('p3_sp1.dmp'),
19 subpartition p3_sp2 values less than (MAXVALUE) location('p3_sp2.dmp'))
20 );
Table created.
SQL> If you select all rows, then the data returned is the same as was returned in the previous example using the ORACLE_LOADER access driver.
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_dp_xt
3 order by customer_number;
customer_number CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
13 Andi's Doughnuts 54570
28 Sparkly Laundry 78907
51 DIY Supplies 61614
87 Fast Frames 22201
89 Friendly Pharmacy 89901
105 Le Bistrot du Chat Noir 94114
121 Pleasant Pets 33893
130 Bailey the Bookmonger 99915
210 The Electric Eel Diner 07101
222 Everyt'ing General Store 80118
231 Big Rocket Market 01754
12 rows selected.
SQL> The WHERE clause can limit the rows read to a subpartition. The following query should only read the first subpartition of the first partition.
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_dp_xt
3 where customer_number < 20 and postal_code_NUM < 39998
4 order by customer_number;
customer_number CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
1 row selected.
SQL> You could also specify a specific subpartition in the query, as follows:
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_dp_xt subpartition (p2_sp2) order by customer_number;
customer_number CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
105 Le Bistrot du Chat Noir 94114
130 Bailey the Bookmonger 99915
2 rows selected.
SQL> Parent topic: External Tables Examples
18.3 Using the ORACLE_HDFS Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
The example provided in this section shows how to create a partitioned external table using the ORACLE_HDFS access driver.
Example 18-3 Using the ORACLE_HDFS Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
In this example there are four data files stored in HDFS directory path "hdfs_pet/".
p1a.dat
1, AAAAA Plumbing,01372,
28, Sparkly Laundry,07101,
13, Andi'''s Doughnuts,01372,
p1b.dat
51, DIY Supplies,07101,
87, Fast Frames,01754,
89, Friendly Pharmacy,01372,
p2.dat
121, Pleasant Pets,01754,
130, Bailey the Bookmonger,01754,
105, Le Bistrot du Chat Noir,01754,
p3.dat
210, The Electric Eel Diner,07101,
222, Everyt'ing General Store,01372,
231, Big Rocket Market,01754,
For the purposes of this example, the data files are written to the HDFS directory using the following:
hadoop dfs -mkdir hdfs_pet
hadoop dfs -put p1a.dat hdfs_pet/p1a.dat
hadoop dfs -put p1b.dat hdfs_pet/p1b.dat
hadoop dfs -put p2.dat hdfs_pet/p2.dat
hadoop dfs -put p3.dat hdfs_pet/p3.dat
The following is the CREATE TABLE command to create the partitioned external table:
create table customer_list_hdfs
(CUSTOMER_NUMBER number, CUSTOMER_NAME VARCHAR2(50), POSTAL_CODE CHAR(5))
organization external
(type oracle_hdfs
default directory def_dir1
access parameters
(com.oracle.bigdata.cluster = hadoop_cl_1
com.oracle.bigdata.rowformat = delimited fields terminated by ','))
partition by range(CUSTOMER_NUMBER)
(
partition p1 values less than (100) location('hdfs_pet/p1a.dat', 'hdfs_pet/p1b.dat'),
partition p2 values less than (200) location('hdfs_pet/p2.dat'),
partition p3 values less than (300) location('hdfs_pet/p3.dat')
); The following query shows a SELECT operation from the external table:
SQL> select * from customer_list_hdfs order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
13 Andi's Doughnuts 01372
28 Sparkly Laundry 07101
51 DIY Supplies 07101
87 Fast Frames 01754
89 Friendly Pharmacy 01372
105 Le Bistrot du Chat Noir 01754
121 Pleasant Pets 01754
130 Bailey the Bookmonger 01754
210 The Electric Eel Diner 07101
222 Everyt'ing General Store 01372
231 Big Rocket Market 01754
12 rows selected.
SQL> You can also execute queries with a WHERE clause that excludes partitions that cannot match the conditions in the WHERE clause from being read, as follows:
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_hdfs
3 where customer_number < 20
4 order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
13 Andi's Doughnuts 01372
2 rows selected.
SQL> You could also specify the partition you want to read as part of the FROM clause, as shown in the following:
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_hdfs partition (p3)
3 order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER CUSTOMER_NAME POSTA
--------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
210 The Electric Eel Diner 07101
222 Everyt'ing General Store 01372
231 Big Rocket Market 01754
3 rows selected.
