Question

Some of the columns that I am trying to load into Oracle via SQL Loader from an XML file are null. For example may have several filled but ocassionally it has some nulls.

How can I tell the SQL*Loader that some of the data will be null, or how can I deal with nulls?

Answer 1

Like jonearles suggested. I use XMLTABLE to insert XML data into relational tables. First put the XML data into a Oracle tables XMLTYPE column:

DROP TABLE XMLTEST;

CREATE TABLE XMLTEST
(   XML_COL XMLTYPE);

DECLARE
  poXML CLOB; 
BEGIN   
  -- Store the Purchase Order XML in the CLOB variable
  poXML := '<?xml version="1.0"?>
<zalen>
    <zaal zaal_id="1">
        <alt_id>88</alt_id>
        <display_naam>01 West 430</display_naam>
        <alt_db>exp_BB</alt_db>
    </zaal>
    <zaal zaal_id="2">
        <alt_id>170</alt_id>
        <display_naam>02 Midden 010</display_naam>
        <alt_db>exp_BB</alt_db>
    </zaal>
    <zaal zaal_id="3">
        <alt_id>173</alt_id>
        <display_naam>02 Midden 110</display_naam>
        <alt_db>exp_BB</alt_db>
    </zaal>
    <zaal zaal_id="4">
        <syl_id>F491B0A119DABE76B2F6B2C0A3E902F6</syl_id>
        <alt_id>183</alt_id>
        <display_naam>02 Oost 010</display_naam>
        <alt_db>exp_BB</alt_db>
    </zaal>
    <zaal zaal_id="5">
        <alt_id>172</alt_id>
        <display_naam>02 Oost 300</display_naam>
        <alt_db>exp_BB</alt_db>
    </zaal>
  .
  .
  .
    <zaal zaal_id="126">
        <syl_id>F491B0A119DABE76B2F6B2C0A3E901E3</syl_id>
        <alt_id>129</alt_id>
        <display_naam>HB.02.140</display_naam>
        <alt_db>exp_EE</alt_db>
    </zaal>
</zalen>';

  INSERT INTO xmltest (xml_col) VALUES (XMLTYPE(poXML));

END;
/

Use XMLTable function to create (or insert into) the table:

drop table zalen;
create table zalen as 
select xt.zaal_id
,      xt.alt_id
,      xt.syl_id
,      xt.alt_db
,      xt.display_naam
from xmltest xts
,    XMLTable('zalen/zaal' PASSING xts.xml_col 
                   columns zaal_id INTEGER PATH '@zaal_id'
                             ,alt_id INTEGER PATH 'alt_id'
                             ,syl_id VARCHAR2(100) PATH 'syl_id'
                             ,display_naam VARCHAR2(100)PATH 'display_naam'
                             ,alt_db VARCHAR2(100)PATH 'alt_db') xt;