The ORACLE_LOADER access driver which provides a set of access parameters unique to external tables of the type ORACLE_LOADER. You can use the access parameters to modify the default behavior of the access driver. The information you provide through the access driver ensures that data from the data source is processed so that it matches the definition of the external table.
See the following topics for more information:
Parallel Loading Considerations for the ORACLE_LOADER Access Driver
Performance Hints When Using the ORACLE_LOADER Access Driver
To successfully use the information in these topics, you must have some knowledge of the file format and record format (including character sets and field data types) of the data files on your platform. You must also know enough about SQL to be able to create an external table and perform queries against it.
You may find it helpful to use the EXTERNAL_TABLE=GENERATE_ONLY parameter in SQL*Loader to get the proper access parameters for a given SQL*Loader control file. When you specify GENERATE_ONLY, all the SQL statements needed to do the load using external tables, as described in the control file, are placed in the SQL*Loader log file. These SQL statements can be edited and customized. The actual load can be done later without the use of SQL*Loader by executing these statements in SQL*Plus.
Oracle Database Administrator's Guide for more information about creating and managing external tables
It is sometimes difficult to describe syntax without using other syntax that is not documented until later in the chapter. If it is not clear what some syntax is supposed to do, then you might want to skip ahead and read about that particular element.
In examples that show a CREATE TABLE...ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL statement followed by a sample of contents of the data file for the external table, the contents are not part of the CREATE TABLE statement, but are shown to help complete the example.
When identifiers (for example, column or table names) are specified in the external table access parameters, certain values are considered to be reserved words by the access parameter parser. If a reserved word is used as an identifier, then it must be enclosed in double quotation marks. See "Reserved Words for the ORACLE_LOADER Access Driver".