How to Troubleshoot Bulk Insert Stored Procedure Errors When Using Variable File Paths?

Bulk Insert Using Stored Procedures: Troubleshooting Common Errors

While attempting to create a stored procedure for bulk inserting data using the BULK INSERT command, you might encounter errors. One such error occurs when trying to assign a filepath variable to the file name parameter in the stored procedure.

In a typical BULK INSERT query, specifying a file path as a string works correctly:

BULK INSERT ZIPCodes 
FROM  'e:-digit Commercial.csv' 
WITH 
( 
     FIRSTROW = 2 ,
    FIELDTERMINATOR = ',', 
    ROWTERMINATOR = '\n' 
)

However, when attempting to create a stored procedure with a variable file path, you may encounter errors:

create proc dbo.InsertZipCode
@filepath varchar(500)='e:-digit Commercial.csv'
as
begin
BULK INSERT ZIPCodes 
FROM  @filepath 
WITH 
( 
     FIRSTROW = 2 ,
    FIELDTERMINATOR = ',', 
    ROWTERMINATOR = '\n' 
)
end

Incorrect syntax near '@filepath' and 'with'

This error occurs because the BULK INSERT command does not support file paths as variables. To resolve this issue, you can either:

• Hardcode the file path directly into the stored procedure code.
• Use dynamic SQL to build and execute the BULK INSERT statement with the desired file path.

Using Dynamic SQL to Build the BULK INSERT Statement

DECLARE @filepath nvarchar(500)
SET @filepath = N'e:-digit Commercial.csv'

DECLARE @bulkinsert NVARCHAR(2000)

SET @bulkinsert = 
       N'BULK INSERT ZIPCodes FROM ''' + 
       @filepath + 
       N''' WITH (FIRSTROW = 2, FIELDTERMINATOR = '','', ROWTERMINATOR = ''\n'')'

EXEC sp_executesql @bulkinsert

This approach allows you to maintain the flexibility of using different file paths while leveraging stored procedures for bulk inserts.

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