Sybase 12.4.2 manual 181, Block Factor number Block Size number, Start ROW ID number

CHAPTER 5 Moving Data In and Out of Databases

You can specify load options in any order. Syntax for load-optionsis as follows:

[ { BLOCK FACTOR number BLOCK SIZE number } ]

... [ BYTE ORDER { NATIVE HIGH LOW } ]

... [ LIMIT number-of-rows ]

... [ NOTIFY number-of-rows ]

... [ ON FILE ERROR { ROLLBACK FINISH CONTINUE} ]

... [ PREVIEW { ON OFF } ]

... [ ROW DELIMITED BY ’delimiter-string’ ]

... [ SKIP number-of-rows ]

... [ START ROW ID number ]

... [ UNLOAD FORMAT ]

Each of these options is described briefly below. For details of all options of the LOAD TABLE statement, see the Adaptive Server IQ Reference.

BLOCK FACTOR option Specifies blocking factor, or number of records per block, used when a source was created. This option is not valid for insertions from variable length input fields; use the BLOCK SIZE option instead. However, it does affect all file inserts (including from disk) with fixed length input fields, and it can affect performance dramatically.

The default setting for BLOCK FACTOR is 10,000. Higher block factors generally improve the speed of I/O operations. However, consider the following when setting this option:

•If your source is a disk file, memory considerations will determine the best setting for your system.

•If your source is a tape, either use the same blocking factor that was used when creating the tape (for best performance) or a blocking factor that is evenly divisible into it.

•Adaptive Server IQ rejects the insert operation if you specify a BLOCK FACTOR of zero.

•You cannot specify BLOCK FACTOR along with BLOCK SIZE or with any variable-width input fields.

ESCAPE CHARACTER option Specifies an alternative escape character. The default escape character for characters stored as hexadecimal codes and symbols is a backslash (\), so that \x0A is the linefeed character, for example.

This can be changed using the ESCAPE CHARACTER clause. For example, to use the exclamation mark as the escape character, you would enter:

... ESCAPE CHARACTER ’!’

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