Bulk insert fixed width fields

Question

How do you specify field lengths with the Bulk Insert command?

Example: If I had a table named c:\Temp\TableA.txt and it had:

123ABC
456DEF

And I had a table such as:

use tempdb
CREATE TABLE TABLEA(
Field1 char(3),
Field2 char(3)
)
BULK INSERT TableA FROM 'C:\Temp\TableA.txt'
SELECT * FROM TableA

Then how would I specify the lengths for Field1 and Field2?

Answer 1

You'd want to use a format file with your BULK INSERT. Something like:

9.0
2
1     SQLCHAR     0     03     ""         1     Field1          ""
2     SQLCHAR     0     03     "\r\n"     2     Field2          ""

Answer 2

I think you need to define a format file

e.g.

BULK INSERT TableA FROM 'C:\Temp\TableA.txt'
WITH FORMATFILE = 'C:\Temp\Format.xml'
SELECT * FROM TableA

For that to work, though, you need a Format File, obviously.

See here for general info about creating one:

Creating a Format File

At a guess, from looking at the Schema, something like this might do it:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<BCPFORMAT xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2004/bulkload/format" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"&gt;
<RECORD>
  <FIELD ID="1" xsi:type="CharFixed" LENGTH="3"/>
  <FIELD ID="2" xsi:type="CharFixed" LENGTH="3"/>
</RECORD>
<ROW>
  <COLUMN SOURCE="1" NAME="Field1" xsi:type="SQLCHAR" LENGTH="3"/>
  <COLUMN SOURCE="2" NAME="Field2" xsi:type="SQLCHAR" LENGTH="3"/>
</ROW>
</BCPFORMAT>