jvanderberg (7/1/2010)
Using Excel and CSV files as a permanent data store is ill-advised. Using Excel or CSV for data entry is even worse. The fact that you need to bring data from Excel/CSV into a database on an automated schedule suggests that you are doing one or both.
Your conclusion is a pretty big assumption. The initial post didn't make it sound like a dynamic edit-able environment, he's just trying to figure out how to get that data into SQL Server.
Often times, the need to import CSV or XLS files comes as a result of not having control over the company systems as a whole and needing to get data extracted from other systems (hopefully in an automated manner) into the SQL environment.