Oracle SQL*Loader: The Definitive Guide
By Jonathan Gennick & Sanjay Mishra


Unconfirmed error reports are from readers. They have not yet been 
approved or disproved by the author or editor and represent solely
the opinion of the reader.


This page was updated November 07, 2002.


Here's a key to the markup:
        [page-number]: serious technical mistake
        {page-number}: minor technical mistake
        <page-number>: important language/formatting problem
        (page-number): language change or minor formatting problem
        ?page-number?: reader question or request for clarification


UNCONFIRMED errors and suggestions from readers:


{6}  in control file script, 2nd last line (before the ")");
shouldn't this line- gfn_cell_name CHAR TERMINATED BY "," ENCLOSED BY '"' be
terminated by whitespace


[32]  Under os_specific_options, the first option.;
The book briefly touches on the os_specific_options, but I believe the 
first one (stream record format) needs to be enhanced slightly.  This is 
where a physical record terminator is declared and I think the reader would 
benefit with a terse description of the "str" keyword and what it does in 
this context.  I understand that it's detailed on page 211 and listed in 
the Index, but without knowing what to look for in terms of how to change 
the pysical record terminator, it's difficult to determine how to do this 
without a better explanation in the INFILE section.

This omission (in my opinion) is propagated on page 236.


{73}  the last paragraph before table 3-7 ;
Incorrect statement: "The number of bytes occupied by a packed-decimal
field will always be an even number."
Corrected statement: "The number of bytes occupied by a packed-decimal
field can be either even or odd."

Table 3-7 actually conflicts with the statement as it is written in the 
book.  It clearly illustrates that the number of bytes occupied by the 
packed-decimal field is odd (bottom line shows "3").  If a number had 7 
digits (or 6), the number of bytes necessary to store it in packed decimal 
format would be 4.  Therefore, it is clear that the number of bytes can be 
even or odd.


(89)  Bottom in Suppressing Duplicate Column Values:
In the example, shouldn't there be a continuation mark at the end of the
first line of the break columns?


{108}  In the 4th row of Table 3-2, the string:
	Mon dd, yyyy hh:mm am
should read:
	Mon dd, yyyy hh:mi am
Why, because mm is a two digit month, and mi is minutes.  Formatting a time
as hh:mm am will probably look correct most of the time, but will only
return a correct result accidentally. (One minute during each hour of the
day. Two minutes after during February, twelve minutes after during
December)

[146]  3rd paragraph, syntax for WHEN clause;
In the 'position' portion of the WHEN clause, the literal text POSITION must not be
present (unlike in the POSITION element inside the INTO TABLE CLAUSE).  The syntax
description indicates that the literal text POSITION must be present.  For example,
the following is an *invalid* WHEN clause:

WHEN POSITION(1:2) != '/*'

and this is valid:

WHEN (1:2) != '/*'

(200)  lines 6-9;
After the sqlldr command has been used throughout the book, suddenly the command is changed to SQLLOAD.  This is probably incorrect, but it's certainly inconsistent.  The same error is found on page 201 just below the middle of the page, and on page 202 about four paragraphs from the bottom.  (April 2001 printing)


(243)  In Approaches to Branching:
One option is "Use REFCUSOR variables." Shouldn't that be REFCURSOR?