Hi All, I have some builtin java code ftp-ing files from an NT to a HP server. The code then loads a table as select * from external table (definition below). The records are delimited by ^M (as they are created on the NT box). Now to my problem.... *most* of the time everything works ok, but occasionally we get one of two errors: Error 1: ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEFETCH callout ORA-30653: reject limit reached ORA-06512: at "SYS.ORACLE_LOADER", line 14 ORA-06512: at line 1 Cause (as described in the log file which was added for debugging): KUP-04021: field formatting error for field ORDER_DATE KUP-04026: field too long for datatype KUP-04101: record 5208 rejected in file /pkg/vdcfa/home/orafa/GDF/GDF16CT_ROOT/aio-external-tabl es/aio_logistic_predlv_ext.dat.prod When I check the source file (and bad file), I see that the last field ORDER_DATE, doesn't have a terminating record delimiter (^M). BUT, when I check the other files that ran in ok, they also are often missing the last delimiter. I don't have consistency here! PS on Error1: I want all or nothing here, so want to reject all if there are any errors, hence the reject limit 0. Error 2: No bad file created, instead an exception is raised, but in the log file I see: KUP-04020: found record longer than buffer size supported, 524288, in /pkg/vdcfa/home/orafa/GDF/ GDF16CT_ROOT/aio-external-tables/aio_logistic_predlv_ext.dat.prod KUP-04053: record number 5208 Again this record (5208, the last one), is missing a terminating ^M. I have found that increasing the READSIZE fixes the problem (in my development env), but for how long? What combination of file size with missing ^M will cause the problem again? I'd like to know for sure what causes the problem *and* if its possible to declare that the last record can be missing the delimiter in the external table definition. As an aside: the source files come from an external agency, and although the ^M *should* be there, it often isn't. I'd like our code to be robust enough to deal with this. External Table Definintion: create table aio_logistic_predlv_ext ( PICK_NO VARCHAR2(15), IMEI VARCHAR(15), . . . COMMENT_ VARCHAR(200), ORDER_DATE DATE ) organization external ( type oracle_loader default directory aio_external_tables access parameters ( records delimited by 0X'0d0a' badfile aio_external_tables:'_aio_logistic_predlv_ext.bad' nodiscardfile logfile aio_external_tables:'_aio_logistic_predlv_ext.log' >>> READSIZE 52428800 -- added to fix the problem<<< characterset we8pc850 fields terminated by '|' missing field values are null ( PICK_NO , IMEI , . . . COMMENT_ , ORDER_DATE char date_format date mask "DD.MM.YY" ) ) location ('aio_logistic_predlv_ext.dat') ) reject limit 0; PS: If I change the delimiter to NEWLINE then I get KUP-04021: field formatting error for field ORDER_DATE KUP-04026: field too long for datatype i.e. the "^M"s make the field too big. Thanks for any pointers Tony Endlich Sicherheit bei Computerabstuerzen - Phoenix Recover Pro. http://internetzugang.tiscali.de/internet_services/detail_rec.php -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l