SQL> Parent topic: External Tables Examples
18.4 Using the ORACLE_HIVE Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
To create a partitioned external table for an ORACLE_HIVE table, you need a partitioned Hive external table.
Then you need to use the PL/SQL procedure DBMS_HADOOP.CREATE_EXTDDL_FOR_HIVE(). Additionally, this example creates the partitioned Hive table from the HDFS files used in the previous example. Before the partitioned Hive table can be created, you must create an HDFS directory in which to store the data.
Example 18-4 Using the ORACLE_HIVE Access Driver to Create Partitioned External Tables
This examples creates the Hive table using the data files from the previous example showing how to use ORACLE_HDFS to create partitioned external tables.. The following commands are all performed inside of the Hive CLI so they use Hive syntax.
First, use Hive to create a Hive external table on top of the HDFS data files, as follows:
create external table customer_list_no_part ( customer_number int,
customer_name string,
postal_code string)
row format delimited fields terminated by ','
stored as textfile
location '/user/doc/hdfs_pet'Then execute the following commands to tell Hive to create the partitions dynamically:
set hive.exec.dynamic.partition=true
set hive.exec.dynamic.partition.mode=nonstrict
Create the partitioned Hive table:
create table customer_list( CUSTOMER_NUMBER int,
CUSTOMER_NAME string)
partitioned by (postal_code string)
row format delimited
fields terminated by '\t'
location '/user/doc/doc_pet'Populate the hive table with data from table customer_list_no_part. This should create the files for each partition with the correct rows.
insert overwrite table customer_list partition (postal_code) select * from customer_list_no_partThe Hive customer_list table is populated with the rows. as shown in the following query:
select * from customer_list order by customer_number
1 AAAAA Plumbing 01372
13 Andi's Doughnuts 01372
28 Sparkly Laundry 07101
51 DIY Supplies 07101
87 Fast Frames 01754
89 Friendly Pharmacy 01372
105 Le Bistrot du Chat Noir 01754
121 Pleasant Pets 01754
130 Bailey the Bookmonger 01754
210 The Electric Eel Diner 07101
222 Everyt'ing General Store 01372
231 Big Rocket Market 01754
Now you can go back to SQL*Plus to create the partitioned external table inside the Oracle database. First, use PL/SQL function DBMS_HADOOP.CREATE_EXTDDL_FOR_HIVE() to create the external table. The arguments are as follows:
-
the name of the Hadoop cluster
-
the name of the Hive user that owns the table
-
the name of the partitioned Hive table
-
a boolean value indicating whether you want the partition columns in the Hive table to be included as columns in the external table
-
the name of the partitioned
ORACLE_HIVEtable that is created -
a boolean value indicating whether the
CREATEDDL is executed -
a
CLOBcontains theCREATEDDL string
This example gets the CLOB for the CREATE DDL string and uses the DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE() procedure to write it. Setting SERVEROUTPUT ON tells SQL*Plus to display the data from the DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE() procedure. Setting LINESIZE to 132 makes sure there are no line breaks at odd places when displaying the data from the DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE() procedure.
SQL> SET LINESIZE 132
SQL> SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
SQL>
SQL> DECLARE
2 DDLtxt clob;
3 BEGIN
4 dbms_hadoop.create_extddl_for_hive
5 ('hadoop_cl_1', 'default', 'customer_list',
6 TRUE, 'CUSTOMER_LIST_HIVE', TRUE, DDLtxt);
7 dbms_output.put_line('DDL Text is : ' || DDLtxt);
8 END;
9 /
External table successfully created.
DDL Text is : CREATE TABLE "DOC"."CUSTOMER_LIST_HIVE" (customer_number NUMBER, customer_name VARCHAR2(4000), postal_code
VARCHAR2(4000)) ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
(TYPE ORACLE_HIVE
DEFAULT DIRECTORY DEFAULT_DIR
ACCESS PARAMETERS
(
com.oracle.bigdata.cluster=hadoop_cl_1
com.oracle.bigdata.tablename=default.customer_list)
) REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED
PARTITION BY
LIST (postal_code)
(
PARTITION "P_293620257" VALUES ('01372'),
PARTITION "P_292175793" VALUES ('01754'),
PARTITION "P_717839126"
VALUES ('07101')
)
Because Hive does not specify a maximum character count for STRING columns, the column definition for the external table is VARCHAR2(4000). If you want a smaller length for some columns, you can call the DBMS_HADOOP.CREATE_EXTDDL_FOR_HIVE() procedure and specify that you do not want to execute the CREATE DDL. Then, you can edit the CREATE statement returned in the CLOB to set the length of the VARCHAR2 columns to a more appropriate value.
