Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Unleashed, Second Edition

Bulk-Copy Program (BCP)

There are three main ways to initiate bulk-copy operations:

• The bulk-copy program (the BCP utility), a command-prompt utility

• The BULK INSERT statement used in Transact-SQL batches and stored procedures

• The bulk-copy APIs for OLE DB, ODBC, and DB-Library applications

These are the potential uses of BCP (in any of its forms):

• Exporting data out of SQL Server tables (to flat files) to other applications and environments

• Importing data in to SQL Server tables (from flat files) from other applications and environments

• Changing the code page of the data already in SQL Server tables (via exporting/importing with special options)

• Restructuring data in tables (exporting data using views or the queryout option, then importing this restructured ...