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The Force.com platform offers you a development environment which you can use to create your own custom applications. Frequently, you will use the Force.com platform to create applications that operate on data that you already have in some form - in comma-separated variable files, spreadsheets or other relational databases.

The Data Loader is an easy to use graphical tool that helps you to get your data into Force.com objects. The Data Loader can also be used to extract data from Force.com objects into any of the destinations mentioned above. You can even use the Data Loader to perform bulk deletions by exporting the ID fields for the data you wish to delete and using that source to specify deletions through the Data Loader.

Features

Features of the Data Loader include:

• An easy-to-use wizard interface
• An alternate command line interface
• A batch mode interface with database connectivity
• Support for large files with up to millions of rows
• Drag-and-drop field mapping
• Support for all objects, including custom objects
• Detailed success and error log files in CSV format
• A built-in CSV file viewer
• Supported on Windows 2000 and Windows XP

Documentation

Here is the official documentation for the Data Loader:

• Data Loader User Guide (PDF)

Extended Data Loader capabilities

For more detailed information about the use of Data Loader, check out:

• The article Using Data Loader from the command line on running Data Loader from the command line for non-interactive operation
• A blog post on importing attachments with Data Loader
• One user's experience (PDF) on using Data Loader from the command line, including parameter descriptions and how to encrypt passwords.

Other loading options

• Another option for loading and unloading data from Salesforce objects is the Force.com Excel Connector, an open source project
• The Data Loader uses the Force.com API. Because of this dependence, the Data Loader is only available to Unlimited, Enterprise and Developer users. If you want to move data into Force.com and are not using one of these editions, you can use the Enhanced Import Wizard