Also, note that the numbers in the partition name can vary.
Now that the table is created, executing a SELECT * statement returns all of the rows. Note that the SET LINESIZE executed above means that SQL*Plus uses 132 character for customer_name and postal_code.
SQL> select * from customer_list_hive order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER
---------------
CUSTOMER_NAME
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------POSTAL_CODE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1
AAAAA Plumbing
01372
13
Andi's Doughnuts
01372
28
Sparkly Laundry
07101
51
DIY Supplies
07101
87
Fast Frames
01754
89
Friendly Pharmacy
01372
105
Le Bistrot du Chat Noir
01754
121
Pleasant Pets
01754
130
Bailey the Bookmonger
01754
210
The Electric Eel Diner
07101
222
Everyt'ing General Store
01372
231
Big Rocket Market
01754
12 rows selected.
SQL>
SQL execution uses the partition information to prune partitions that do not match the criteria in the WHERE clause.
SQL> select customer_number, customer_name, postal_code
2 from customer_list_hive
3 where postal_code = '01754'
4 order by customer_number;
CUSTOMER_NUMBER
---------------
CUSTOMER_NAME
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------POSTAL_CODE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 87
Fast Frames
01754
105
Le Bistrot du Chat Noir
01754
121
Pleasant Pets
01754
130
Bailey the Bookmonger
01754
231
Big Rocket Market
01754
5 rows selected.
SQL> Parent topic: External Tables Examples
18.5 Loading LOBs From External Tables
External tables are particularly useful for loading large numbers of records from a single file, so that each record appears in its own row in the table.
The following example shows how to perform such a load.
Example 18-5 Loading LOBs From External Tables
Suppose you define an external table, my_ext_table, as follows:
CREATE TABLE my_ext_table ( id NUMBER, author VARCHAR2(30), created DATE, text CLOB )
ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (
TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
DEFAULT DIRECTORY MY_DIRECTORY
ACCESS PARAMETERS (
RECORDS DELIMITED BY 0x'0A'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
( id CHAR(10),
author CHAR(30),
created DATE "YYYY-MM-DD",
text CHAR(131071)
)
)
LOCATION (
MY_DIRECTORY:'external.dmp'
)
);The contents of the external.dmp file are as follows:
1,Roger,2015-08-08,The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
2,John,2012-01-01,"The angry aligator, acting alone, ate the antelope"The second line in the dump file requires quotation marks around the full text string; otherwise the field would be terminated at the comma.
Note:
Although not a problem in the dump file being used in this example, if something in the full text string contained quotation marks, then you would enclose it in another set of quotation marks, as follows for the wordalone: 2,John,2012-01-01,"The angry aligator, acting ""alone"", ate the antelope"If the full text might contain the record delimiter character (0x'0A', or newline), you can specify a separate file for each document. External tables do not support filler fields, so instead you must use a COLUMN TRANSFORMS clause to specify that the fname field contains the name of the external file:
DROP TABLE my_ext_table2;
CREATE TABLE my_ext_table2 ( id NUMBER, author VARCHAR2(30), created DATE, text CLOB )
ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (
TYPE ORACLE_LOADER
DEFAULT DIRECTORY MY_DIRECTORY
ACCESS PARAMETERS (
RECORDS DELIMITED BY 0x'0A'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY '"'
( id CHAR(10),
author CHAR(30),
created DATE "YYYY-MM-DD",
fname char(100)
)
COLUMN TRANSFORMS (text FROM LOBFILE(fname) FROM (MY_DIRECTORY) )
)
LOCATION (
'loader.txt'
)
);
Note:
TheFROM (MY_DIRECTORY) clause is not actually necessary since it has already been specified as the default directory. However it is being shown here for example purposes because if the loader.txt file and the individual CLOB files were in different locations, it would be needed.
Once the data is in an external table, you can either leave it there and perform normal table operations (DML and most DDL) on the external table, or you can use the external table as a staging table to get the data into a normal table. To create a new normal (non-external) table, you could use the following SQL statement:
CREATE TABLE normaltable AS SELECT * FROM externaltable;You can similarly use the following SQL statement to insert data into the new normal table:
INSERT INTO normaltable AS SELECT * FROM externaltable;Parent topic: External Tables Examples
18.6 Loading CSV Files From External Tables
This topic provides examples of how to load CSV files from external tables under various conditions.
