BCP

BCP stands for Bulk Copy Program. It is a tool SQL Server provides to import and export data. Data can be either native mode (SQL Server specific), character mode (ASCII text), or Unicode. ASCII text data is commonly used to share data between SQL Server and other systems.

IS IT LOVE OR HATE?

As a DBA, you will probably have a love/hate relationship with BCP. BCP is limited in scope and lacks common file formats, but it does provide excellent performance.

For those new to SQL Server, the following list provides some insight into BCP. These are the reasons why I like BCP:

  • Performance— BCP is one the fastest raw data loaders around. I have seen BCP turn in impressive performance numbers as compared to other import/export products.

  • Minimal overhead ...

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