Question

I am trying to insert data from multiple files into SQL Server. This is the code I am using–

DECLARE @MyCounter int;
DECLARE @Fileprefix nvarchar, @Filesuffix nvarchar, @fullname nvarchar, @Counter_string nvarchar;

SET @MyCounter = 1;
SET @Fileprefix= 'C:\Arvind_gpd\patents\';
SET @Filesuffix='data_corrected.csv';

WHILE (@MyCounter < 10)

BEGIN;
Set @Counter_string= Cast(@MyCounter AS varchar(1) );
Set @fullname = (@Fileprefix+ @Counter_string + @Filesuffix );
BULK INSERT GooglePatentsIndividualDec2012.dbo.patent
FROM  @fullname WITH  ( DATAFILETYPE = 'char', FIELDTERMINATOR = '^', ROWTERMINATOR =     '\n' );
SET @MyCounter = @MyCounter + 1;
END;  
GO

However I am getting these error messages–

  Incorrect syntax near @fullname. Expecting Integer, String, TEXT_LEX.....
  Incorrect syntax near DATAFILETYPE. Expecting SELECT or '('

What am I doing wrong in the above query?

Answer 1

You cannot use a variable as a table name. If you want to use a variable you have to create a string and use the EXEC function like this:

DECLARE @fullname nvarchar, @sql nvarchar
SET @sql = 'SELECT * FROM ' + @fullname+ ' WHERE id = 1'
EXEC(@sql)