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Message Posted: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 @ 14:30:20 GMT

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Hi Prasanna:

The use of the HELP TABLE command in FastLoad only eliminates the need to add field definitions to your DEFINE. You still code a DEFINE, but it only contains the FILE statement to identify the input file to read (or INMOD).

The catch is that you must use the column names for any specification regarding substitution (:fieldname) within your INSERT. The other requirement is that the fields in the record must all be in the exact same order and same data type as that of the table. So, if you have character data coming in and a decimal column, the HELP TABLE will not work.

As an alternative: if you record is exactly like the table definition, you can do a Self-defining INSERT. To do this, you use the same DEFINE as mentioned above and do not use the HELP TABLE. Instead, you code the following:

INSERT INTO .*;

The Fastload software recognizes the fact that both are the same and simply matches up data to columns and build the rows.

Hope this helps,

Michael Larkins
Certified Teradata Master

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