Andy DBA (1/23/2014)

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Great article! Exellent choice on where to draw the line on its scope.

Also, sometimes it's just as valuable to learn what can't be done as it is to learn what can be done because then you don't waste time trying to figure out how to do the impossible. So, thank you for confirming right away that BULK INSERT can't import spreadsheet files and for the reminder later on that BOL says using BULK INSERT to import CSV files is not supported.

Jeff Moden - Article

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The real key is to get whomever or whatever is providing the data to provide it in a consistant manner just as you would do in a properly designed table.

So true, but easier said than done! Sometimes you gotta take what you get. I've recently had to strip text qualifier quotes from TSVs prior to BULK INSERTING and wondered if I was missing out on some new command line or format file option that was available since the last time I read any documentation. Sadly, I see the answer is "No".

I'm only going to mention one tiny correction in case you did it on purpose to see if anyone is paying attention:

]Jeff Moden - Article

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For example, the first "format line" is supposed to be for "ColC" of the table but I've used "Doesn't matter" here because it truly doesn't matter what's in this column.

The posted example has "ColC", not "Doesn't matter". (BTW, I did not know this value was arbitrary, so thank you for pointing that out in your article.)