Question

For SQL Server 2008 R2, is it possible to import a .csv file with a date in “MM/DD/YYYY” format, using “bulk insert”? Or do I have to alter my .csv file to have a format that SQL Server 2008 R2 expects?

I execute the following in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2:

BULK
INSERT dbo.TCsvOptionContracts
FROM 'C:\x.csv'
WITH
(
FIELDTERMINATOR = ',',
ROWTERMINATOR = '\n',
FORMATFILE = 'C:\format.xml',
FIRSTROW = 2
)
GO

And I get this error:

Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 2, column 1 (Date).

The date in this column of the .csv file is in the form MM/DD/YYYY, i.e. “02/16/2011”.

p.s. I generated a format file with the following command, however, I didn’t see any option to specify the MM/DD/YYYY date format for the offending column:

bcp Engine..TCsvOptionContracts format nul -c -x -f C:\format.xml -t, -T

Answer 1

Configured the “date” column to be “smalldatetime” instead of “datetime”. Tried it, and everything imported 100%.

There are two potential methods to do this:

• Method 1: Discard the formatting file, it will read it in fine without it (this definitely works).
• Method 2: If LINQ-to-Entities insists on generating a “datetime” in this column, then change the formatting file to specify “smalldatetime” so it reads in properly (havn’t tried this but I imagine it might work).