SQL & PL/SQL

Hello,

I've encountered the following problem while trying to update records in an Oracle 8i database :

I have a java program that updates thousands of records from a flat file to the oracle database, the "commit" command is done at the end of the program,the problem is that some records are not updated in the database but no exception is raised !
If I try to do a commit after each update, the problem seems to be solved, but of course it takes more time to do the massive update, and I think it is not recommended to do a commit after each record?

Is there a limit to which a commit can be done? (a number of maximum records to be updated)

Thanks greatly for your help!

Regards,

Carine