Some of the examples build on previous examples.
Example 18-6 Loading Data From CSV Files With No Access Parameters
This example requires the following conditions:
-
The order of the columns in the table must match the order of fields in the data file.
-
The records in the data file must be terminated by newline.
-
The field in the records in the data file must be separated by commas (if field values are enclosed in quotation marks, then the quotation marks are not removed from the field).
-
There cannot be any newline characters in the middle of a field.
The data for the external table is as follows:
events_all.csv
Winter Games,10-JAN-2010,10,
Hockey Tournament,18-MAR-2009,3,
Baseball Expo,28-APR-2009,2,
International Football Meeting,2-MAY-2009,14,
Track and Field Finale,12-MAY-2010,3,
Mid-summer Swim Meet,5-JUL-2010,4,
Rugby Kickoff,28-SEP-2009,6,The definition of the external table is as follows:
SQL> CREATE TABLE EVENTS_XT_1
2 (EVENT varchar2(30),
3 START_DATE date,
4 LENGTH number)
5 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
6 (default directory def_dir1 location ('events_all.csv'));
Table created.
The following shows a SELECT operation on the external table EVENTS_XT_1:
SQL> select START_DATE, EVENT, LENGTH
2 from EVENTS_XT_1
3 order by START_DATE;
START_DAT EVENT LENGTH
--------- ------------------------------ ----------
18-MAR-09 Hockey Tournament 3
28-APR-09 Baseball Expo 2
02-MAY-09 International Football Meeting 14
28-SEP-09 Rugby Kickoff 6
10-JAN-10 Winter Games 10
12-MAY-10 Track and Field Finale 3
05-JUL-10 Mid-summer Swim Meet 4
7 rows selected.
SQL> Example 18-7 Default Date Mask For the Session Does Not Match the Format of Data Fields in the Data File
This example is the same as the previous example, except that the default date mask for the session does not match the format of date fields in the data file. In the example below, the session format for dates is DD-Mon-YYYY whereas the format of dates in the data file is MM/DD/YYYY. If the external table definition does not have a date mask, then the ORACLE_LOADER access driver uses the session date mask to attempt to convert the character data in the data file to a date data type. ou specify an access parameter for the date mask to use for all fields in the data file that are used to load date columns in the external table.
The following is the contents of the data file for the external table:
events_all_date_fmt.csv
Winter Games,1/10/2010,10
Hockey Tournament,3/18/2009,3
Baseball Expo,4/28/2009,2
International Football Meeting,5/2/2009,14
Track and Field Finale,5/12/2009,3
Mid-summer Swim Meet,7/5/2010,4
Rugby Kickoff,9/28/2009,6The definition of the external table is as follows:
SQL> CREATE TABLE EVENTS_XT_2
2 (EVENT varchar2(30),
3 START_DATE date,
4 LENGTH number)
5 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
6 (default directory def_dir1
7 access parameters (fields date_format date mask "mm/dd/yyyy")
8 location ('events_all_date_fmt.csv'));
Table created.
SQL> The following shows a SELECT operation on the external table EVENTS_XT_2:
SQL> select START_DATE, EVENT, LENGTH
2 from EVENTS_XT_2
3 order by START_DATE;
START_DAT EVENT LENGTH
--------- ------------------------------ ----------
18-MAR-09 Hockey Tournament 3
28-APR-09 Baseball Expo 2
02-MAY-09 International Football Meeting 14
12-MAY-09 Track and Field Finale 3
28-SEP-09 Rugby Kickoff 6
10-JAN-10 Winter Games 10
05-JUL-10 Mid-summer Swim Meet 4
7 rows selected.
Example 18-8 Data is Split Across Two Data Files
This example is that same as the first example in this section except for the following:
-
The data is split across two data files.
-
Each data file has a row containing the names of the fields.
-
Some fields in the data file are enclosed by quotation marks.
The FIELD NAMES ALL FILES tells the access driver that the first row in each file contains a row with names of the fields in the file. The access driver matches the names of the fields to the names of the columns in the table. This means the order of the fields in the file can be different than the order of the columns in the table. If a field name in the first row is not enclosed in quotation marks, then the access driver uppercases the name before trying to find the matching column name in the table. If the field name is enclosed in quotation marks, then it does not change the case of the names before looking for a matching name.
