Using the EXTERNAL Keyword

Use the EXTERNAL keyword to specify a CHAR data type for each column of your external table that has a data type different from the internal table.

For example, you might have a VARCHAR column in the internal table that you want to map to a CHAR column in the external table.

You must specify an external type for every column that is in fixed format. You cannot specify an external type for delimited format columns except for BYTE and TEXT columns where your specification is optional.