BCP - Invalid character value for cast specification when importing to table with IDENTITY column

Question

I am trying to load a file from UNIX to SQL Server. When I run the BCP getting the error below, but I was able to load the same file when I changed the datatype to Char.

Command used:

--bcp [SQLAAA].[APP_XXX].[ACTIVITY_V1] in /home/XXX_ACTIVITY.txt -c -S xddb001 -e /home/ERRORS.log -t "|" -r "\n" -U test12 -P test12

Source file:

222|2017-12-27|Y|ABC|2017-12-27|ABC|2017-12-27
255|2018-01-04|N|ABC|2018-01-04|ABC|2018-01-04

Error Message:

@ Row 1, Column 7: Invalid character value for cast specification @

Definition table:

CREATE TABLE [APP_XX].[ACTIVITY]
(
[C1] [varchar](10) NOT NULL,
[C2_DATE] [date] NOT NULL,
[c3] [varchar](1) NULL,
[C4_NM] [varchar](10) NULL,
[C5_DTM] [date] NULL,
[C6_NM] [varchar](10) NULL,
[C7_DTM] [date] NULL,
[ROW_ID] [bigint] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]

Could you please let me know what modification can be done?

Solution

When importing into a table with an IDENTITY column, and you do not supply values for the IDENTITY column in the import file, you need to specify in a format file that the IDENTITY column will be skipped in the import.

This way of working is explicitely mentioned in the Microsoft documentation on BCP, flag -E:

If the data file does not contain values for the identity column in the table or view, use a format file to specify that the identity column in the table or view should be skipped when importing data; SQL Server automatically assigns unique values for the column.[...]

What you need to do:

1. First create a format file using BCP. E.g. for a non-XML format file, the command looks like BCP table_or_view format nul -f format_file_name
2. Specify to skip the IDENTITY column in the format file
3. Use the format file you created in your BCP IN command using the BCP -f flag

Comments

[vedamurthy]

Many thanks for your solution. I have created format file and able to load Identity field. You saved me:)

[pim]

For what it's worth. This exact situation can also occur if the definitions of the output and input do not match.