sql - Continuing Inserts in Oracle when exception is raised

Question

I'm working on migration of data from a legacy system into our new app(running on Oracle Database, 10gR2). As part of the migration, I'm working on a script which inserts the data into tables that are used by the app.

The number of rows of data that are imported runs into thousands, and the source data is not clean (unexpected nulls in NOT NULL columns, etc). So while inserting data through the scripts, whenever such an exception occurs, the script ends abruptly, and the whole transaction is rolled back.

Is there a way, by which I can continue inserts of data for which the rows are clean? Using NVL() or COALESCE() is not an option, as I'd like to log the rows causing the errors so that the data can be corrected for the next pass.

EDIT: My current procedure has an exception handler, I am logging the first row which causes the error. Would it be possible for inserts to continue without termination, because right now on the first handled exception, the procedure terminates execution.

Answer 1

If the data volumes were higher, row-by-row processing in PL/SQL would probably be too slow. In those circumstances, you can use DML error logging, described here

CREATE TABLE raises (emp_id NUMBER, sal NUMBER 
   CONSTRAINT check_sal CHECK(sal > 8000));

EXECUTE DBMS_ERRLOG.CREATE_ERROR_LOG('raises', 'errlog');

INSERT INTO raises
   SELECT employee_id, salary*1.1 FROM employees
   WHERE commission_pct > .2
   LOG ERRORS INTO errlog ('my_bad') REJECT LIMIT 10;

SELECT ORA_ERR_MESG$, ORA_ERR_TAG$, emp_id, sal FROM errlog;

ORA_ERR_MESG$               ORA_ERR_TAG$         EMP_ID SAL
--------------------------- -------------------- ------ -------
ORA-02290: check constraint my_bad               161    7700
 (HR.SYS_C004266) violated