I create an external table for importing data then
I create a stored procedure to import data from the external table
because I have to validate some of the values in the external table
I am using:

for select [fields] from ext_tbl
do
begin
/* validate and add or update here */
end

then I drop the stored procedure and drop the external table

I have to do this on about 450 files, the biggest file being over
4MB and having over 7500 rows to import.

Is this the best way to do this sort of import?
Is there another way that is faster?
Should I be committing in the stored procedure every couple hundred
inserts/updates?
and if so how do I commit in a stored procedure?