Yeah, the "traditional" (9i) way of external tables is still there in 10g. It depends what access driver you're using to access the table. If you're using sql*loader, you can read from a flat file. If you're using the new datapump driver (which support writing , but afaik no dml) you can write to the file. But then it's a binary file.
http://download-uk.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10743/utility.htm#sthref1791
Stefan
If you're referring to 10g, I believe they are. But they're in a binary format.
Stefan
..that would be strange since an External Table is a flat file. I need to dig into this...sorry for the spam, but it got me thinking...
Kevin Closson Chief Architect, Oracle Database Solutions PolyServe, Inc kevinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Blogging at kevinclosson.wordpress.com