Bulk Insert Issue with BCP

Question

I'm running SQL Server 2008 R2 and trying to test out bcp in one of our databases. For almost all the tables, the bcp and bulk insert work fine using similar commands below.  However on a few tables I am experiencing an issue when trying to Bulk Insert
in.
Here are the details:
This is the bcp command to export out the data (via simple batch file):
 1.)
SET OUTPUT=K:\BCP_FIN_Test
SET ERRORLOG=C:\Temp\BCP_Error_Log
SET TIMINGS=C:\Temp\BCP_Timings
bcp "SELECT * FROM FS84RPT.dbo.PS_PO_LINE Inner Join FS84RPT.[dbo].[PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG] on PS_PO_LINE.BUSINESS_UNIT = PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG.BUSINESS_UNIT_PO and PS_PO_LINE.PO_ID= PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG.PO_ID and PS_PO_LINE.LINE_NBR= PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG.LINE_NBR WHERE
PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG.FISCAL_YEAR = '2014' and PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG.ACCOUNTING_PERIOD BETWEEN '9' AND '11' " queryout %OUTPUT%\PS_PO_LINE.txt -e %ERRORLOG%\PS_PO_LINE.err -o %TIMINGS%\PS_PO_LINE.txt -T -N
 2.)
BULK INSERT PS_PO_LINE FROM 'K:\BCP_FIN_Test\PS_PO_LINE.txt' WITH (DATAFILETYPE = 'widenative')
Msg 4869, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The bulk load failed. Unexpected NULL value in data file row 2, column 22. The destination column (CNTRCT_RATE_MULT) is defined as NOT NULL.
Msg 4866, Level 16, State 4, Line 1
The bulk load failed. The column is too long in the data file for row 3, column 22. Verify that the field terminator and row terminator are specified correctly.
Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
The OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)" reported an error. The provider did not give any information about the error.
Msg 7330, Level 16, State 2, Line 1
Cannot fetch a row from OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)".
I've tried a few different things including trying to export as character and import as BULK INSERT PS_PO_LINE FROM 'K:\BCP_FIN_Test\PS_PO_LINE.txt' WITH (DATAFILETYPE = 'char')
But no luck
Appreciate help

Answer 1

It seems that the target table does not match your expectations.
Since I don't know exactly what you are doing, I will have to resort to guesses.
I note that you export query goes:
  SELECT * FROM FS84RPT.dbo.PS_PO_LINE Inner Join
And then you are importing into a table called PS_PO_LINE as well. But for your operation to make sense the import PS_PO_LINE must not only have the columns from the PS_PO_LINE, but also all columns from PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG. Maybe your SELECT should read
  SELECT PS_PO_LINE.* FROM FS84RPT.dbo.PS_PO_LINE Inner Join
or use an EXISTS clause to add the filter of PS_RECV_LN_ACCTG table. (Assuming that it appears in the query for filtering only.)
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, [email protected]