Patent ID: 8606744

Claim:
A method for moving data, into a database system that includes a database server and a database, from one or more external sources external to the database, the method comprising: the database server executing a database command that specifies movement of the data from said one or more external sources into said database, wherein executing the database command comprises: the database server segmenting the data on the one or more external sources into a first plurality of segments that collectively cover the data specified by the database command, wherein segmenting the data comprises segmenting a single file, that is stored on an external source of the one or more external sources, into a second plurality of segments that is included in the first plurality of segments, wherein the second plurality of segments cover an entirety of the single file, and wherein segmenting the single file is based at least in part on a data format of the single file; and the database server executing a plurality of processes concurrently, wherein each process of said plurality of processes is assigned to move data from a different segment of said first plurality of segments into the database system.