external table

Can we replace null values with banks in the external table instead of
spaces?

'missing field values are null' replaces with nulls.

any ideas?

Thanks.

>> Can we replace null values with banks in the external table instead of spaces? <<

Do you want FDIC insurance with that? 8-D

I think you mean blanks in which case, what is the difference between
blanks and spaces? The answer is none. The words are synonyms.

If you want to insert NULLs then you do not have to do anything special
in sqlldr. The columns which correspond to the missing data will be
inserted without data in these columns: data1,data2,,data4 <== data
col3 has no data and will be NULL

I am not sure what it is you are really trying to ask. Do you have
char columns in a table with spaces for data that you want to compare
to the external table data? Using varchar2 instead would get rid of
this problem or you can use some of the available functions like NVL,
COALESCE, NULLIF, ... to perform the comparison.

If the above does not point you in the right direction then post some
sample data, the external table definition, and anything else necessary
to allow someone to see and demonstrate what you are trying to do.

HTH -- Mark D Powell --

Mark, sorry there was a mistake in my original question. The question
would be

Can we replace null values with banks or spaces in the external table?

my test file is some thing like

1,name,country,,address,,
2,name,country,,address,,

I am able to create external table with 4,6,7 columns as NULL
I want the data in these columns as blank or spaces.

Thanks.

Create a view on top of ext table and replace null with space/whatever
you want.

create myview as select nvl(col1,' '), ...... from ext_table;

Anurag