Bulk insert, SQL Server 2000, unix linebreaks

Question

I am trying to insert a .csv file into a database with unix linebreaks. The command I am running is:

BULK INSERT table_name
FROM \'C:\\file.csv\' 
WITH 
( 
         


        

Answer 1

Thanks to all who have answered but I found my preferred solution.

When you tell SQL Server ROWTERMINATOR='\n' it interprets this as meaning the default row terminator under Windows which is actually "\r\n" (using C/C++ notation). If your row terminator is really just "\n" you will have to use the dynamic SQL shown below.

DECLARE @bulk_cmd varchar(1000)
SET @bulk_cmd = 'BULK INSERT table_name
FROM ''C:\file.csv''
WITH (FIELDTERMINATOR = '','', ROWTERMINATOR = '''+CHAR(10)+''')'
EXEC (@bulk_cmd)

Why you can't say BULK INSERT ...(ROWTERMINATOR = CHAR(10)) is beyond me. It doesn't look like you can evaluate any expressions in the WITH section of the command.

What the above does is create a string of the command and execute that. Neatly sidestepping the need to create an additional file or go through extra steps.