Oracle PL-SQL : Import multiple delimited files in

Question

I have multiple files (f1.log, f2.log, f3.log etc) Each file has the data in ; & = delimited format. (new lines are delimited by ; and fields are delimited by =) e.g.

data of f1:

1=a;2=b;3=c

data of f2:

1=p;2=q;3=r

I need to read all these files and import data into table in format:

filename  number  data

f1        1       a

f1        2       b

f1        3       c

f2        1       p
[...]

I am new to SQL. Can you please guide me, how can do it?

Answer 1

Use SQL*Loader to get the files into a table. Assuming you have a table created a bit like:

create table FLOG
(
  FILENAME   varchar2(1000)
 ,NUM        varchar2(1000)
 ,DATA       varchar2(1000)
);

Then you can use the following control file:

LOAD DATA
INFILE 'f1.log' "str ';'"
truncate INTO TABLE flog
fields terminated by '=' TRAILING NULLCOLS
(
   filename constant 'f1'
   ,num  char 
   ,data char 
)

However, you will need a different control file for each file. This can be done by making the control file dynamically using a shell script. A sample shell script can be:

cat >flog.ctl <<_EOF
LOAD DATA
INFILE '$1.log' "str ';'"
APPEND INTO TABLE flog
fields terminated by '=' TRAILING NULLCOLS
(
filename constant '$1'
,num  char
,data char
)
_EOF

sqlldr <username>/<password>@<instance> control=flog.ctl data=$1.log

Saved as flog.sh it can then be run like:

./flog.sh f1
./flog.sh f2