very large inserts

[Kempf, Reed]

Hello,

My name is Reed and I am new to the list as of today.  I have been working
with python for about 6 months and I have an issue where I am stumped.

My background is in python, pl/sql and oracle database management with a
touch of mysql database management.

Anyway, I know in mysql you can do a bulk insert or an insert where you can
insert many records with one insert statement like this:

MYSQL - insert into table (col1, col2, col3, col4)
        values (1,2,3,4),(2,3,4,5),(3,4,5,6),(4,5,6,7);

In oracle, you would have to do 1 insert at a time unless you are using
pl/sql in which you can do a bulk insert (as far as I know).

ORACLE - insert into table (col1, col2, col3, col4)
         values (1,2,3,4);
         insert into table (col1, col2, col3, col4)
         values (2,3,4,5); and so forth.......

My question is, can python simulate a mysql bulk insert in python?

I am running a linux distribution 6.2 with kernel 2.4.17 and oracle 8.1.7.4
patch set.  I am also using python 2.1.  Currently in my python script I
loop through a python dictionary and build an insert statement which I then
pass through a connection to update oracle and move onto the next python
dictionary key.  

This works but I would sincerely like to build one very large insert
statement and pass it to the oracle connection all at once.  This is an
issue for me since I am going through sqlnet and across a VPN to update the
oracle database.  The less cursors I pass through the connection, the
better.

Thanks in advance,

ReedK