How to convert a CSV file into bcp formatted file?

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I'm into a task of importing a CSV file to SQL server table. I'm using bcp tool as my data can be large. The issue im facing with bcp is that the table where I'm gonna import CSV into can have a mix of data types like date, int, etc and if I use bcp using native mode (-n), I will need bcp file as the input but I have CSV file.

Is there any way to convert CSV file into bcp file? or How can I import a CSV file into SQL server table given that my table columns can have any data type and not just character types?

Had it been that all columns are of character type, i would have used bcp tool with -c option.

2
sql-serverbulkinsertbcp
Possible duplicate / solution... stackoverflow.com/questions/924733/… – SS_DBA
Personally, I would use Powershell blog.sqlauthority.com/2012/06/27/… – Mark Kram

2 Answers

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Actually... the safest thing to do when importing data, especially when it ins bulk like this, is to import it into a staging table first. In this case where all of the fields are string/varchars. That then allows you to scrub/validate the data and make sure it's safe for consumption. Then once you've verified it, move/copy it to your production tables converting it to the proper type as you go. That's typically what I do when dealing with import data.

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a CSV file is just a text file that is delimited by commas. With regard to importing text files, there is no such thing as a 'BCP' file. BCP has an option to work with native SQL data (unreadable to the human eye with a text editor), but the default is to just work with text the same as what you have in your CSV file. There is no conversion needed, with using textual data, there is no such thing as a "BCP file". It's just a ascii text file.

Whoever created the text file has already completed a conversion from their natural datatypes into text. As others have suggested, you will save yourself some pain later if you just load the textual CSV data file you have into a "load" table of all "VARCHAR" fields. Then from that load table you can manipulate the data into whatever datatypes you require in your final destination table. Better to do this than to make SQL do implied conversions by having BCP insert data directly into the final destination table.