Problems Importing Text Files With Double-quotes As Text Qualifier
Jul 14, 2006
I have text data files from a third party and they use comma as field delimiters and enclose the text for each column in double-quotes. Not a problem for most of the data files until they start sending files where there is " within the column values. SSIS package fails with the error:
The column delimiter for column "Column 1" was not found.
Any ideas on how to resolve this issue will be greatly appreciated.Thankspcp
How can I program BCP to output text items in double quotes (")? Here is an example (please try it) that trys to output some columns from a table to csv file. However, due to the existence of commas within the fields, the comma separation gets messed up.
------------------------------------ USE [MASTER]
IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'mcg1') DROP TABLE mcg1 go
CREATE TABLE mcg1 (pkINT IDENTITY(1,1) ,Address_1VARCHAR(100) ,CityVARCHAR(100)) go
Exec Master..xp_Cmdshell 'bcp "SELECT Address_1, City FROM mcg1" queryout "C:mcg1.csv" -c -t,"'
------------------------------------ The output I get is below. You can see how the use of commas in the text makes the comma separate list all confused 100 Road1, Suburb1,BigCity1 200 Road2, Suburb2,BigCity2
Thus what I want is "100 Road1, Suburb1","BigCity1" "200 Road2, Suburb2","BigCity2"
You can do this OK in DTS by specifying the text identifier to be double-quotes. I do NOT want to use DTS and want to be able to do via a T-SQL procedure. Note that the real table I will export from has numeric datatypes and I would prefer NOT to wrap them in double-quotes too.
Thus, how can I alter the Exec Master..xp_Cmdshell command, to wrap each text field in double quotes. I may have to use a format file in which case please provide the format file too.
In SQL 2012, this fails with the error message, cannot find the text qualifer for field.
To get around this, we are having to import the data into a Dirty Data column of aTEMP table, ID, Dirty Data, Clean data - perform multiple updates and change the text qualifier and ensure they are only changed in the right places so we can keep the ". In this example, we changed the text qualifier to PIPES.
After these updates, we then export the data from CLEAN data back out to CSV, then reimport it into the origional destination table with a new text qualifer.
I have to import a flat file with commas and double quotes as the text qualifier in a SSIS package. However, when I try to import the data into a table, the data moves the information to right, therefore, the last field will capture mulitple fields worth of data. When I create the Connection Manager for the flat file, I have the format as [Delimited] and Text qualifier as ["]. I do not check the unicode button, but under Advanced, make each field a Unicode string [DT-WSTR]. I have included a sample of my data below.
I want to import multiple text files into a single table. I know I have to use BCP or DTS. But, I want import all files at once, instead of one at a time. And the file names are in sequence, viz. file1, file2, file3 etc. Can anybody tell me, How I can achieve this.
I have to import 18000 text files into a sql database. Each file contains 10 fields and around 5000 records. I am currently doing this with DTS.
What I am wondering is this: Is DTS the most efficient i.e. quickest way to import all this data. Bearing in mind there is about 90 million records to import in all.
I would appreciate the benefit of somebody elses experience when dealing with this type of thing.
I am running into an issue with the SSIS when I try to load a CSV file that contains double quotes wrapped around a field (CSV files have double quotes when field contains a comma; example: "Streams, Inc")
i need to add the double quotes in all the records from start and end.
source data col1   col2       col3      col4 1     abdul  this is email    it was very good ,and very relative posts. Target data col1  col2     col3              col4 "1" "abdul"  "this is email"   "it was very good, and very relative posts"
Hi, Can anyone help? Need to upload a text file to a sql database but keep getting errors. I'm creating a page that will allow users to to bulk import and update to a MsSql database. The users provide a text file every so often with new/update information. So i want to use a DTS package to transform the infomation, and create a table in the database, then check against existing/non existing records, if the record exist, update it, if not insert it. I'm using Visual Studio.Net, ASP.Net and coding in VB.Net.
Anyone know where i can find documentation/code regarding the above? I will be greatful for any help.
I have a load (180,000+) of text files whose contents need to go into a SQL server database.Whats the best way of doing this? Using a c# console program and if so, using FileStream or StreamReader? Or using a feature of SQL server itself. The text files themselves are less that 1k and are literally less than 200 characters.The problem is, I've tried a WinForm and although I can detect what files are there, as soon as I attempt to open one for reading, everything stops working and won't insert anything to the database.
