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Message Posted: Wed, 06 Nov 2002 @ 17:45:57 GMT

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Ponnolu:

Is your question how to use INDICATORS or why to use it?

Since you are using character data and defining delimiters, I tend to think that INDICATORS were not created.

INDICATORS are used when data is extracted from one database (DB) for transfer to another DB. They are used to represent the fact that the first DB has columns that contain a NULL. When a NULL is written to disk in a field of a record, it is no longer a NULL. It is zero for a numeric column or space for a character column.

INDICTORS consist of one bitmap at the beginning of the data. This bitmap contains one bit for each field. Your record contains 3 fields and 3 delimiters. Since delimiters should never be NULL, only the data columns might contain a NULL. At a minimum, you need 3 bits. However, data is only allocated in bytes. Specifying INDICATORS tells FastLoad to read and look at the bitmap to determine which fields are to load a NULL into the appropriate column. Unless you created this bitmap manually or it was created as a result of an extract, you do not want to use INDICATORS in your BEGIN.

Although, I have never used INDICATORS in a situation like you have defined and am reluctant to "guess" how it works with this type of data. Normally, when using delimiters, the file type is defined as VARTEXT ''. So, I am thinking you need to read the manual if you want to get it right.

God Luck,

Mike
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