Because the fields are enclosed in quotation marks, the access parameter requires the CSV WITHOUT EMBEDDED RECORD TERMINATORS clause. This clause states the following:
-
Fields in the data file are separated by commas.
-
If the fields are enclosed in double quotation marks, then the access driver removes them from the field value.
-
There are no new lines embedded in the field values (this option allows the access driver to skip some checks that can slow the performance of
SELECToperations on the external table).
The two data files are as follows:
events_1.csv
"EVENT","START DATE","LENGTH",
"Winter Games", "10-JAN-2010", "10"
"Hockey Tournament", "18-MAR-2009", "3"
"Baseball Expo", "28-APR-2009", "2"
"International Football Meeting", "2-MAY-2009", "14"events_2.csv
Event,Start date,Length,
Track and Field Finale, 12-MAY-2009, 3
Mid-summer Swim Meet, 5-JUL-2010, 4
Rugby Kickoff, 28-SEP-2009, 6The external table definition is as follows:
SQL> CREATE TABLE EVENTS_XT_3
2 ("START DATE" date,
3 EVENT varchar2(30),
4 LENGTH number)
5 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
6 (default directory def_dir1
7 access parameters (records field names all files
8 fields csv without embedded record terminators)
9 location ('events_1.csv', 'events_2.csv'));
Table created.
The following shows the result of a SELECT operation on the EVENTS_XT_3 external table:
SQL> select "START DATE", EVENT, LENGTH
2 from EVENTS_XT_3
3 order by "START DATE";
START DAT EVENT LENGTH
--------- ------------------------------ ----------
18-MAR-09 Hockey Tournament 3
28-APR-09 Baseball Expo 2
02-MAY-09 International Football Meeting 14
12-MAY-09 Track and Field Finale 3
28-SEP-09 Rugby Kickoff 6
10-JAN-10 Winter Games 10
05-JUL-10 Mid-summer Swim Meet 4
7 rows selected.
Example 18-9 Data Is Split Across Two Files and Only the First File Has a Row of Field Names
This example is the same as example 3 except that only the 1st file has a row of field names. The first row of the second file has real data. The RECORDS clause changes to "field names first file".
The two data files are as follows:
events_1.csv (same as for example 3)
"EVENT","START DATE","LENGTH",
"Winter Games", "10-JAN-2010", "10"
"Hockey Tournament", "18-MAR-2009", "3"
"Baseball Expo", "28-APR-2009", "2"
"International Football Meeting", "2-MAY-2009", "14"events_2_no_header_row.csv
Track and Field Finale, 12-MAY-2009, 3
Mid-summer Swim Meet, 5-JUL-2010, 4
Rugby Kickoff, 28-SEP-2009, 6
The external table definition is as follows:
SQL> CREATE TABLE EVENTS_XT_4
2 ("START DATE" date,
3 EVENT varchar2(30),
4 LENGTH number)
5 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
6 (default directory def_dir1
7 access parameters (records field names first file
8 fields csv without embedded record terminators)
9 location ('events_1.csv', 'events_2_no_header_row.csv'));
Table created.
The following shows a SELECT operation on the EVENTS_XT_4 external table:
SQL> select "START DATE", EVENT, LENGTH
2 from EVENTS_XT_4
3 order by "START DATE";
START DAT EVENT LENGTH
--------- ------------------------------ ----------
18-MAR-09 Hockey Tournament 3
28-APR-09 Baseball Expo 2
02-MAY-09 International Football Meeting 14
12-MAY-09 Track and Field Finale 3
28-SEP-09 Rugby Kickoff 6
10-JAN-10 Winter Games 10
05-JUL-10 Mid-summer Swim Meet 4
7 rows selected.
Example 18-10 The Order of the Fields in the File Match the Order of the Columns in the Table
This example has the following conditions:
-
The order of the fields in the file match the order of the columns in the table.
-
Fields are separated by newlines and are optionally enclosed in double quotation marks.
-
There are fields that have embedded newlines in their value and those fields are enclosed in double quotation marks.
