How Do I Generate Sybase BCP Fmt file?

Question

I have a huge database which I want to dump out using BCP and then load it up elsewhere. I have done quite a bit of research on the Sybase version of BCP (being more familiar wi

Answer 1

In your BCP in, the -E flag tells bcp to take identity column values from the input file. I would try running it without that flag. fmt files in Sybase are a bit finicky, and I would try to avoid if possible. So as long as your schemas are the same between your systems the following command should work:

bcp mytester.dbo.XTABLE in XTABLE.bcp -n -S Sybase_157 -U sa -P SyAdmin 

Also, the -T flag on your bcp out seems odd. I know SQLServer -T is a security setting, but in Sybase it indicates the max size of a text or image column, and is followed by a number..e.g -T 32000 (would be 32Kbytes)

But to answer the question in your title, if you run bcp out interactively (without specifying -c,-n, or -f) it will step through each column, prompting for information. At the end it will ask if you want to create a format file, and allow you to specify the name of the file.

For reference, here is the syntax and available flags: http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.infocenter.dc30191.1550/html/utility/X14951.htm

And the chapter in the Utility Guide: http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.infocenter.dc30191.1550/html/utility/BABGCCIC.htm