external table issue

[suvv]

I can successfully create the external table and read the data.
However I would like to place a header in the spooled file but the only method
I have found to ignore the header is to use the "SKIP" parameter. I would
rather not use this as it hard codes the number of lines I reserve for a
header.

Is there another method to add a comment to a external tables file and have the
selects on the file ignore the comments?
Could I use "LOAD WHEN ( column1 != '--' )" as each comment line begins with a
double dash?

[pss]

There is "LOAD WHEN" for external tables http://download-east.oracle.com/docs...htm#sthref1714 and there is "REJECT LIMIT" that you can use to control the content of the table. Don't forget to take care of discard and bad files for the table. You may want to disable them to keep your filesystem cleaner or keep for verification purposes.