Question

I’m trying to create a table in a database using SQL. The data is currently in a text file that looks like this, but has thousands of lines like that.

My trouble lies primarily in the parameters of the “CREATE TABLE” function. Is there a way to say that I want all of the columns? Right now the code looks like:

CREATE TABLE dbo.CFTC_Fin_Data
(

)

BULK INSERT dbo.CFTC_Fin_Data
    FROM 'H:\user\Desktop\CFTCData1.txt' 
    WITH 
    ( 
        FIELDTERMINATOR = ',', 
        ROWTERMINATOR = '\n' 
    );

Thanks for any help. I’m pretty new to SQL, so I apologize if similar questions have been answered already, but I couldn’t understand any of the answers that I read.

Answer 1

Well, you have to look at your file and see what kind of info you have in each field.

With the line in your files, it seems that

Field1 is a string (3 char, maybe more in other lines) ? => NVARCHAR(100)

Field2 is a string (xx char) => NVARCHAR(255)

Field3 is a DATE => DATE

Field4 seems to be all kind of things => NVARCHAR(100)

So something like

CREATE TABLE dbo.CTFC_Fin_Data (
column1 NVARCHAR(100),
column2 NVARCHAR(255),
column3 DATE,
column4 NVARCHAR(100)
)

But you need to examinate all your file to find the real right values and data types

EDIT :

In fact, your really need to do it with code ?

Cause with import-export wizard (in SQL Server Management Studio), you can import a data file, and the wizard can create the table for you if you need to.

Try :

Right-click on your database name,
=> Tasks
=> Import Data

and follow the wizard.

You can also save the SSIS package if you need to.

Think it will be much more appropriate for you !