FASTLOAD Command (SAP Library - Loader: SAP DB 7.4)

FASTLOAD Command

With this SAP DB Loader command, you can control the loading of application data for the specified tables.

Syntax

<fastload_statement> ::=
FASTLOAD [<usage_spec>] TABLE <table_spec> [<load_column_spec_mlt>] <instream_spec>

Example

FASTLOAD with 100 % USAGE
TABLE sqltravel00.customer
  cno           1
  name          2
  zip           3
  address       4
INFILE 'customer.data'

Use

FASTLOAD commands are processed while the database is running.

Note

When application data is loaded with FASTLOAD, it is entered directly in the pages on the database instance. This command loads data more quickly than the DATALOAD command. However, because it does not write any log entries, you must back up the new data after you have loaded it. You can either back up the corresponding pages (incremental data backup) or all data (complete data backup). The table is write-protected until you have backed up the new application data.

Prerequisites

The target table exists on the database instance. Otherwise, the table can be created using a corresponding SQL statement before the FASTLOAD commands is executed.

You have logged onto the SAP DB Loader with the user who is the owner of the target table.

The data in the data stream to be imported is sorted in ascending order in the sequence of the primary key.

The target table does not have an index.

If the target table already contains application data, only those data records whose key values are greater than the largest key value in the target table can be inserted.

The data that you want to load does not contain LONG columns.

Process Flow

When a FASTLOAD command is started, the target table of the load operation in the database instance is locked so other users cannot write to it. The target table can still be read, however.

Unrestricted reading and writing is possible in all other tables.

Once a FASTLOAD command has been processed, other write operations triggered with FASTLOAD from the same user can be performed on this table. Once the load operation with FASTLOAD has been completed, all users only have read access for the table.

A backup of the database instance must be created before this table is released again for write operations from other users.

Result

The data from the source table has been loaded to the target table.

Note

The successful load of the application data is implicitly completed by the SAP DB Loader with a COMMIT.

Errors

If a FASTLOAD load operation is aborted, all of the lines transferred during the operation are deleted. Application data that existed in the table before the FASTLOAD load operation was started remains unchanged.

If you cancel the load operation because the SAP DB Loader refused to transfer certain lines, you can check the log file to find the data record that caused the operation to fail.