How to import data file like (csv or txt or xlsx) into a SQL Server Table?

Problem: How to import data file like (csv or txt or xlsx) into a SQL Server Table?

Solution:  BULK INSERT

There are sometimes where you want to import a data file into a table, like product prices which comes from the business as excel or some other data access files. If you don’t have SSIS, Import export wizard.

Syntax:

BULK INSERT  

   [ database_name . [ schema_name ] . | schema_name . ] [ table_name | view_name ]  

      FROM 'data_file'  

     [ WITH  

    (  

   [ [ , ] BATCHSIZE = batch_size ]  

   [ [ , ] CHECK_CONSTRAINTS ]  

   [ [ , ] CODEPAGE = { 'ACP' | 'OEM' | 'RAW' | 'code_page' } ]  

   [ [ , ] DATAFILETYPE =  

      { 'char' | 'native'| 'widechar' | 'widenative' } ]  

   [ [ , ] DATASOURCE = 'data_source_name' ]

   [ [ , ] ERRORFILE = 'file_name' ]

   [ [ , ] ERRORFILE_DATASOURCE = 'data_source_name' ]  

   [ [ , ] FIRSTROW = first_row ]  

   [ [ , ] FIRE_TRIGGERS ]  

   [ [ , ] FORMATFILE_DATASOURCE = 'data_source_name' ]

   [ [ , ] KEEPIDENTITY ]  

   [ [ , ] KEEPNULLS ]  

   [ [ , ] KILOBYTES_PER_BATCH = kilobytes_per_batch ]  

   [ [ , ] LASTROW = last_row ]  

   [ [ , ] MAXERRORS = max_errors ]  

   [ [ , ] ORDER ( { column [ ASC | DESC ] } [ ,...n ] ) ]  

   [ [ , ] ROWS_PER_BATCH = rows_per_batch ]  

   [ [ , ] ROWTERMINATOR = 'row_terminator' ]  

   [ [ , ] TABLOCK ]  

   -- input file format options

   [ [ , ] FORMAT = 'CSV' ]

   [ [ , ] FIELDQUOTE = 'quote_characters']

   [ [ , ] FORMATFILE = 'format_file_path' ]  

   [ [ , ] FIELDTERMINATOR = 'field_terminator' ]  

   [ [ , ] ROWTERMINATOR = 'row_terminator' ]  

    )] 

Example:

In this example, I would like to show we can Insert data into the SQL Server Table from csv file where the data looks like below.

BULK

INSERT dbo.TestBULKInsert

FROM 'C:\Temp\Export Files\ArticlesPost2017-05-22.csv'

WITH

(

FIELDTERMINATOR = ',',

ROWTERMINATOR = '\n'

)

GO

--Check the content of the table.

SELECT *

FROM dbo.TestBULKInsert

GO

--Drop the table to clean up database.

DROP TABLE dbo.TestBULKInsert

GO

Results: 

The below result set shows the data after loading from csv file into table.