In a Sql Bulk Insert statement, can we use relative path(files\a.txt) instead of absolute path(c:\abc\a.txt) or networked universal path (\\abc\a.txt)

Question

I wanted to insert data in a table from a text file where it is stored in csv format to a sql server table. For that, I am using bulk-insert statement. Now I need to specify the file name in "From" clause. I don't want to use networked locations or local locations over there. I want to upload my text file in the same directory as my executable file and give a relative path to it. Is it possible???

Answer 1

I don't think so. I just tried

SELECT BulkColumn
FROM   OPENROWSET(BULK'files\doesnotexist.txt',SINGLE_BLOB)x;

And looked at it in Process Monitor

And it was looking for C:\WINDOWS\system32\files\doesnotexist.txt so I think you would need to put in the full path.