Fun with BULK INSERT SQL SERVER - type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage

Question

i am inserting data that looks like this:

   AA00000111   PSNH-OT J, SMITH    03/01/2011  10/11/1957  42  Male    Hartford    NH      Lorazepam   Benzodiazepines C
AA00000151  PSNH-OT BEN, HARRY  03/06/2011  07/18/1969  42  Male    Hartford    NH      Fentanyl    Synthetic Opioids   C
AA00000151  PSNH-OT URA, HARRISON   03/06/2011  07/18/1969  29  Male    Hartford    NH      Norfentanyl Synthetic Opioids   C
AA00000181  PSNH-OT WAYNE, GRIFFON  03/06/2011  09/01/1982  75  Female  Hartford    NH      cTHC (Marijuana metabolite) Illicits    C

with this bulk insert:

use RadarDataMining
go

BULK INSERT tblRadarsAC
FROM 'C:\PerfLogs\radars.txt'
WITH
(
FIELDTERMINATOR = '\t',
ROWTERMINATOR = '\n'
)

and i am getting these errors:

Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 1, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 2, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 3, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 4, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 5, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 6, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 7, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 8, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 9, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 10, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4864, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Bulk load data conversion error (type mismatch or invalid character for the specified codepage) for row 11, column 4 (date_tested).
Msg 4865, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Cannot bulk load because the maximum number of errors (10) was exceeded.
Msg 7399, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
The OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)" reported an error. The provider did not give any information about the error.
Msg 7330, Level 16, State 2, Line 2
Cannot fetch a row from OLE DB provider "BULK" for linked server "(null)".

the fourth field type is date

it does not like my date field for some reason. i do not understand why. what am i doing wrong?

Answer 1

Create a staging table to play with where the date field is specified as a varchar and not a date and see if you can bulk insert into that. It is possible that you have some sort of nonprintable character in the field and thus it isn't a date to the bulk insert.

Once it is a table. do a select like this

Select 'XX'+field4+'XX'

If you see a space bewteen the the Xs and the date, you have an unprintable character. If you want to know what the character is you can use the ASCII () function.