The DATE Option

Use the DATE conversion option to insert ASCII data that is stored in a fixed format into a DATE column.

This option converts the ASCII data input to binary and specifies the format of the input data. (The DATE format is used internally to interpret the input; it does not affect the storage or output format of the data.) See the ASCII conversion format for more information.

Example

In this Windows example, data for the l_shipdate column is converted from the specified format into binary. The 1-byte FILLER skips over carriage returns in the input file.

LOAD TABLE lineitem(
    l_orderkey NULL(ZEROS) ASCII(4),
    l_partkey ASCII(3),
    l_shipdate DATE('MM/DD/YY'),
    l_suppkey ASCII(5),
FILLER(1))
FROM 'C:\\MILL1\\shipinfo.t'
PREVIEW ON

DATE Formats
Specify the format of the input data using y or Y for years, m or M for months, d or D for days, and j or J for Julian days.

Parent topic: Data Conversion on Insertion