[Forum FAQ] How to use multiple field terminators in BULK INSERT or BCP command line

Question

Introduction
Some people want to know if we can have multiple field terminators in BULK INSERT or BCP commands, and how to implement multiple field terminators in BULK INSERT or BCP commands.
Solution
For character data fields, optional terminating characters allow you to mark the end of each field in a data file with a field terminator, as well as the end of each row with a row terminator. If a terminator character occurs within the data, it is interpreted
as a terminator, not as data, and the data after that character is interpreted and belongs to the next field or record. I have done a test, if you use BULK INSERT or BCP commands and set the multiple field terminators, you can refer to the following command.
In Windows command line,
bcp <Databasename.schema.tablename> out “<path>” –c –t –r –T
For example, you can export data from the Department table with bcp command and use the comma and colon (,:) as one field terminator.
bcp AdventureWorks.HumanResources.Department out C:\myDepartment.txt -c -t ,: -r \n –T
The txt file as follows:
However, if you want to bcp by using multiple field terminators the same as the following command, which will still use the last terminator defined by default.
bcp AdventureWorks.HumanResources.Department in C:\myDepartment.txt -c -t , -r \n -t: –T
The txt file as follows:
When multiple field terminators means multiple fields, you use the below comma separated format,
column1,,column2,,,column3
In this occasion, you only separate 3 fields (column1, column2 and column3). In fact, after testing, there will be 6 fields here. That is the significance of a field terminator (comma in this case).
Meanwhile, using BULK INSERT to import the data of the data file into the SQL table, if you specify terminator for BULK import, you can only set multiple characters as one terminator in the BULK INSERT statement.
USE <testdatabase>;
GO
BULK INSERT <your table> FROM ‘<Path>’
 WITH (
DATAFILETYPE = ' char/native/ widechar /widenative',
 FIELDTERMINATOR = ' field_terminator',
For example, using BULK INSERT to import the data of C:\myDepartment.txt data file into the DepartmentTest table, the field terminator (,:) must be declared in the statement.
In SQL Server Management Studio Query Editor:
BULK INSERT AdventureWorks.HumanResources.DepartmentTest FROM ‘C:\myDepartment.txt’
 WITH (
DATAFILETYPE = ‘char',
FIELDTERMINATOR = ‘,:’,
The new table contains like as follows:  
We could not declare multiple field terminators (, and :) in the Query statement,  as the following format, a duplicate error will occur.
In SQL Server Management Studio Query Editor:
BULK INSERT AdventureWorks.HumanResources.DepartmentTest FROM ‘C:\myDepartment.txt’
 WITH (
DATAFILETYPE = ‘char',
FIELDTERMINATOR = ‘,’,
FIELDTERMINATOR = ‘:’
However, if you want to use a data file with fewer or more fields, we can implement via setting extra field length to 0 for fewer fields or omitting or skipping more fields during the bulk copy procedure.  
More Information
For more information about filed terminators, you can review the following article.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa196735(v=sql.80).aspx
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/d2fa4b1e-3bd4-4379-bc30-389202a99ae2/multiple-field-terminators-in-bulk-insert-or-bcp?forum=sqlgetsta
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191485.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa173858(v=sql.80).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa173842(v=sql.80).aspx
Applies to
SQL Server 2012
SQL Server 2008R2
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2000
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Answer 1

Thanks,
Is this a supported scenario, or does it use unsupported features?
For example, can we call exec [ReportServer].dbo.AddEvent @EventType='TimedSubscription', @EventData='b64ce7ec-d598-45cd-bbc2-ea202e0c129d'
in a supported way?
Thanks! Josh