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Hello. Using the solutions found on EE, I've created a stored proc that takes each row of a fixed width text file and bulk inserts it as a single string in a row in a temp table. The proc then parses through each row (string) in the temp table and inserts the specified values into my permanent table:
ALTER PROC [Pharmacy].[BulkInsertDDPSFile] @FilePath nvarchar(MAX), @LastRow int AS CREATE TABLE #tmpDDPS ( [strRecord] [nvarchar](MAX) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS)
declare @sql varchar(2000)
set @sql = 'BULK INSERT #tmpDDPS FROM ''' + @FilePath + ''' with (FIRSTROW=3, FIELDTERMINATOR=''~'', ROWTERMINATOR=''\n'', LASTROW=''' + @LastRow + ''')' exec (@sql)
I'm having a problem with the @LastRow variable I have in my variable BULK INSERT SQL statement. Because I do not want to import the first 2 rows and the last 2 rows of the text file and because the file length is variable, I want the user to supply the last row number to the sp. Is this possible with the way I have it above, or is there another way to do this?
BTW, this is the error code I get when trying to execute the above sp: Msg 245, Level 16, State 1, Procedure BulkInsertDDPSFile, Line 12 Conversion failed when converting the nvarchar value 'BULK INSERT #tmpDDPS FROM 'C:\DDPS_TRANS_VALIDATI.txt' with (FIRSTROW=3, FIELDTERMINATOR='~', ROWTERMINATOR='\n', LASTROW='' to data type int.
Ignore Lastrow. Instead, add an ID field to your table, and delete the last two rows by ID. This will, of course, require you to use a format file, but you will save thousands of days of headaches.
Alternately, BULK INSERT, Count the rows, then set the LASTROW based on the number of rows inserted and BULK INSERT again.
I found a solution to my problem...Each of the rows has a different starting strind based on what type of record it is - HDR for the header record, TLR for the trailing record, DET for the detail record, etc. I want to only import the DET records so I created a temp table for my rows and the deleted any records that were LIKE %HDR% or %TLR%, thus deleting the last 2 rows and keeping all of the DET records. It works - too bad I can't award myself some points!
I gave bhess1 half the points becuase his solution led me on the path to finding my own workaround. Thx!
