BCP to Text Files. Odd Character at File End

Question

BCP to Text Files. Odd Character at File End

homebrew01

SSC Guru

Points: 55549
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October 14, 2010 at 1:07 pm

#239822

I'm trying to streamline a manual process here by using BCP to create some text files. I want the test files to include column headers. I saw some ideas of using views with the column names and union to the data, but I's prefer it to be more dynamic in case a new column is added at some point. We have clients that sometimes dictate changes to us, so the less maintenance the better.
There are a variable # of tables that needed to get put to .txt files, and they are fed from another table, so the BCP steps will be run multiple times, once for each table.
I use syscolumns to get the column names into a temp table, and run a BCP to put them to a HEADER.txt file.
SET @FileHdrName = 'Output_Header'
SET @Cmd = 'BCP "SELECT * FROM ' + DB_NAME() + '.dbo.Table_Columns" queryout "' + @Folder + @FileHdrName + @Extension + '" /c /T '
EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @Cmd
Then I use BCP to put the data w/ pipe delimiters into DETAIL.txt file.
SET @FileDataName = 'Output_Data'
SET @Cmd = 'BCP "SELECT * FROM ' + DB_NAME() + '.dbo.Table_Data" queryout "' + @Folder + @FileDataName + @Extension + '" /c /T /t "|"' -- pipe delimited
PRINT ' Executing xp_cmdshell: ' + CONVERT(varchar(1000), @Cmd)
EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @Cmd
So far so good.
Then I use DOS to merge the HDR & DTL together into the final file COMBINED.txt.
eg: copy file1.txt + file2.txt file3.txt
set @CMD = 'copy ' + @Folder + @FileHdrName + @Extension + ' + ' + @Folder + @FileDataName + @Extension + ' ' + @Folder + @FileName + @Extension copy myfile1.txt+myfile2.txt'
EXEC master..xp_cmdshell @Cmd
However, there seems to be a hex value of some sort showing as a square on a new line at the end of the new text file that does not exist in either the header or detail txt files.
There's probably a completely different approach that's better, so I'm open to suggestions. Could I use SSIS and pass it variables for the name of the .txt file to be created ?

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homebrew01 SSC Guru Points: 55549 More actions · Answer 1

Solution found. Posting it in the off chance anyone cares.

This didn't really end up being relevant to SQL, but I needed a "/b" in the COPY to prevent an end of file marker from being created.

himabindumlh SSC Journeyman Points: 92 More actions · Answer 2

Hi

Could you please let me know what's the exact solution to get rid of square character in output text file

Thanks,

Bindu

himabindumlh SSC Journeyman Points: 92 More actions · Answer 3

himabindumlh

SSC Journeyman

Points: 92

February 23, 2011 at 6:45 am

#1290350

Please post the solution

Regards,

Bindu

paul.knibbs SSCoach Points: 15320 More actions · Answer 4

He already did post his solution--read the second post.

rossetti_marie Valued Member Points: 63 More actions · Answer 5

Thank you homebrew. If not for your posting, it would have taken so much longer to resolve this issue.

scronin 98371 Valued Member Points: 70 More actions · Answer 6

Thanks for posting this. Can you be more specific with where you insert '/b' in the COPY script?

scronin 98371 Valued Member Points: 70 More actions · Answer 7

Never mind. Some trial and error, I placed it at the end of the command string and it worked.

homebrew01 SSC Guru Points: 55549 More actions · Answer 8

scronin 98371 (4/30/2014)
Never mind. Some trial and error, I placed it at the end of the command string and it worked.

Yes, that is what I did too.

set @CMD = 'copy ' + @Folder + @FileHdrName + @Extension + ' + ' + @Folder + @FileDataName + @Extension + ' ' + @Folder + @FileName + @Extension + ' /b'

s.j.iyyappan SSC Journeyman Points: 77 More actions · Answer 9

/B is not working, if you have large number of data. It corrupts file Is there any other way to get rid off this?

BCP to Text Files. Odd Character at File End

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