Fastest way to insert a million rows in Oracle

Question

How can I insert more than a million rows in Oracle in optimal way for the following procdeure? It hangs if I increase FOR loop to a million rows.

create or replace procedure inst_prc1 as
   xssn number;
   xcount number;
   l_start Number;
   l_end Number;
   cursor c1 is select max(ssn)S1 from dtr_debtors1;

Begin
  l_start := DBMS_UTILITY.GET_TIME;
  FOR I IN 1..10000 LOOP
    For C1_REC IN C1 Loop
      insert into dtr_debtors1(SSN) values (C1_REC.S1+1);
    End loop;
  END LOOP;
  commit;
  l_end := DBMS_UTILITY.GET_TIME;
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('The Procedure  Start Time is '||l_start);
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('The Procedure End Time is '||l_end); 
End inst_prc1;

Answer 1

Your approach will lead to memory issues. Fastest way will be this [Query edited after David's comment to take care of null scenario] :

insert into dtr_debtors1(SSN)
select a.S1+level
   from dual,(select nvl(max(ssn),0) S1 from dtr_debtors1) a
connect by level <= 10000 

A select insert is the fastest approach as everything stays in RAM. This query can become slow if it slips into Global temp area but then that needs DB tuning . I don't think there can be anything faster than this.

Few more details on memory use by Query:

Each query will have its own PGA [Program global area] which is basically RAM available to each query. If this this area is not sufficient to return query results then SQL engine starts using Golabl temp tablespace which is like hard disk and query starts becoming slow. If data needed by query is so huge that even temp area is not sufficient then you will tablespace error.

So always design query so that it stays in PGA else its a Red flag.