sql server bcp xml data

Question

Hi I have a table which has a column which is of type xml. I have to extract data from this table and load the data into another environment. i am using bcp to extract and laod the target table but there are some special characters that is causing some issues when i bcp them into the target table. are there any workarounds

thanks Ben

Answer 1

A custom CLR-SP provided me with the best solution. Now I can write XML-typed data directly to a file from TSQL, provided the SQL service account has permission to the file. This allows the simple syntax:

exec dbo.clr_xml2file @xml, @path, @bool_overwrite

The SP:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[clr_xml2file]
    @xml [xml],
    @file [nvarchar](max),
    @overwrite [bit]
WITH EXECUTE AS CALLER
AS
EXTERNAL NAME [CLR_FileIO].[FreddyB.FileIO].[Xml2File]

The C# for the CLR DLL:

using System;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Principal;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.XPath;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;

namespace FreddyB
{  
  public class FileIO
  {
    public static void Xml2File(
   SqlXml xml, 
   SqlString sFile, 
   SqlBoolean bOverwrite
 ) {

      SqlPipe sqlpipe = SqlContext.Pipe;
      try
      {
        if (xml == null || xml.IsNull || xml.Value.Length == 0) {
          sqlpipe.Send("Cannot write empty content to file : \n\t"
   +sFile.Value);
          return;
        }

        if (File.Exists(sFile.Value) & bOverwrite.IsFalse) {
          sqlpipe.Send("File already exists : \n\t"+sFile.Value);
          return;
        }

        int iFileSize = 0;
        FileStream fs = null;
        try {
          byte[] ba = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xml.Value);
          iFileSize = ba.Length;

          fs = new FileStream(sFile.Value, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
          fs.Write(ba, 0, ba.Length);

          sqlpipe.Send("Wrote "
   +String.Format("{0:0,0.0}",iFileSize/1024)
   +" KB to : \n\t"
   +sFile.Value);
        }
        catch (Exception ex) 
        {
          sqlpipe.Send("Error as '"
      +WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name
   +"' during file write : \n\t"
   +ex.Message);
          sqlpipe.Send("Stack trace : \n"+ex.StackTrace);
        }
        finally
        {
          if (fs != null) {
            fs.Close();
          }
        }
      }
      catch (Exception ex)
      {
        sqlpipe.Send("Error writing to file : \n\t"
    +ex.Message);
      }
    }
  }
}