bcp syntax arguments


Required BCP Syntax Arguments
Syntax Element Description
dbtable If you will be importing or exporting data from a SQL Table or View, this is the qualified object name.
  The bcp command allows you to tell it which SQL Server instance to connect to, but does not allow you to specify which database. If the table you wish to work with is not in the connections default database, you will need to qualify the object name using the database.schema.object format.
  If you will be importing to a view, you need to make sure that the view supports inserts.
  dbtable can be used with the in, out, or format options. This means that you can import to the table (in) or export from it (out).
query You can export from a query rather than a specific table or view. You need to enclose the query in double quotes (") and use single quotes for any character literals inside the query.
  query can be used with the queryout and format options. You cannot import to a query.
in Use this option when you will be importing data into the dbtable specified.
out Use this option when you will be exporting data from the dbtable specified.
queryout Use this option when you will be exporting data from the specified query.
format Use this option to generate a format file. When format is used, no import or export is performed. Use this option with the –f and or –x parameters to specify the path of the generated format file. We will discuss format files later.
datafile The path of the data file that you will be importing from or exporting to.
Optional arguments There are number of additional arguments that can be used with the BCP utility. They are optional overall, but certain options may be required depending on what kind of operation you are performing. For example, if you use the format argument to generate a format file, you must also use the –f argument to specify the path of the file.