Question : SQL Loader Decode function

I am using DECODE function of SQLLoader because i need some bunch of characters to be NULL if they are present in the CSV file.

All these characters if present needs to be NULL
{,(,*,%,$,#,@,!,~,`,<,>..,;,[,],|,\,?,/ or N/A need to be made to NULL

There are a bunch of characters. Please, say whether the attached code snippet DECODE function is correctly used and suggest me whether there is anything other than DECODE which can perform the same function? And Is it a performance hit and if it is a performance hit, suggest me the one that is more efficient.

Code Snippet:

         
             "DECODE (:PROVIDERBILLADDR1,'{', NULL, 'N/A', NULL,'(',NULL,'*',NULL,'%',NULL,'$',NULL,'#',NULL,'@',NULL,'!',NULL,'~',NULL,'`',NULL,'<',NULL,'>',NULL,'..',NULL,';',NULL,'[',NULL,']',NULL,'|',NULL,'\',NULL,'?',NULL,'/',NULL, :PROVIDERBILLADDR1 )"

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Answer : SQL Loader Decode function

That looks like valid syntax for the "decode" operator in Oracle. Yes, any operator will add at least a small performance hit, but the performacne penalty for "decode' is usually quite small. If this doesn't work in SQL*Loader, the other option would be to write a "before insert" trigger on the table that includes "for each row" and this same decode syntax.