I need to insert NULL into the table whenever the SQL*Loader encounters a bad date (0000-00-00 00:00:00) while reading a .csv file.
The bad date provided in the csv is always 0000-00-00 00:00:00.
I need help figuring out the case for it that handles both a bad date and a correct date.
There are two cases:
Date in the correct format (YYYY/MM/DD hh24:mi:ss)
Date in the bad format (0000-00-00 00:00:00)
Initially I had a simple statement in SQL control file as below, now I need to add the case to handle bad date as well.
START_DATE DATE "YYYY/MM/DD hh24:mi:ss" NULLIF (START_DATE = "NULL").
I need an SQL*Loader statement that handles both the above cases.
All data in a file is essentially a string until validated as a different datatype. So, you can treat it as a string for the bad data before converting it into a date:
START_DATE "TO_DATE(NULLIF(:START_DATE, '0000-00-00 00:00:00'), 'yyyy/mm/dd hh24:mi:ss')"
I'm a little concerned that the format of the "bad" date is different to that of the good date. It indicates something is going on that you're maybe not aware of for instance the data coming from two different systems or this field not being stored as a date in the source system.
If possible, I'd double check how this data is being constructed and what the intended meaning of the bad date is.
Related
I'm trying to store date type data from Oracle FORMS with format mask as like DD-MM-YYYY but every time it store as like DD/MON/YY.
I already alter session with NLS_DATE_FORMAT, but result is as same as before.
Oracle internal date format that is written in the table is something you can't change in any way, but, in the same time, it is irrelevant. If you are dealing with DATE type column then you should know that it containes both the date and the time. How, where and when you will show it or use it is on you. Here is a sample of a few formats derived from that original Oracle DATE format...
WITH
t AS
(
Select SYSDATE "MY_DATE_COLUMN" From Dual
)
Select
MY_DATE_COLUMN "DATE_DEFAULT_FORMAT",
To_Char(MY_DATE_COLUMN, 'mm-dd-yyyy') "DATE_1",
To_Char(MY_DATE_COLUMN, 'yyyy/mm/dd') "DATE_2",
To_Char(MY_DATE_COLUMN, 'dd.mm.yyyy') "DATE_3",
To_Char(MY_DATE_COLUMN, 'dd.mm.yyyy hh24:mi:ss') "DATE_4"
From t
DATE_DEFAULT_FORMAT
DATE_1
DATE_2
DATE_3
DATE_4
22-OCT-22
10-22-2022
2022/10/22
22.10.2022
22.10.2022 10:59:44
You can find a lot more about the theme at https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-basics/oracle-date/
Regards...
In Oracle, a DATE is a binary data-type consisting of 7-bytes (representing century, year-of-century, month, day, hour, minute and second). It ALWAYS has those 7 components and it is NEVER stored in any particular human-readable format.
every time it store as like DD/MON/YY.
As already mentioned, no, it does not store a date like that; the database stores dates as 7 bytes.
What you are seeing is that the client application, that you are using to connect to the database, is receiving the 7-byte binary date value and is choosing to convert it to something that is more easily comprehensible to you, the user, and is defaulting to converting the date to a string with the format DD/MON/RR.
What you should be doing is changing how the dates are displayed by the client application by either:
Change the settings in the Toad (View > Toad Options > Data Grids > Data and set the Date Format option) and allow Toad to implicitly format the string; or
Use TO_CHAR to explicitly format the date (TO_CHAR(column_name, 'DD-MM-YYYY')).
I'm trying to store data as like DD-MM-YYYY.
If you want to store a date then STORE it as a date (which has no format) and format it when you DISPLAY it.
If you have a valid business case to store it with a format then you will need to store it as a string, rather than as a date, because you can format strings; however, this is generally considered bad practice and should be avoided.
Sadman, to add to what others have posted I suggest you do not write your applications with reliance on the NLS_DATE_FORMAT parameter but rather you screens and application should specify the expected DATE entry format and the code should use the TO_DATE function to store the data into the database. All application SQL should use the TO_CHAR function to format date output for display.
I am loading Oracle tables using SQL Loader and I have an issue with date formats. The CSV files with the data contain strings in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, but the Oracle tables require date format of DD-MON-YY.
I am currently going through the CSV files line by line to look for and reformat any dates before the load, but the files can reach 10M+ rows and this can be a pretty slow process. Does SQL Loader allow date reformatting in the load?
I'm looking for something like
LOAD DATA
INFILE 'data.csv'
TRUNCATE
INTO TABLE data
FIELDS TERMINATED BY '|'
TRAILING NULLCOLS
(
COL1,
COL2,
CREATED_DATE DATE 'DD-MON-YY',
LAST_UPDT_DATE DATE 'DD-MON-YY
)
I've read suggestions that this DATE command can format dates automatically but has given no luck so far.
Assuming created_date and last_updt_date are actually defined as date in the database, they don't have a format. They're stored in an internal packed binary format that is not human readable.
Your control file needs to specify the format of the strings in the flat file that represent the date. You say the format is "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS" but that doesn't make sense. Minutes are MI not MM so I assume that is a type. HH is a 12 hour time format but that doesn't make sense without an AM/PM indicator. So I'm guessing your strings are using a 24 hour time format which is HH24. So my guess is that you want
CREATED_DATE DATE 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS',
I am at a loss as how to insert the current time in a different format than the default. Can somebody help explain?
