title: Quality Control: Check file names in a folder against filenames in a table
body: <p>I have a records system in an Oracle database. The records system is used to retrieve pdf, jpeg, video documents, etc.</p>
  
  <p>The design is quite simple: there is a table called <code>infrastructure_records</code> that has a column with hyperlinks to files:</p>
  
  <pre><code>+------------+------------------------------------------+
  | project_id |                file_path                 |
  +------------+------------------------------------------+
  | Project 1  | X:\Records_System\Folder A\Project 1.pdf |
  | Project 2  | X:\Records_System\Folder B\Project 2.jpg |
  | Project 3  | X:\Records_System\Folder C\Project 3.mpg |
  +------------+------------------------------------------+
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>We use a front-end that creates a clickable hyperlink out of the file paths. Using the hyperlink, users can navigate to the files.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Question:</strong></p>
  
  <p>I want to check the files on the network drive against the list of files in the database table.</p>
  
  <p>If I could get a list of files from the network into a database table, then I could easily query for errors.</p>
  
  <p>However, I'm not sure what the best way would be to create the list of files in an Oracle table. </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>There are approximately 60,000 files on the network drive, nestled in a variety of subfolders </li>
  <li>The files don't exist on the same server as the Oracle database (I'm not an I.T. guy, so I'm pretty clueless about this sort of thing). However, I do have the drive mapped in Windows Explorer on the computer that I would be running the query from.</li>
  <li>This QC operation would be run about once per month.</li>
  <li>Performance isn't a huge concern. The list of files doesn't need to be "live", although that would certainly be a plus.</li>
  <li>I can think of quick-and-dirty ways to do this using VBA scripting in MS Office or the like. But, it has occurred to me that there might be a more professional or out-of-box way to do this (perhaps using built-in Oracle functionality).</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>How can a I elegantly insert a list of files on a network drive into an Oracle table?</strong></p>