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BCP files

  • October 7, 2005 at 5:44 am

    #89666

    I have been asked to look at the data within a number of files with a BCP extension.

    According to BOL I should be able to stuff the data into a temporary table however I have no idea what the internal format of the BCP file is in and therefore I cannot create a suitable temporary table.

    How do I examine the BCP files?

  • October 7, 2005 at 6:56 am

    #595843

    If all you have to do is look at the files, why not just open them up with a good text editor?

  • October 7, 2005 at 7:50 am

    #595857

    I have, but they appear to be in some form of binary format.

  • October 7, 2005 at 7:54 am

    #595859

    It sounds like the BCP files may have been created in a BCP OUT operation employing the '-n', i.e., native format.  If this is the case, then the best way to get a look at the contents would be:

    1. Find a CREATE TABLE template matching the table from which the BCP file was produced.
    2. Use the template to create this table in 'tempdb'.
    3. Use BCP IN with the -n option into this new 'tempdb' table.
    4. Hope it works.

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