The contents of the data files are as follows:
event_contacts_1.csv
Winter Games, 10-JAN-2010, Ana Davis,
Hockey Tournament, 18-MAR-2009, "Daniel Dube
Michel Gagnon",
Baseball Expo, 28-APR-2009, "Robert Brown"
Internation Football Meeting, 2-MAY-2009,"Pete Perez
Randall Barnes
Melissa Gray",
event_contacts_2.csv
Track and Field Finale, 12-MAY-2009, John Taylor,
Mid-summer Swim Meet, 5-JUL-2010, "Louise Stewart
Cindy Sanders"
Rugby Kickoff, 28-SEP-2009, "Don Nguyen
Ray Lavoie"The table definition is as follows. The CSV WITH EMBEDDED RECORD TERMINATORS clause tells the access driver how to handle fields enclosed by double quotation marks that also have embedded new lines.
SQL> CREATE TABLE EVENTS_CONTACTS_1
2 (EVENT varchar2(30),
3 START_DATE date,
4 CONTACT varchar2(120))
5 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
6 (default directory def_dir1
7 access parameters (fields CSV with embedded record terminators)
8 location ('event_contacts_1.csv', 'event_contacts_2.csv'));
Table created.
The following shows the result of a SELECT operation on the EVENT_CONTACTS_1 external table:
SQL> column contact format a30
SQL> select START_DATE, EVENT, CONTACT
2 from EVENTS_CONTACTS_1
3 order by START_DATE;
START_DAT EVENT CONTACT
--------- ------------------------------ ------------------------------
18-MAR-09 Hockey Tournament Daniel Dube
Michel Gagnon
28-APR-09 Baseball Expo Robert Brown
02-MAY-09 Internation Football Meeting Pete Perez
Randall Barnes
Melissa Gray
12-MAY-09 Track and Field Finale John Taylor
28-SEP-09 Rugby Kickoff Don Nguyen
Ray Lavoie
10-JAN-10 Winter Games Ana Davis
05-JUL-10 Mid-summer Swim Meet Louise Stewart
Cindy Sanders
7 rows selected.
Example 18-11 Not All Fields in the Data File Use Default Settings for the Access Parameters
This example shows what to do when most field in the data file use default settings for the access parameters but a few do not. Instead of listing the setting for all fields, this example shows how you can set attributes for just the fields that are different from the default. The differences are as follows:
-
there are two date fields, one of which uses the session format, but
registration_deadlineuses a different format -
registration_deadlinealso uses a value ofNONEto indicate a null value.
The content of the data file is as follows:
events_reg.csv
Winter Games,10-JAN-2010,10,12/1/2009,
Hockey Tournament,18-MAR-2009,3,3/11/2009,
Baseball Expo,28-APR-2009,2,NONE
International Football Meeting,2-MAY-2009,14,3/1/2009
Track and Field Finale,12-MAY-2010,3,5/10/010
Mid-summer Swim Meet,5-JUL-2010,4,6/20/2010
Rugby Kickoff,28-SEP-2009,6,NONE The table definition is as follows. The ALL FIELDS OVERRIDE clause allows you to specify information for that field while using defaults for the remaining fields. The remaining fields have a data type of CHAR(255) and the field data is terminated by a comma with a trimming option of LDRTRIM.
SQL> CREATE TABLE EVENT_REGISTRATION_1
2 (EVENT varchar2(30),
3 START_DATE date,
4 LENGTH number,
5 REGISTRATION_DEADLINE date)
6 ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL
7 (default directory def_dir1
8 access parameters
9 (fields all fields override
10 (REGISTRATION_DEADLINE CHAR (10) DATE_FORMAT DATE MASK "mm/dd/yyyy"
11 NULLIF REGISTRATION_DEADLINE = 'NONE'))
12 location ('events_reg.csv'));
Table created.
The following shows the result of a SELECT operation on the EVENT_REGISTRATION_1 external table:
SQL> select START_DATE, EVENT, LENGTH, REGISTRATION_DEADLINE
2 from EVENT_REGISTRATION_1
3 order by START_DATE;
START_DAT EVENT LENGTH REGISTRAT
--------- ------------------------------ ---------- ---------
18-MAR-09 Hockey Tournament 3 11-MAR-09
28-APR-09 Baseball Expo 2
02-MAY-09 International Football Meeting 14 01-MAR-09
28-SEP-09 Rugby Kickoff 6
10-JAN-10 Winter Games 10 01-DEC-09
12-MAY-10 Track and Field Finale 3 10-MAY-10
05-JUL-10 Mid-summer Swim Meet 4 20-JUN-10
7 rows selected.
Parent topic: External Tables Examples