Here is how my table was created:
CREATE TABLE ACTIVITY_LOG
(
TIME TIMESTAMP NOT NULL
, ACTIVITY VARCHAR2(200) NOT NULL
);
My insert command works:
insert into activity_log
values (localtimestamp,'blah');
But how do i insert the localtimestamp value into my table in a different format using the various MM DD YY HH MM SS tags? I've tried the following, but it gives me the ORA-1830: date format picture ends before converting entire input string error.
insert into activity_log
values (to_timestamp(localtimestamp,'YYYY/MM/DD'),'blah');
You don't insert a timestamp in a particular format. Timestamps (and dates) are stored in the database using an internal representation, which is betwen 7 and 11 bytes depending on the type and precision. There is more about that in this question, among others.
Your client or application decides how to display the value in a human-readable string form.
When you do:
to_timestamp(localtimestamp,'YYYY/MM/DD')
you are implicitly converting the localtimestamp to a string, using your session's NLS settings, and then converting it back to a timestamp. That may incidentally change the value - losing precision - but won't change how the value is stored internally. In your case the mismatch between the NLS setting and the format you are supplying is leading to an ORA-01830 error.
So your first insert is correct (assuming you really want the session time, not the server time). If you want to see the stored values in a particular format then either change your client session's NLS settings, or preferably format it explicitly when you query it, e.g.:
select to_char(time, 'YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS.FF3') from activity_log
You don't seem to provide any indication of what your 'localtimestamp' is - is that pseudocode? A variable name? A column you haven't shown the definition for?
What data type is 'localtimestamp'? What data does it contain? Pertinent questions as other answers point out, because if it truly is a time stamp then oracle will be converting it to a string for you, before passing that string to to_timestamp() in your final query. Your initial stab at it should just work if the variable is a timestamp, containing a timestamp
Ultimately "date format picture ends" means "you passed me a string looking like '2017-05-17 12:45:59', but claimed it was only 'yyyy-mm-dd'. What was I expected to do with the rest of it?"
Your current final comment on your question "I was hoping to look in the table and see a useful looking time" - that's your query tool's problem. Have a look in the setting of your query tool and change the date format it displays. As has been noted, dates in oracle are stored as a decimal number days since a certain moment in time. If 0 represents 01 Jan 1970, then 1.75 represents 6pm on the 2 Jan 1970. It is up to the end program the user is using, to format the date into something you like.. you cannot "insert a timestamp with a different format" because time stamps don't have a format any more than a number like 1.75 has a format. It is what your query does with it when it gets it out, that gives it the format:
To_char(timestampcol, 'yyyy mm did')
To-char(tomestampcol, 'mon dd yyyy')
These use oracles built in date formatter, that turns that decimal number of the date into a string in the given format; you will see a string.. or you can just write "select * from table" and run it in TOAD and toad will show you the dates according to the format in settings, or you can write a c# program and get a load of date objects out and call my date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") on them to format them. The idea I'm trying to get across is that you don't pick the date format on the way in, you pick it on the way out, if you don't like what you're looking at, you have to change it on the way out, not the way in
I need to load a table with a .csv file which contains date "20140825145416".
I have tried using (DT date "yyyymmdd hh24:mm:ss") in my control file.
It throws an error as ORA-01821: date format not recognized
I require the data in table as "MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS".
Sample data : 20140825145416
thanks in advance.
Well, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the correct answer is to never store dates as VARCHAR2 data, but make it a proper DATE column and load it like this:
DT DATE "YYYYMMDDHH24MISS"
Formatting is done when selecting. It will make your life so much easier if you ever need to use that date in a calculation.
That out of the way, If you have no control over the database and have to store it as a VARCHAR2, first convert to a date, then use to_char to format it before inserting:
DT CHAR "to_char(to_date(:DT, 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS'), 'MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MI:SS')"
Note 'MI' is used for minutes. You had a typo where you used 'MM' (months) again for minutes.
I know it's already been said in the previous answer, but it's so important, it's worth repeating. Do not store dates as varchars !!
If your DT column is timestamp then this might work
DT CHAR(25) date_format TIMESTAMP mask "yyyymmddhhmiss"
I used something like this in external tables. Maybe this might help
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14215/et_concepts.htm
and
https://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:8128892010789
I've had some brilliant help before and I'm hoping you can get me out of a hole again.
I've got a date coming in from a web service in this format:
2009-02-13T11:46:40+00:00
which to me looks like standard UTC format.
I need to insert it into an Oracle database, so I'm using to_date() on the insert. Problem is, I cant get a matching formatting string for it and keep getting "ORA-01861: literal does not match format string" errors.
I know its a fairly trivial problem but for some reason I cannot get it to accept the right format string. Any help appreciated.
Thanks :)
Gareth
You can directly convert it to a TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIME_ZONE datatype.
select
to_timestamp_tz('2009-02-13T11:46:40+00:00','YYYY-MM-DD"T"HH24:MI:SSTZH:TZM')
from
dual
TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ('2009-02-13T11:46:40+00:00','YYYY-MM-DD"T"HH24:MI:SSTZH:TZM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
13-FEB-09 11.46.40.000000000 AM +00:00
(I'm assuming the input string is using a 24-hour clock since there is no AM/PM indicator.)
If you want to convert that to a simple DATE, you can, but it will lose the time zone information.
SELECT CAST(TO_TIMESTAMP_TZ(REPLACE('2009-02-13T11:46:40+00:00', 'T', ''), 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS TZH:TZM') AS DATE)
FROM dual
To import date in specified format you can set nls_date_format.
Example:
alter session set nls_date_format='YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS'
This way your SQL statements can be shorter (no casts). For various mask look at Datetime Format Models