I must really be losing my touch for explaining things. Let me try again.
When you create an external file with FB then pump numbers into it using a
good ol' INSERT INTO. SELECT FROM., the numbers don't come out as ASCII,
they come out in a "native" format. You can see this by creating a file,
pumping numbers into it, then viewing the file using your favorite viewer.
When you INSERT INTO an FB table from a native format external file, you
don't have to CAST() anything to put values into numeric columns. If you
are using an ASCII external file, you have to cast the ASCII values into
numerics.



Native (to me) simply means that numerics are stored in the file as
numerics, not ASCII. They are stored as they would be if you had FB write
an external file that was defined with numeric column types.



BTW. I improved my write routines and I can now write the file in 2.5 secs.
Thus, I can now generate and load 1,000,000 rows in less than 30 seconds.
If anyone has a faster mechanism, I would love to hear it. This is not a
challenge, I am just genuinely interested in the fastest way to get this
data into FB.



Thanks.



LCK



-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Murdoch [mailto:ram5@...]
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 5:08 PM
To: ib-support@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [ib-support] Writing to external files



At 3/28/2003 11:21 PM, Louis Kleiman wrote:

>Well, I answered my own question and reverse engineered it. Man does FB

1.5

>load data fast. I loaded 1,000,000 records (8 integer fields and 1 double
>precision) in 26 seconds. I can write that same file in about 19 seconds.
>Yes, total data transfer of 1,000,000 records in 45 seconds.

Louis,

What is the difference between a 'native format' external file, and a
text file? What sql statements do you issue to create this file or select
from it?

Guess I'm confused as to what native means?

tia,

Bob M..






Yahoo! Groups Sponsor



ADVERTISEMENT

<http://rd.yahoo.com/M=246920.2960106.4328965.1728375/D=egroupweb/S=17051153
86:HM/A=1513703/R=0/*http:/www.gotomypc.com/u/tr/yh/cpm/grp/300_06F/g22lp?Ta
rget=mm/g22lp.tmpl>



<http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=246920.2960106.4328965.1728375/D=egroupmai
l/S=:HM/A=1513703/rand=697750571>


To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ib-support-unsubscribe@egroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo!
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> Terms of Service.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]