Stored Procedure to import data into SQL Server database… Error

Question

I have a text file file1.txt in the below format. Column 1 is AGUSR1 & Column 2 is AGUSR2 . There are 3 records in the file:

"AGUSR1"|"AGUSR2"
"JASON   "|"DEBBIE    "
"JOY   "|"JASON     "
"ANNA   "|"JOHN      "

I have written a stored procedure to upload this text file into a SQL Server database like this:

CREATE PROCEDURE sp_Import
    @TableName varchar(200),
    @FilePath varchar(200)
AS
    DECLARE @SQL varchar(5000)

    SET @SQL = 'BULK INSERT ' + @TableName + ' FROM ''' + @FilePath + 
               ''' WITH (FIELDTERMINATOR = ''|'', ROWTERMINATOR = ''{CR}{LF}'')' 

    EXEC (@SQL)  

To execute it, I have used this statement:

EXEC sp_Import '[DB_DEMO].[dbo].[file1]' , '\\kacl1tsp048\DEMO\file1.txt'

Note : kacl1tsp048 is a remote server the input text file is at.

On execution, I am getting the below error -

Msg 4863, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Bulk load data conversion error (truncation) for row 1, column 2 (AGUSR2).

The import into table schema is

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[file1]
(
    [AGUSR1] [varchar](10) NULL, 
    [AGUSR2] [varchar](10) NULL 
)

Answer 1

For ad-hoc style data imports I sometimes dispense with using BULK INSERTS in favor of selecting from the file itself to then process it. You could do something similar by creating a procedure to read your file as a table:

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[uftReadfileAsTable]
(
@Path VARCHAR(255),
@Filename VARCHAR(100)
)
RETURNS 
@File TABLE
(
[LineNo] int identity(1,1), 
line varchar(8000)) 

AS
BEGIN

DECLARE  @objFileSystem int
        ,@objTextStream int,
        @objErrorObject int,
        @strErrorMessage Varchar(1000),
        @Command varchar(1000),
        @hr int,
        @String VARCHAR(8000),
        @YesOrNo INT

select @strErrorMessage='opening the File System Object'
EXECUTE @hr = sp_OACreate  'Scripting.FileSystemObject' , @objFileSystem OUT


if @HR=0 Select @objErrorObject=@objFileSystem, @strErrorMessage='Opening file "'+@path+'\'+@filename+'"',@command=@path+'\'+@filename

if @HR=0 execute @hr = sp_OAMethod   @objFileSystem  , 'OpenTextFile'
    , @objTextStream OUT, @command,1,false,0--for reading, FormatASCII

WHILE @hr=0
    BEGIN
    if @HR=0 Select @objErrorObject=@objTextStream, 
        @strErrorMessage='finding out if there is more to read in "'+@filename+'"'
    if @HR=0 execute @hr = sp_OAGetProperty @objTextStream, 'AtEndOfStream', @YesOrNo OUTPUT

    IF @YesOrNo<>0  break
    if @HR=0 Select @objErrorObject=@objTextStream, 
        @strErrorMessage='reading from the output file "'+@filename+'"'
    if @HR=0 execute @hr = sp_OAMethod  @objTextStream, 'Readline', @String OUTPUT
    INSERT INTO @file(line) SELECT @String
    END

if @HR=0 Select @objErrorObject=@objTextStream, 
    @strErrorMessage='closing the output file "'+@filename+'"'
if @HR=0 execute @hr = sp_OAMethod  @objTextStream, 'Close'


if @hr<>0
    begin
    Declare 
        @Source varchar(255),
        @Description Varchar(255),
        @Helpfile Varchar(255),
        @HelpID int

    EXECUTE sp_OAGetErrorInfo  @objErrorObject, 
        @source output,@Description output,@Helpfile output,@HelpID output
    Select @strErrorMessage='Error whilst '
            +coalesce(@strErrorMessage,'doing something')
            +', '+coalesce(@Description,'')
    insert into @File(line) select @strErrorMessage
    end
EXECUTE  sp_OADestroy @objTextStream
    -- Fill the table variable with the rows for your result set

    RETURN 
END

Now you have a proc to convert your file to a table. You would still have to deal with the formatting of your delimiters so you could run something like this to populate [dbo].[file1]:

;WITH Split_Names (Value,Name, xmlname)
AS
(
    SELECT 
        [LineNo],
        line,
        CONVERT(XML,'<Lines><line>'  
        + REPLACE(line,'"|"', '</line><line>') + '</line></Lines>') AS xmlname
    from [dbo].[uftReadfileAsTable]('\\kacl1tsp048\DEMO\file1.txt')
    where line not like '"AGUSR1"%'
)
 SELECT 
    Value,      
    RTRIM(REPLACE(xmlname.value('/Lines[1]/line[1]','varchar(100)'),'"', '')) AS AGUSR1,    
    RTRIM(REPLACE(xmlname.value('/Lines[1]/line[2]','varchar(100)'),'"', '')) AS AGUSR2
 INTO [dbo].[file1]
 FROM Split_Names

Hope that helps a little?!