How to Create and Use an Input File

Managing Your Database › Database Loader › How to Create and Use an Input File

You can use an input file and the pdm_userload utility to populate database tables.

The input file format is as follows:

Surround field values with double quotes (“value”) and separate values with a comma and a space (“value1”, “value2”).
Precede double quotes with a backslash (\) to embed them in text strings. To set a date/time field to the current date and time, use @NOW@ for the input value.
Surround each record with curly braces separated by spaces, as follows:
```
( { record field values } )
```
If properly delimited, input records can span more than one line in the input file as long as individual fields stay on one line. For a multi-line field such as comments, values can include a new line character ( \n ) to force a new line when the database field is displayed.
Explicit new line characters are needed only for special formatting. Ordinary running text is automatically displayed with appropriate line breaks, as shown by the following example:
```
"Record status is \"COMPLETE\""
```

To create an input file for the pdm_userload utility, do the following:

Determine which table you want to load, and the fields you want to populate in that table.
You must populate the Name or Symbol key field for each record that you load.
Make a copy of the appropriate filename.dat file for the table that you are loading.
Edit your newly created copy of the filename.dat file, as follows:
1. Add an entry for each record to be loaded.
2. From under the TABLE line (see the following example), remove fields that you do not want to populate.
```
TABLE table_name
fieldname1 fieldname4 . . . fieldnameN
```
Save your file and exit from the editor.
Run the pdm_userload utility and specify the file, as shown by the following example. In this example, the input file name is myData.dat:
```
pdm_userload -f myData.dat
```
The database table is populated.

More information: