If you expect a lot of rows with more than 1 space before the "\", this might be a lot faster...

--===== Execute the "single statement" update to...

Absolutely... in the code that follows, only the third "paragraph" is required... the rest is just setting up for the test.  Of course, you will need to delete all but...

--===== Build some test data so we can demo the solution

 CREATE TABLE #YourTable (PermitNum VARCHAR(10),EventDate DATETIME ,EventDesc VARCHAR(20),EventDateID INT)

 INSERT INTO #YourTable

        (PermitNum,EventDate,EventDesc,EventDateID)

 SELECT 'PSD-1206','5/11/06','App Received',1 UNION ALL

 SELECT 'PSD-1206','5/25/06','Determination',2...

CHAR(10) is the same thing as \n... use one or the other but not both.

No response... guess it's no longer a priority, eh?

Yes, some of the BCP command line is order sensitive... most of the "switches" are not but the other stuff typically is.

So far as the "other" application goes, most folks...

Nope... you using single quotes in the first attempt... you correctly used double quotes in the second attempt.

Ronald's suggestion will certainly work but it's a pain if you have a bunch of named indexes, constraints, and the like...

If you'd take the time to post the schema (CREATE...

Agreed on all points... I have the same problems with a batch scheduling program at work because they don't know how to and/or won't use the SQL Job scheduler.  Then...

Heh... THAT can be done!  But I absolutely agree... The requirements that some of these folks have to put up with is insane.

Yep... whichever one ran first on my box, lost by about a second.  Then, I removed the drop from both, whichever one ran first, also lost by about a second. ...

The SQL Server "Service" must be logged in as a user that can "see" those remote paths.  As Lynn said, that also means that user must have permissions to see...

Now, reverse the test... do it with the NO DROP first...

First, don't use ISQL... it's quite a bit deprecated when compared to OSQL which you should use instead.

Second, yes, both your BCP and OSQL should be very close... probably the...

Of course, we could stop guessing if you'd post the code, Ashok.