Performing bulk import using bcp

This recipe will walk you through the process of importing the contents of a CSV file to SQL Server using PowerShell and bcp.

Getting ready

To do a test import, let's first create a Person table similar to the Person.Person table from the AdventureWorks2008R2 database, with some slight modifications. We will create this in the Test schema, and we will remove some of the constraints and keep this table as simple and independent as we can.

If Test.Person does not yet exist in your environment, let's create it. Open up Management Studio, and run the following code:

CREATE SCHEMA [Test]
GO
CREATE TABLE [Test].[Person](
 [BusinessEntityID] [int] NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
 [PersonType] [nchar](2) NOT NULL,
 [NameStyle] [dbo].[NameStyle] NOT NULL,
 [Title] [nvarchar](8) NULL,
 [FirstName] [dbo].[Name] NOT NULL,
 [MiddleName] [dbo].[Name] NULL,
 [LastName] [dbo].[Name] NOT NULL,
 [Suffix] [nvarchar](10) NULL,
 [EmailPromotion] [int] NOT NULL,
 [AdditionalContactInfo] [xml...