Specifying Delimiters

The boundaries of CHAR, datetime, interval, or numeric EXTERNAL fields can also be marked by delimiter characters contained in the input data record. The delimiter characters are specified using various combinations of the TERMINATED BY, ENCLOSED BY, and OPTIONALLY ENCLOSED BY clauses (the TERMINATED BY clause, if used, must come first). The delimiter specification comes after the data type specification.

For a description of how data is processed when various combinations of delimiter clauses are used, see "How Delimited Data Is Processed".

Note:

The RAW data type can also be marked by delimiters, but only if it is in an input LOBFILE, and only if the delimiter is TERMINATED BY EOF (end of file).