oracle - How to use decode in sql-loader? -

i use sqlldr import csv files , have problem date multiple formats.

dates inside csv file dd/mm/yyyy , if there no date single dot

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csv file

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date_column;other_column 01/01/2013;other column content 1 .;other column content 2 

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my .ctl file sqlldr

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load data infile '/path/to/my/file.csv' replace table table_to_fill fields terminated ';' ( columndate "decode(:columndate ,null,'.', to_date(:columndate ,'dd/mm/yyyy'))", other_column ) 

the import working when use :

decode(:columndate ,null,'.')) 

or

to_date(:columndate ,'dd/mm/yyyy') 

but not when try combine both...

here error log :

record 1: rejected - error on table table_to_fill, column columndate. ora-01858: non-numeric character found numeric expected 

how can combine these, please ?

i thought last parameter of "decode" function default value of column, wrong ?

sql loader's "regular" syntax should enough here. try this:

load data infile '/path/to/my/file.csv' replace table table_to_fill fields terminated ';' (   columndate date(7) "dd/mm/yyyy" nullif columndate = "."   other_column )