Character Mode Versus Native Mode

BCP can import or export data in a character file format or native file format. Character mode is plain old ASCII text. Use the -c switch or a format file to specify character mode. Native mode uses special formatting characters internal to SQL Server to represent data. Use native mode only when you are transferring data between SQL Server tables. Use the -n switch to specify native mode. Following is sample output from character mode BCP:

bcp pubs..jobs out jobs.txt -c -U sa -P 

1       New Hire - Job not specified    10      10
2       Chief Executive Officer         200     250
3       Business Operations Manager     175     225

TIP

Character mode is usually easier to work with than native mode because you can view the contents of a character mode data ...

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