Bulk SQL Insert Troubleshooting

Question

I'm writing a data conversion code that is moving a series of dates from one database to another. When I do that, I am getting an SQLTypeException saying that the values are out of range. I know that this means somewhere I've entered incorrect data.

My question then is this: since there are approximately 5,000 entries, is there a simple way in the code to find where the incorrect values are? I have opened the DataSet Visualizer, but is there a way to sort it or sift through data easier?

Answer 1

You can try with ERRORFILE ='file_name'

Specifies the file used to collect rows that have formatting errors and cannot be converted to an OLE DB rowset. These rows are copied into this error file from the data file "as is."

Syntax (You find ERRORFILE in the end of query)

BULK INSERT 
   [ database_name . [ schema_name ] . | schema_name . ] [ table_name | view_name ] 
      FROM 'data_file' 
     [ WITH 
    ( 
   [ [ , ] BATCHSIZE = batch_size ] 
   [ [ , ] CHECK_CONSTRAINTS ] 
   [ [ , ] CODEPAGE = { 'ACP' | 'OEM' | 'RAW' | 'code_page' } ] 
   [ [ , ] DATAFILETYPE = 
      { 'char' | 'native'| 'widechar' | 'widenative' } ] 
   [ [ , ] FIELDTERMINATOR = 'field_terminator' ] 
   [ [ , ] FIRSTROW = first_row ] 
   [ [ , ] FIRE_TRIGGERS ] 
   [ [ , ] FORMATFILE = 'format_file_path' ] 
   [ [ , ] KEEPIDENTITY ] 
   [ [ , ] KEEPNULLS ] 
   [ [ , ] KILOBYTES_PER_BATCH = kilobytes_per_batch ] 
   [ [ , ] LASTROW = last_row ] 
   [ [ , ] MAXERRORS = max_errors ] 
   [ [ , ] ORDER ( { column [ ASC | DESC ] } [ ,...n ] ) ] 
   [ [ , ] ROWS_PER_BATCH = rows_per_batch ] 
   [ [ , ] ROWTERMINATOR = 'row_terminator' ] 
   [ [ , ] TABLOCK ] 
   [ [ , ] ERRORFILE = 'file_name' ] 
    )] 

Answer 2

5000 entries is not too much to do it one by one. This way you can easily spot the problematic entries.

Answer 3

also you can use BATCHSIZE = 100 to shrink batch sizes which is committed :)

BATCHSIZE =batch_size Specifies the number of rows in a batch. Each batch is copied to the server as one transaction. If this fails, SQL Server commits or rolls back the transaction for every batch. By default, all data in the specified data file is one batch. For information about performance considerations, see "Remarks," later in this topic.