September 2010
Intermediate to advanced
1704 pages
111h 8m
English
By using a format file, you can customize the data file created by bcp or specify complex field layouts for data loads. There are two ways to create a format file: by using interactive bcp and by using the format switch.
bcpIf you do not specify one of the –n, –c, or –w data type format switches, bcp (in or out) prompts you for the following information for each column in the data set:
bcp offers a default for each of these prompts that you can either accept or reject. If you accept all the defaults, you wind up with the same format file you would have by specifying the native format (with the –n switch). The prompts ...