External Tables in Oracle vs Sqlloader

[sakhi01]

Have you worked on External tables in Oracle( I am sure you are ). Wanted to get your inputs in terms if you recommend using that or wanted us to go for a tranditional sqlloader approaches. I have apprehensions on how do we do Data validations if there are any errors etc. Your thoughts please

Note: This is to load the staging tables from the Flatfiles in datamart situation.

Appreciate your help

 

[johnherman]

Recommend loading. It preserves the integrity of the DW, as queries are then reproducible. If the external table is updated periodically, you can have different versions of the table, or different rows in the table. If different rows in the same table, overlay the table with a view or materialized view which picks the rows with the latest load date (MAX function in the SELECT for the VIEW). This assumes that you would add some DW control/audit columns to the external table during the loading process.

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