Performance considerations when using external tables

Use external tables when you want to manipulate data in an ASCII file using SQL commands, or when loading data from an external data file to a RAW database table.

There are several ways to load information into a database, including:

  • LOAD FROM ... INSERT INTO... DB-Access command
  • dbimport utility
  • External tables

External tables provide the best performance for loading data into a RAW table with no indexes.

Note: Locking an external table prior to loading data increases the load performance