Hi!

I'm using IMPORT FROM FILE OF ASC import command. The FILE rows of fixed
length and also columns are of fixed length. In the FILE I have a date
field that can have one special value (00000000) which should be
interpreted as null. How do I specify that?
Is it also possible to say "replace all space characters in strings with
character F"?

Best regards,
Kovi
--
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| Gregor Kovac | Gregor.Kovac@mikropis.si |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| In A World Without Fences Who Needs Gates? |
| Experience Linux. |
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Kovi,

You can import data into staging table, and then transform it using
SELECT ... CASE statement and other functions (eg. REPLACE).

Import is just for importing data, not for transforming and cleansing.

Regards,

-- Artur Wronski

Gregor Kovač wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I'm using IMPORT FROM FILE OF ASC import command. The FILE rows of fixed
> length and also columns are of fixed length. In the FILE I have a date
> field that can have one special value (00000000) which should be
> interpreted as null. How do I specify that?
> Is it also possible to say "replace all space characters in strings with
> character F"?
>
> Best regards,
> Kovi

With ASC format files, in order to import/load NULLs, you have to
specify a character value that signifies null, as well as positional
locations within the file for the null indicator.

Of course, your file format must include these null indicators to be
effective.

The alternative, as Artur described, would be to import into a staging
table and then use SQL modify the data during the insert to your "live"
table.