External tables access data in external sources as if it were in a table in the database.
You can connect to the database and create metadata for the external table using DDL.
The DDL for an external table consists of two parts: one part that describes the Oracle
column types, and another part (the access parameters) that describes the mapping of
the external data to the Oracle data columns.
u 创建的语法类似于: "CREATE TABLE ... ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL"
u 数据在数据库的外部组织,是操作系统文件。
u 操作系统文件在数据库中的标志是通过一个逻辑目录来映射的。
u 数据是只读的。(外部表相当于一个只读的虚表)
u 不可以在上面运行任何 DML 操作,不可以创建索引。
u 可以查询操作和连接。可以并行操作。