You must create a bulk loader description file before you can run the Bulk Loader utility. You use the Data Administration tool or the Data Dictionary to create the description file. The default filename is table.fd. If you choose more than one table, the Data tool adds the extension .fd to the name of the database. It then places all of the bulk loader information in that one file.

Note: For information on how to dump table data into contents files, see Dump user table contents with a Data tool.

To create a bulk loader description file:

  1. Access the appropriate Data tool (the Data Administration tool if you are using a graphical interface or the Data Dictionary if you are using a character interface).
  2. Navigate to Admin > Create Bulk Loader Description File. The Data tool alphabetically lists all the tables defined for the database.
  3. Select the tables for which you want to create bulk loader description files. Use the Select Some and Deselect Some buttons to select or deselect groups of tables. For a character interface, use F5 and F6.

    The Make Bulk Load Description File for Table dialog box appears, displaying the following fields:
    Field Description
    Output File Specifies the name of the .fd field definition file to be generated. The default filename is table.fd. To browse and select a different file path or filename, click Files.
    Include LOB Specifies whether to include Large Object (LOB) fields in the .fd file.
    Lob Directory Specifies the target directory if you choose to include LOB fields. If no directory is specified, the current working directory is used by default. To select a directory, click Dir.
    Code Page Specifies the character encoding used for the data.
  4. Specify values for each field as needed or retain the default values provided.
  5. To create the bulk load description file, click OK.
    Note: If the selected tables contain any Character Large Object (CLOB) fields, the Warning (Press Help to view stack trace) dialog box appears. The .fd file excludes the CLOB fields because the bulk load process supports only BLOB fields. To create the bulk load description file without the CLOB fields, click Yes.
    After creating the .df file, the Data tool displays a status message.
  6. To return to the Data Administration or Data Dictionary main window, click OK.

The following figure shows a description file created with the Data Administration tool.

Figure 1. Dictionary-created description file example


In this example:
  • customer is the name of the database table.
  • customer.d is the name of the data file you want to load.
  • customer.e is the name of an error file that the Bulk Loader creates if errors occur during the bulk load.
  • Cust-num, Name, Address, and so on are the field names in the customer table.