Copying data from a text file to a CLOB in PL/SQL - database

Question

I have used the following code to copy the text from a file to a CLOB. However it is giving me a PL/SQL numeric or value error at the position where writeappend is performed.
declare
l_fhandle utl_file.file_type;
l_clob CLOB;
l_buffer VARCHAR2(4096);
BEGIN
l_fhandle := utl_file.fopen('/data',
'FILE.TXT',
'R');
dbms_lob.createtemporary(l_clob, TRUE, DBMS_LOB.CALL);
LOOP
BEGIN
utl_file.get_line(L_FHANDLE, l_buffer);
dbms_output.put_line(l_buffer);
dbms_lob.writeappend(l_clob, length(l_buffer), l_buffer);
EXCEPTION
WHEN no_data_found THEN
dbms_output.put_line('Inside No data found');
INSERT INTO TAB_CLOB_FILE
(FILENAME, BODYCONT)
VALUES
('FILE', l_clob);
dbms_output.put_line('Inserted data into table');
EXIT;
END;
END LOOP;
END;
Please help me figure out what is wrong

Answer 1

Your problem is most likely here:
utl_file.fopen('/data', 'FILE.TXT','R');
The fist parameter is the name of an oracle directory OBJECT, not a physical path to a directory. From the Oracle docs, "Directory location of file. This string is a directory object name and is case sensitive. The default is uppercase. Read privileges must be granted on this directory object for the UTL_FILE user to run FOPEN." The incorrect call should have thrown an exception though.
You need to first create a directory object such as:
create directory MY_DIR as '/data';
Then change the fopen call to: utl_file.fopen('MY_DIR', 'FILE.TXT','R');
You can read about directory objects here.