Chapter 21. Moving Data in Bulk with DB2

You had fun in previous chapters inserting data into DB2 with the ever-useful insert statement. Combined with some of the programming tricks you know, it would be easy to come up with an application that could run insert statements on reasonably large volumes of data. Maybe thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of rows could be handled in reasonable time. But what if you had to get millions of rows of data into your databases? And what if millions turned to billions one day?

DB2 comes fully equipped with a range of data import and export utilities designed to tackle everything from a single row of information to terabyte-sized parcels of data. Each tool has a role to play, but there is also a common foundation that maximizes the flexibility you have when it comes to shifting data in bulk. Best of all, the bulk data movement utilities are designed to be fast. They're faster than any other method for moving lots of data into, out of, and between your databases.