Why do I get "XML parsing: line 2, character 0, incorrect document syntax" when Bulk Inserting in MS SQL Server
bcp, bulkinsert, sql-server
Solution
If the format file is encoded as Unicode the bulk insert will automatically think it is an XML-file and treat it as such. Make sure the file is encoded as ANSI and you should be fine.
Problem
I'm doing a BULK INSERT into a table using a FMT format file, but I get the following error: ``` XML parsing: line 2, character 0, incorrect document syntax ``` Here is my code ``` BULK INSERT [DM_Flux].[dbo].[Stage] FROM 'C:\temp\data.dat' WITH (FORMATFILE = 'C:\temp\FormatBcp.fmt') ``` Here is the formatfile (standard format file, not XML): ``` 10.0 5 1 SQLCHAR 0 2 "" 1 Id "" 2 SQLCHAR 0 40 "" 2 Name "" 3 SQLCHAR 0 50 "" 3 Street "" 4 SQLCHAR 0 8 "" 4 StreetNo "" 5 SQLCHAR 0 300 "\r\n" 7 BulkData "" ``` Why do I get an XML error with this?