BCP : Format File : Second Question

Before answering this question please read my previous post 10 minutes ago.
Assuming that I have to use a Format File with bcp to export a table that
has a column I don't want exported.
What Format File should I create in order to achive the following two goals:
I wish to create the smallest data file possible, and would be the fastest
for the server to process in both directions (out/in).
Can you provide the syntax to generate the format file?
Thanks
Russell Mangel
Las Vegas, NVRussell Mangel,
Check arguments -n and -N in BOL.
AMB
"Russell Mangel" wrote:

> Before answering this question please read my previous post 10 minutes ago
.
> Assuming that I have to use a Format File with bcp to export a table that
> has a column I don't want exported.
> What Format File should I create in order to achive the following two goal
s:
> I wish to create the smallest data file possible, and would be the fastest
> for the server to process in both directions (out/in).
> Can you provide the syntax to generate the format file?
> Thanks
> Russell Mangel
> Las Vegas, NV
>
>|||Yeah, I made some tests.
The database I have, does not have any UniCode columns, and so when I export
using -n the data does get much smaller.
However, since I am transferring the data via FTP, I ran PKZIP on the data
files and discovered that it does a great job of compressing UniCode, so it
turns I will use -N switch anyway.
Thanks Again.
Russell Mangel
"Alejandro Mesa" <AlejandroMesa@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BFF9DF60-13D3-48CC-A7FA-979B23DA0BD4@.microsoft.com...
> Russell Mangel,
> Check arguments -n and -N in BOL.
>
> AMB
>
> "Russell Mangel" wrote:
>|||Russell Mangel (russell@.tymer.net) writes:
> Before answering this question please read my previous post 10 minutes
> ago.
> Assuming that I have to use a Format File with bcp to export a table that
> has a column I don't want exported.
> What Format File should I create in order to achive the following two
> goals:
> I wish to create the smallest data file possible, and would be the fastest
> for the server to process in both directions (out/in).
> Can you provide the syntax to generate the format file?
No, not without the table definition.
The fast format is native format, which means that you need to describe
each column correctly. This is a little more tricky that describing a
character format. Then again, anything goes, so if you have a mix of
native and charcter format that is not much of a distaster.
You will probably find it easier to use a view together as I suggested in my
other post together with the -n or -N option as suggested by Alejandro.
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@.sommarskog.se
Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...oads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodin...ions/books.mspx|||[posted and mailed]
Erland Sommarskog (esquel@.sommarskog.se) writes:
> Russell Mangel (russell@.tymer.net) writes:
> No, not without the table definition.
I spoke to soon! I forgot about the format option. You can do this:
bcp Northwind..Orders format dummy.txt -f Orders.fmt -N -T
This generates a format file for you for native format. Then you can edit
the format file to exclude the column you don't want to include. No need
for view or queryout.
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@.sommarskog.se
Books Online for SQL Server 2005 at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...oads/books.mspx
Books Online for SQL Server 2000 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodin...ions/books.mspx