BL_LOAD_METHOD= Data Set Option

Specifies the method by which data is loaded into an external database table during bulk loading.

Valid in: DATA and PROC steps (when accessing DBMS data using SAS/ACCESS software)
Categories: Bulk Loading
Data Set Control
Default: INSERT when loading an empty table; APPEND when loading a table that contains data [Oracle]
APPEND [Infomix, PostgreSQL]
Restriction: REPLACE and TRUNCATE values apply only when you are loading data into a table that already contains data. In this case, you can use REPLACE and TRUNCATE to override the default value of APPEND. See your database utilities documentation for information about using the TRUNCATE and REPLACE load methods.
Requirement: To specify this option, you must first specify BULKLOAD=YES.
Data source: Informix, Oracle, PostgreSQL
Note: Support for Informix was added in SAS 9.4M9.
See: BULKLOAD= data set option

Table of Contents

Syntax

Form 1: Oracle:

BL_LOAD_METHOD=INSERT | APPEND | REPLACE | TRUNCATE

Form 2: Informix:

BL_LOAD_METHOD=APPEND | REPLACE | TRUNCATE

Form 3: PostgreSQL:

BL_LOAD_METHOD=APPEND | REPLACE | TRUNCATE

Syntax Description

INSERT

requires the DBMS table to be empty before loading. (only Oracle)

APPEND

appends rows to an existing DBMS table.

REPLACE

deletes all rows in the existing DBMS table and loads new rows from the data file.

TRUNCATE

uses the SQL truncate command to achieve the best possible performance. You must first disable the referential integrity constraints of the DBMS table.

Last updated: February 3, 2026