Question

I’m having a problem reading data from a text file into ms sql. I created a text file in my c:\ called data.txt, but for some reason ms sql server cannot find the file. I get the error “Cannot bulk load. The file “c:\data.txt” does not exist.” Any ideas?

The data file (yes I know the data looks crappy, but in the real world thats how it comes from clients):

01-04 10.338,18 0,00 597.877,06- 5 0,7500 62,278-
06-04 91.773,00 9.949,83 679.700,23- 1 0,7500 14,160-
07-04 60.648,40 149.239,36 591.109,27- 1 0,7500 12,314-
08-04 220.173,70 213.804,37 597.478,60- 1 0,7500 12,447-
09-04 986.071,39 0,00 1.583.549,99- 3 0,7500 98,971-
12-04 836.049,00 1.325.234,79 1.094.364,20- 1 0,7500 22,799-
13-04 38.000,00 503.010,49 629.353,71- 1 0,7500 13,111-
14-04 286.400,00 840.126,50 75.627,21- 1 0,7500 1,575-

The Sql:

CREATE TABLE #temp
(
    vchCol1 VARCHAR (50),
    vchCol2 VARCHAR (50),
    vchCol3 VARCHAR (50),
    vchCol4 VARCHAR (50),
    vchCol5 VARCHAR (50),
    vchCol6 VARCHAR (50),
    vchCol7 VARCHAR (50)
)

BULK insert #temp
FROM 'c:\data.txt'
WITH
(
FIELDTERMINATOR = ' ',
ROWTERMINATOR = '\n'
)

select * from #temp
drop table #temp

Answer 1

That’s run on the server, so its looking for C:\data.txt on the server’s C: drive.

Also ensure the logon your using has read permissions on C:.