Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the Oracle Data Pump Import to load an export dump file set into a target Oracle Database system.
Introduction to Oracle Data Pump Import tool
The Data Pump Import program is a tool that allows you to load an export dump file set into a target Oracle database system. The Data Pump Import utility comes with the Oracle Installation by default.
The dump file set consists of one or more disk files that store table data, database object metadata, and control information. The dump file set is created by running the Data Pump Export tool.
Note that the Data Pump Import is a replacement of the legacy Import tool called imp
starting from Oracle 10g. Oracle recommends the Data Pump Import tool because it is more flexible and can be 15 times faster than the legacy tool in terms of performance.
How to run the Data Pump Import tool
To invoke the Data Pump Import tool, you use the following command:
impdp
The behavior of the tool depends on the import parameters that you specify, either on the command line or in a parameter file.
Oracle Data Pump Import tool example
We will load the dump file set exported in the Data Pump Export tutorial for the demonstration.

First, create a parameter file named customer_imp.par
with the following contents and place it in the c:\export
folder:
userid=ot@pdborcl/Abcd1234 directory=ot_external dumpfile=customer_exp%U.dmp logfile=customer_imp.log remap_table=ot.customers:customers_bk
In this parameter file, the remap_table
option renames the customers
table to customers_bk
table.
Then, use the impdp
command to invoke the Data Pump Import tool with the parameter file customer_imp.par
:
impdp parfile=customer_imp.par
Finally, verify the contents of the customers_bk
table:
SELECT * FROM customers;
Here is the partial output:

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the Oracle Data Pump Import tool to load an export dump file set into an Oracle Database system.