Hi allCould someone help me with the following problem? Hours of googlingyesterday couldn't get me the answer. I'm using SQL 2000 and DTS andtrying to import a huge fixed width text file.File is >1m rows and >200 columns and is defined by a proprietory (i.e. notbcp produced) format specification of the formName Start LengthFld1 0 20Fld2 19 5Fld3 24 53and so on.Tbe only way I've found to define the columns so that DTS can import thefile properly is to go through the wizard and click on the starts of eachcolumn. I don't want to use bcp if possible (I did enough of that onSQL7) - but surely there's a way to get DTS to read from a format file so Idon't have to click 200 times (with all the ensuing errors I could make).Any help greatly appreciated.CheersRob
I thought i fixed this problem, as it WORKED about two days ago, but now I'm getting errors.
I have a series of text files, some are delimited, some are fixed width. I previously was able to import these files thru a dts package by creating the table in a stored procedure. Exple: CREATE TABLE [Pol_Dump073104] ( [Product_Type] varchar (12) NULL, [Benefit] float NULL, [Base_Premium] varchar (12) NULL, [Rider_Premium] float NULL, [Contract_Value] float NULL, )
I then import the text file into the table and then cast the float datatypes as money in a select into statement to do aggregate functions on the money fields. this worked previously, but now I'm receiving this: 'Error converting datatype char to money.' I tried to convert to float and received the same error, only with float where the word money was.
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum but i didn't know if i should put it in the Data Mining forum.
My problem is two fold.
Scenario:
I have 11 text files with standard data format. They range in size from 20megs to 300+ megs (containing 100's of thousands of lines of data)
I build a simple DTS Package to automate the importing of the text files into a database table with the same format as the text files.
Running the files through my DTS produced errors on all files. The error was : Too many columns found in the current row; non-whitespace characters were found after the last defined column's data.
The error also gave an approximate position of the problem row. So i opened up a text editor that can handle large files and took out about 5000 records before and after the problem area. So i now had a new test file that had 5000 records and contained what "should" be the problem row. I ran this file and it imported correctly. It did not produce the error that i got previously. However it did import things incorrectly. Going through only one of the files i found several rows (over two dozen) that had half the data on one row, then the other half on the other row. Obviouslly there is a problem here with the way the data was exported. I wanted to know if anyone knows of any programs i can get that will analyze these text files for inconsistencies. I have considered writing one in C# but want to see if there is something already out there that can help me.
Basically i need to look at these text files and find Rows that are "incomplete"
the files come from a unix based system, use LF for row delims and Chr(29) for Column delimiters.
I've got a flat file data source, that is to large to edit with most Windows apps on my server that contains both single and double quote characters that I need to load in a varchar column.
So I attempted to do it with a Replace in data transformation, but I can't get SSIS to allow me to use a variable or pair of single or double quotes within the replace.
If I don't replace the single quote characters with a pair then the records containing these characters all end up in my failed records output file.
Here are 5 example property legal descriptions from my FLAT FILE data source:
COM 441'6" N OF SW/C OF NW4 OF SEC 22-29-20 ELY1340' N200' CROSSING THE CNTR OF TR AT 100 WLY1240' S200' TO POB CONTAINING 6 3/10 ACRE MOL
N 50' OF S 330' OF W 122' OF E 735' OF SW4 OF NE4 OF SEC 28/28/18 A/K/A LOT
How do I automate importing "All Text Flat Files" into a SQL 7 table. The key is that there is no validation neccessary for the data and I do not want to manually import the data. I just to delimited the data and import it using either a script or a schedular of some type that can do it for me. Some Please Help
Hi, Using SSIS, I am importing the data of a text file into a sql server table. After the import, I Can not figure out why the texts inside the sql server have double quotes around them. This is similar to the data inside the text file. For example, the value "Simpsons" appears with the "" as you can see whereas I want it to appear without the "" inside the sql server table. In the connection manager, the file connection has a text qualifier of <None>
I'm trying to use DTS to import a space delimited file. One column uses " as a text qualifier so I set this in the options. The problem arises when a " shows up between the 2 text qualifiers. It's seen as a set of qualifiers with a 2nd qualifier with no end. I obviously get an error at this point. Anyone have any good advice on how to squash this one?
