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Asked: 2026-05-28T05:20:00+00:00

Good afternoon to all, I have this scenario: I am using SQL Server ‘BulkInsert’

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Good afternoon to all, I have this scenario:
I am using SQL Server ‘BulkInsert’ command to insert data in a table from a positional (.txt) file.
I use, to define structure of the file, a .xml file that defines position (and lenght) of the fields and their names.

These are 2 sample rows of the .txt positional file:

AAA111111Surname 1           Name 1               
BBB222222Surname 23          Name 99

My .xml format file is defined as below:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<BCPFORMAT xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2004/bulkload/format" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
 <RECORD>
  <FIELD ID="1" xsi:type="CharFixed"   LENGTH="3"  />
  <FIELD ID="2" xsi:type="CharFixed"   LENGTH="6"  />
  <FIELD ID="3" xsi:type="CharFixed"   LENGTH="20"  />
  <FIELD ID="4" xsi:type="CharFixed"   LENGTH="20"  />
  <FIELD ID="5" xsi:type="CharTerm" TERMINATOR="\r\n"  />
 </RECORD>

 <ROW>
  <COLUMN SOURCE="1" NAME="AlfaCode" xsi:type="SQLNVARCHAR"/>
  <COLUMN SOURCE="2" NAME="NumericCode" xsi:type="SQLNVARCHAR"/>
  <COLUMN SOURCE="3" NAME="Surname" xsi:type="SQLNVARCHAR"/>
  <COLUMN SOURCE="4" NAME="Name" xsi:type="SQLNVARCHAR"/>
 </ROW>
</BCPFORMAT>

My SQL Server code is:

DELETE from MY_TABLE

BULK INSERT MY_TABLE FROM 'C:\Directory\InputFile.txt'
   WITH (
      FORMATFILE = 'C:\Directory\FormatFile.xml' 
                )

But when I run in SQL Server the sp, I have the following error:

Msg 4866, Level 16, State 1, Line 3
The bulk load failed. The column is too long in the data file for row 1, column 58. Verify that the field terminator and row terminator are specified correctly.
Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 3
The OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)" reported an error. The provider did not give any information about the error.
Msg 7330, Level 16, State 2, Line 3
Cannot fetch a row from OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)".

This has always run perfectly until 2 months ago, then some wrong data were introduced into the file and procedure failed. Now data into the InputFile.txt are correct again, but procedure doesen’t work
I checked more than 1 time InputFile.txt, FormatFile.xml and, to be sure, also MY_TABLE, but all seems perfect.

I am desperate because all seems ok, I compared also old .xml files substiuted adding only some fields.

Please answer ASAP and sorry if my english is very bad.
Don’t esitate to tell me other informations.

Thanks to all

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I think it’s most likely your input file must still be wrong. (even though you think you fixed it).

    In your example, you have 50 characters on line 1 before the line break.
    Your XML says you should only have 49 chars! (3+6+20+20)
    Your second line in the example only has 39 characters before the linebreak.

    It’s probably also worth opening your txt file in a text editor that will show you the line breaks. For instance, in notepad++, go to View -> Show Symbol -> Show All Characters. Then you can see the CR and LF characters, to verify they are there.

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