Introduction

SQL*Loader, Oracle's utility program, was used to load data into an Oracle table. The program needed two files, a data file and a control file. The control file with the file extension .ctl controlled the file to be saved, errors in loading, and so forth. SQL*Loader also required the SQL*Net program. It also created a log file, giving further information on the loading. All this is simplified in Oracle 10G XE. If you know Cntr+C and Cntr+V, your loading is almost finished.

This tutorial is about loading an Excel spread sheet into an Oracle table. It's very easy and you will be surprised at its simplicity. The tutorial also shows what can go wrong and how to fix it in a simple case. The tutorial uses a table (Employees) from the Northwind database.

Creating a test spread sheet

A test spread sheet was created by exporting a table from Northwind.mdb to an Excel file. The is easily accomplished from File-->Export which brings up the window Export Table 'Employees' to... , at which point you use the SaveAsType drop-down to pick up the Microsoft Excel 97-2003 *xls format. Give it a name and it will be saved to the same default directory, C:MY Documents. The exported table had the design parameters shown in the next picture. The reason for choosing this file was that it had different data types with different formatting options.