LOAD DATA|V4.2.1|OceanBase Database| docs|Distributed Database

LOAD DATA

Last Updated：2026-07-16 07:49:27 Updated

Description

The statement is used to import data from an external source.

In OceanBase Database, the LOAD DATA statement can load input files from OceanBase Database and Alibaba Cloud OSS, to OBServer nodes.

Note

The current version of OceanBase Database does not support the use of LOCAL INFILE to load data files.
Tables with triggers are not supported.

The LOAD DATA statement can currently import text files in the CSV format. The entire import process consists of the following steps:

Parse the file: OceanBase Database reads data from the file with the name specified by the user and parses data in the file, in parallel or in series, based on the specified degree of parallelism.
Distribute data: As OceanBase Database is a distributed database, data in partitions can be distributed across OBServer nodes. The LOAD DATA statement calculates and determines to which OBServer node the parsed data should be sent.
Insert data: After the data is received by the destination OBServer node, the node executes an INSERT statement to insert the data into the corresponding partition.

To import data from external files, you must have the FILE privilege. You can execute the GRANT FILE ON *.* TO $user_name; statement to grant the privilege to the user, where $user_name is the name of the user who needs to execute the LOAD DATA statement.

Syntax

LOAD DATA
    [ [/*+ PARALLEL(N) load_batch_size(M) APPEND */]
      | [/*+ PARALLEL(N) direct(bool, int) */] ]
    [REMOTE_OSS] INFILE 'file_name'
    INTO TABLE table_name
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [STARTING BY 'string']
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
    ]
    [IGNORE number {LINES | ROWS}]
    [(column_name_var
        [, column_name_var] ...)]

Parameter description

Parameter	Description
parallel(N)	The degree of parallelism for loading data. If N is specified, the default value is `4`.
load_batch_size(M)	The number of rows to be inserted at a time. If M is specified, the default value is `100`. We recommend that you set this parameter to a value within the range of [100,1000].
APPEND	Use this hint to enable direct load, which allocates space and writes data directly in the data file. By default, the APPEND hint is equivalent to direct(true, 0). It also enables online collection of optimizer statistics (GATHER_OPTIMIZER_STATISTICS).
direct	Use this hint to enable direct load. The `bool` parameter in the `direct(bool, int)` specifies whether to sort the given CSV file, where `true` indicates that sorting is required, and the `int` parameter specifies the maximum number of allowed error rows.
REMOTE_OSS	Specifies whether to read data from the OSS file system. Notice If you specify this parameter, the `file_name` parameter must be an address in the OSS file system.
file_name	The path and name of the input file. The format of the `file_name` parameter is as follows: If the import file is stored on an OBServer node, the format is `/$PATH/$FILENAME`. If the import file is stored on OSS, the format is `oss://$PATH/$FILENAME/?host=$HOST&access_id=$ACCESS_ID&access_key=$ACCESSKEY`. The parameters are described as follows: `$PATH` specifies the path of the file in the bucket, indicating the directory to which the file belongs. `$FILENAME` specifies the name of the file, indicating the specific file to be accessed. `$HOST` specifies the host name or CDN domain name of the OSS service or CDN-accelerated domain name, which is the address to access the OSS service. `$ACCESS_ID` specifies the Access Key ID required to access the OSS service for authentication. `$ACCESSKEY` specifies the Access Key Secret required to access the OSS service for authentication. Note Make sure that the following information is correct before you import a file from OSS: You have the permissions to access the specified OSS bucket and file. You must have sufficient permissions to read the specified bucket and file. This typically requires that you set the permissions on the OSS console or by using OSS APIs and configure the access keys (Access Key ID and Access Key Secret) as credentials with appropriate permissions. The database server can connect to the specified `$HOST` over the network to access the OSS service. If a CDN-accelerated domain name is used, make sure that the CDN is correctly configured and the network connection is normal.
table_name	The name of the table to which the imported data is loaded. The table can be a partitioned or non-partitioned table.
FIELDS \| COLUMNS	The formats of fields. `ENCLOSED BY`: the delimiter for the exported values. `TERMINATED BY`: the delimiter that indicates the end of an exported column. `ESCAPED BY`: the character to be ignored in the exported values.
LINES STARTING BY	The delimiter that indicates the start of a line.
LINES TERMINATED BY	The delimiter that indicates the end of a line.
IGNORE number { LINES \| ROWS }	The number of the first few lines or rows to be ignored. `LINES` indicates the first few lines of the file, and `ROWS` indicates the first few rows separated by field separators. By default, the server matches each field in the input file with the corresponding column in the table. If the input file does not contain all the columns in the table, the missing columns are filled with default values, which are described in the following example: Character type: an empty string. Numeric type: 0. Date type: `0000-00-00`.
column_name_var	The name of the imported column.

Examples

Example 1: Import data from a file on the server (OBServer node)

Set the global secure path.

Notice

For security reasons, when you set the system variable secure_file_priv, you can connect to the database only through a local socket to execute the SQL statement that modifies the global variable. For more information, see secure_file_priv.
```
obclient> SET GLOBAL secure_file_priv = "/";
```
Log out.

Note

After you set the secure_file_priv variable, you must exit and then reconnect to the database because the secure_file_priv variable is a GLOBAL variable.
```
obclinet> \q
```
The return result is as follows:
```
Bye
```

Reconnect to the database and use the LOAD DATA statement to import data.

Use the following syntax to perform regular import:

obclient> LOAD DATA INFILE '/home/admin/test.csv' INTO TABLE t1;

Use the APPEND hint to enable direct load:

LOAD DATA /*+ PARALLEL(4) APPEND */ INFILE '/home/admin/test.csv' INTO TABLE t1;

Example 2: Import data from an OSS file

Notice

When you use an object storage path, make sure that the values of all parameters in the object storage path contain only uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and the \/-_$+= characters and wildcard characters. If you enter characters other than the aforesaid ones, the setting may fail.

Use the direct(bool, int) hint to enable direct load for files that are to be imported from Alibaba Cloud OSS.

LOAD DATA /*+ direct(true,1024) parallel(16) */ REMOTE_OSS INFILE 'oss://antsys-oceanbasebackup/backup_rd/xiaotao.ht/lineitem2.tbl?host=***.oss-cdn.***&access_id=***&access_key=***' INTO TABLE tbl1 FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',';

References

For more information about how to use the LOAD DATA statement, see Import data by using the LOAD DATA statement.
For more information about direct load using the LOAD DATA statement, see Import data by using the LOAD DATA statement.

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Documentation

LOAD DATA

Description

Note

Syntax

Parameter description

Notice

Note

Examples

Example 1: Import data from a file on the server (OBServer node)

Notice

Note

Example 2: Import data from an OSS file

Notice

References