Some opaque data types require special processing when they are inserted. For example, if an opaque data type contains spatial or multirepresentational data, it might provide a choice of how to store the data: inside the internal structure or, for large objects, in a smart large object.
This processing is accomplished by calling a user-defined support function called assign( ). When you execute the LOAD statement on a table whose rows contain one of these opaque types, the database server automatically invokes the assign( ) function for the type. The assign( ) function can make the decision of how to store the data. For more information about the assign( ) support function, see the IBM Informix User-Defined Routines and Data Types Developer's Guide.
Use the DELIMITER clause to specify the delimiter that separates the data contained in each column in a row in the input file. You can specify TAB (CTRL-I) or a blank space (= ASCII 32) as the delimiter symbol. You cannot use the following items as the delimiter symbol:
If you omit this clause, the database server checks the DBDELIMITER environment variable. For information about how to set the DBDELIMITER environment variable, see the IBM Informix Guide to SQL: Reference.
If the DBDELIMITER environment variable has not been set, the default delimiter is the pipe ( | ).
The following example specifies the semicolon ( ; ) as the delimiting character. The example uses Windows file-naming conventions.
LOAD FROM 'C:\data\loadfile' DELIMITER ';' INSERT INTO orders
Use the INSERT INTO clause to specify the table, synonym, or view in which to load the new data. You must specify the column names only if one of the following conditions is true:
The following example identifies the price and discount columns as the only columns in which to add data. The example uses Windows filenaming conventions.
LOAD FROM 'C:\tmp\prices' DELIMITER ',' INSERT INTO norman.worktab(price,discount)