There is a "text" file generated by mainframe and it has to be uploaded to SQL Server. I've reproduced the situation with smaller sample. Let the file look like following: A17 123.17 first row BB29 493.19 second ZZ3 18947.1 third row is longer And in hex format: 00: 41 31 37 20 20 20 20 20 ”‚ 31 32 33 2E 31 37 20 20 A17 123.17 10: 66 69 72 73 74 20 72 6F ”‚ 77 0D 0A 42 42 32 39 20 first row™ª—™BB29 20: 20 00 20 34 39 33 2E 31 ”‚ 39 20 20 73 65 63 6F 6E 493.19 secon 30: 64 0D 0A 5A 5A 33 20 20 ”‚ 20 20 20 31 38 39 34 37 d™ª—™ZZ3 18947 40: 2E 31 20 74 68 69 72 64 ”‚ 20 72 6F 77 00 69 73 20 .1 third row is 50: 6C 6F 6E 67 65 72 ”‚ longer
I wrote "text" in quotes because sctrictly it is not pure text file - non-text binary zeros (0x00) happen sometimes instead of spaces (0x20).
The table is:
CREATE TABLE eng (
src varchar (512)
)
When i upload this file into SQL2000 using DTS or Import wizard, the table contains:
select src, substring(src,9,8), len(src) from eng < src ><substr> <len> A17 123.17 first row 123.17 25 BB29 493.19 22 ZZ3 18947.1 third row 18947.1 35
As one can see, everything was imported, including binary zeros. And though SELECT * in SSMS truncates strings upon reaching 0x00's, still all information is stored in tables - SUBSTRINGs show that.
When i upload this file into SQL2005 using SSIS or Import wizard the result is following: < src ><substr> <len> A17 123.17 first row 123.17 25 BB29 4 ZZ3 18947.1 third row 18947.1 25
This time table is half-empty - all characters behind binary zeros in respective rows are lost.
I stumbled upon this problem while migrating my DTSes to SSIS packages. Do you think there is some workaround, or i need to turn on some checkbox or smth else could help? Please...
I have created a package which will copy rows from csv file to SQL database. I have a field into the csv file which contains numeric data. and I am keeping this into the database as numeric too. for example, a column into the csv named "amount" needs to be transfer into the data table where the corresponding column name is "amount" and its data type is numeric and the field can contain null values. I am using the double quote(") text qualifier on to the csv file. Now my problem is, some rows into the csv file contains null values for amount column. for example..lets take a look on my csv file content...
"Name", "Salary"
"Jhon Stuart", "35.66"
"Maria Gree", ""
Notice the second row of the csv where the Salary value has left as an empty string. Now my intention is to import these data into the database and the salary value for Maria should be remain as null. But the package is generating an error for this row. it says..
There was an error with input column "Salary" (61) on input "OleDB Destination Input (47)" . The column status returned was : The value could not be converted because of potential loss of data.
Can any body help me on this? What would be the solution for this? if I modify the row into csv file as following
"Maria Gree", "0.00"
then it works. But I dont want to fill the field with zero into the DB. I want it would be set with NULL value..which make sense.
I have created an SSIS package, in my VS2005 solution, that Bulk Inserts a CSV file (see example below) "100",2006-10-03 00:00:00,"HEX012",1"101",2006-10-03 00:00:00,"DS00130",1
I have a Bulk Insert Task that uses a Flat File Connection Manager to import my CSV file into my SQL2005 database. My source CSV file (see example above), has double quatation marks surrounding any text fileds. I have set the Flat File Connection Manager's 'Text Qualifier' to double quatation marks. The Bulk Insert works ok, but ignores the Text Qualifier. My database table is left with the original quatation marks in any text field. Any help appreciated. Regards, Paul.
I'm exporting using a query to a flat .txt file. The problem I'm encountering is when I export the data and then open the .txt file into excel some columns cause line breaks to the next row. The columns that are breaking to a new row are varchar fields where the user has entered text into the field with double quotes ".
When I export, I'm using row delimiter {CR}{LF} column delimiter Comma and text qualifier Double Quote (")
Is there a way to prevent this from happening when I export and open the flat file into Excel?
