VARIABLE size

The VARIABLE clause is used to indicate that the records have a variable length and that each record is preceded by a character string containing a number with the count of bytes for the record. The length of the character string containing the count field is the size argument that follows the VARIABLE parameter. Note that size indicates a count of bytes, not characters. The count at the beginning of the record must include any record termination characters, but it does not include the size of the count field itself. The number of bytes in the record termination characters can vary depending on how the file is created and on what platform it is created.

The following is an example of using VARIABLE records. It assumes there is a 1-byte newline character at the end of each record in the data file. It is followed by a sample of the data file that can be used to load it.

CREATE TABLE emp_load (first_name CHAR(15), last_name CHAR(20), year_of_birth CHAR(4))
  ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL (TYPE ORACLE_LOADER DEFAULT DIRECTORY ext_tab_dir
                         ACCESS PARAMETERS (RECORDS VARIABLE 2 FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
                                             (first_name CHAR(7),
                                              last_name CHAR(8),
                                              year_of_birth CHAR(4)))
                         LOCATION ('info.dat'));

21Alvin,Tolliver,1976,
19Kenneth,Baer,1963,
16Mary,Dube,1973,