Can you apply the "optionally enclosed by" to individual fields instead of all fields? Then you could leave it off of the offending field and use some SQL to remove the quotes that are now not regarded as enclosuring marks. Like this: AH_DESCRIPT CHAR "SUBSTR(:AH_DESCRIPT,2,LENGTH(:AH_DESCRIPT)-1)", -----Original Message----- From: ed lewis [mailto:eglewis@xxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 2004 6:18 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: sql loader question Hi, I have a file that I'm attempting to load into a table with sql loader using the following ctl file. On the "ah_descript" column I receive the following error on some of the records : no terminator found after TERMINATED and ENCLOSED field The column contains a " (double quote) used to designate inches, such as 6", which I think sql loader is choking on. Is there a way I can handle this within sql loader ? thanks very much. OPTIONS (SKIP=1) LOAD DATA infile 'csv/12292003-AHPOLNTMP.csv' INTO TABLE sdusr3.ahpolntmp fields terminated by ',' optionally enclosed by '"' trailing nullcols ( AHDATE DATE 'MM/DD/YYYY', AHTIME char , PO_NUMBER CHAR, PO_LAWSON CHAR, LINE_NBR char, COST_OPTION CHAR, AH_DESCRIPT CHAR, DISTRIBFLAG CHAR, EARLY_DL_DATE DATE 'MM/DD/YYYY', ENT_BUY_UOM CHAR, ENT_UNIT_CST char, ERRORCODE char, ERRORMSG CHAR, GLOBALITEMID CHAR, ITEM CHAR, ITEM_TYPE CHAR, MANUF_NBR CHAR, PURCHCLASS CHAR, QUANTITY char, REQUESTERID CHAR, VEN_ITEM CHAR, CUSTOM1 CHAR, CUSTOM2 CHAR, CUSTOM3 CHAR )