Hello,
I am using SQL2k8R2 and it often comes to a need to do big data import for analysis, I believe
bcp whould be the best efficient way to go, however, the bcp is really something that you like it and you also hate it, here is my question with the detailed steps that you can use to replicate the issue on your own server, the test was done on AdventureWorks2008
but you can certainly do it in any other test DB:
1. I create a test table:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[EmployeesTest](
[BusinessEntityID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[NationalIDNumber] [nvarchar](15) NOT NULL,
[LoginID] [nvarchar](256) NOT NULL)
GO
2. Add a line of data
insert EmployeesTest (NationalIDNumber, LoginID) values ('111111', 'aaaaa')
3. Now I export the data to csv
bcp AdventureWorks2008.dbo.EmployeesTest out C:\Data\EmployeesTest.csv –c –t -S -T
4. create test table for back import data
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[EmployeesTestImport](
[BusinessEntityID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[NationalIDNumber] [nvarchar](15) NOT NULL,
[LoginID] [nvarchar](256) NOT NULL)
GO
5. Now I want to import data back, to a different table EmployeesTestImport, here I stuck on
the bcp:
5.1 I create a format file, the reason I use format file is later on I will have much bigger
and complex data file for import:
bcp AdventureWorks2008.dbo.EmployeesTestImport format nul -T -c -f C:\Data\EmployeesTest.fmt
5.2 I use the format file in the bcp and it throws me error
bcp AdventureWorks2008.dbo.EmployeesTestImport in C:\Data\EmployeesTest.csv -f C:\Data\EmployeesTest.fmt
-S -T
Error:
Starting copy...
SQLState = S1000, NativeError = 0
Error = [Microsoft][SQL Native Client]Unexpected EOF encountered in BCP data-file
0 rows copied.
Network packet size (bytes): 4096
Clock Time (ms.) Total : 1
What's wrong with this simple procedure?
I then turned to Bulk Insert, and it gives me more details of the error:
If I use Bulk Insert to do the same job, I got a little bit more info for the error:
BULK INSERT EmployeesTestImport
FROM 'C:\Data\EmployeesTest.csv'
WITH (
CODEPAGE = 'RAW'
,DATAFILETYPE = 'char'
,FORMATFILE = 'C:\Data\EmployeesTest.fmt'
,TABLOCK
)
;
Error:
Msg 4832, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Bulk load: An unexpected end of file was encountered in the data file.
Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)" reported an error.
The provider did not give any information about the error.
Msg 7330, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
Cannot fetch a row from OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)".
Thank you.