I tried using replace, but I was getting a syntax error in my query. Here is the query without using replace:
SELECT e.session_date, l.lab_no, i.first_name + ' ' + i.last_name AS Teacher, tt.name, d.district_name, s.school_name, t.title, a.q1 AS Question1, a.q2 AS Question2, a.q3 AS Question3, a.q4 AS Question4, a.q5 AS Question5, a.q6 AS Question6, a.q7 AS Question7, a.q8 AS Question8, a.q9 AS Question9, a.q10 AS Question10 FROM evaluation e LEFT OUTER JOIN training t ON t.id = e.training LEFT OUTER JOIN lab l ON l.id = e.lab_no LEFT OUTER JOIN instructor i ON i.id = e.instructor LEFT OUTER JOIN trainee tt ON tt.id = e.trainee LEFT OUTER JOIN district d ON d.id = e.district LEFT OUTER JOIN school s ON s.id = e.school LEFT OUTER JOIN answers a ON a.id = e.answers WHERE session_date >= '20070401' AND session_date < '20070501'
I would need to use the replace on columns a.q7, a.q8, a.q9, and a.q10
I tried using another delimiter...pipes (|) and that didn't work? Maybe I was attempting it incorrectly?
I've discovered an issue with the text qualifier field in the file connection manager when upgrading a SSIS 2005/2008 package from a 32 bit platform to 64 bit platform runninn SQL Server 2008 R2 10.5.1600.
The package will convert <none> in this field to _x003C_none_x003E and therefore any package using the file connection manager i.e. import/export - common tasks on SSIS! will cause problems either with output data or imported data.
Simply replacing _x003C_none_x003E with <none> fixes the issue but ofcourse there can be many packages affected as a result.
Any existing/impending cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard that will fix the problem?double quote delimiters are converted to _x0022_ which I am assume by replacing with a double quote will fix the problem.
i am unable to use the Text Qualifer in SSIS package Flat file connection manager Editor, it says, "The flat file parser does not support embedding text qualifier in data",why is that?
it was supported nicely in DTS 2000. also I have no control on Source file TXT. so I can not eliminate the Text qualifer (") from the file.
We have a flat file import proces which imports data from a series of unicode flat files.
The files have text qualifiers and are being imported to a table with the following format: CREATE TABLE [dsa].[OBS]( [Kundenummer] [nvarchar](10) NULL, [Navn] [nvarchar](60) NULL, [Adresse] [nvarchar](50) NULL, [PostnrBynavn] [nvarchar](50) NULL, [Kursusdato] [datetime] NULL, [Varighed] [decimal](18, 2) NULL, [Kursustype] [nvarchar](100) NULL, [Risikokoder] [nvarchar](50) NULL ) ON [PRIMARY]
In one of our files we have two rows that looks like this: "19298529";"THIS IS ROW 1";"ADDRESS 9 -13";"4200 SLAGELSE";"02-05-2006";8.00;"Kombikursus Førstehjælp - Brand 8 lek.";"37" "19448242";"THIS IS ROW 2";"ADDRESS 50";"4140 BORUP";"04-05-2006";4.00;""Fra vil selv - til kan selv". Om børn 1½ - 3 Ã¥r";"22"
Both rows are OK according to the format, but the second row actually contains the text qualifier in one of the qualified fields (""Fra vil selv - til kan selv". Om børn 1½ - 3 Ã¥r"). It's the title of a course with a comment. The proces fails on this file, and wont even redirect the row, as it does on other erroneous rows in other files we import.
We believe this is a valid text, but apparently SSIS doesn't Is this a bug or is this record not allowed? Is there a work around, and why wont SSIS redirect the row?
We believe the reason is that the field before is not text quaified (which is of course specified in the connection manager).
I had a procdure in SQL 7.0 in which I am using both single quote and double quotes for string values. This proceudreused to work fine in SQL 7.0 but when I upgraded SQL 7.0 to SQL 2000, this proceudre stopped working. When I changed the double quotes to single quotes, it worked fine.
When users enter text into a textbox, to be INSERTed into my table, SQL Server throws an error if their text contains a single quote. For example, if they enter "It's great!" then it causes this error:Error: Incorrect syntax near 's'. Unclosed quotation mark after the character string ''. How can I allow text with single quotes to be inserted into the table?
