Null indicator

A null indicator is a column (by byte position) in a nondelimited ASCII file that contains the null indicator flag for the data being loaded into a table column. The null indicator can be any valid positive integer. A null indicator of zero (0) indicates that the table column cannot be NULL.

When the load process looks at each data row, the character in the null indicator column indicates whether or not the data in the column defined by the start and end positions is NULL. Unless otherwise specified, a 'Y' is used to denote that the data column is NULL. Anything else indicates that the data column is not NULL. For example, when loading the following ASC file into a table with columns COL1, COL2, and COL3:

3         4         5         6
0.........0.........0.........0
Smith,B.      4973 N15.46
Jones,S.     12345 Y
Davis,S.    452121 N93.78

• The data column defined by start and end positions 30 and 37 is to be loaded into COL1.

• The data defined by start and end positions 42 and 47 is to be loaded into COL2.

• The data defined by start and end positions 50 and 54 is to be loaded into COL3.

• Position 49 (the null indicator) is used to indicate whether COL3 will be loaded NULL for a given row.

For rows 1 and 3, an N is in position 49, indicating that the data in COL3 for those rows is not NULL. For row 2, a Y is in position 49, indicating that the data in COL3 for row 2 is NULL.

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