sql server bcp xml data - sql

Question

I have a table which has a column which is of type xml.
I have to extract data from this table and load the data into another environment.
i am using bcp to extract and laod the target table but there are some special characters that is causing some issues when i bcp them into the target table. are there any workarounds
thanks
Ben

Answer 1

A custom CLR-SP provided me with the best solution. Now I can write XML-typed data directly to a file from TSQL, provided the SQL service account has permission to the file. This allows the simple syntax:
exec dbo.clr_xml2file #xml, #path, #bool_overwrite
The SP:
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[clr_xml2file]
#xml [xml],
#file [nvarchar](max),
#overwrite [bit]
WITH EXECUTE AS CALLER
AS
EXTERNAL NAME [CLR_FileIO].[FreddyB.FileIO].[Xml2File]
The C# for the CLR DLL:
using System;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using System.IO;
using System.Security.Principal;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.XPath;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;
namespace FreddyB
{
public class FileIO
{
public static void Xml2File(
SqlXml xml,
SqlString sFile,
SqlBoolean bOverwrite
) {
SqlPipe sqlpipe = SqlContext.Pipe;
try
{
if (xml == null || xml.IsNull || xml.Value.Length == 0) {
sqlpipe.Send("Cannot write empty content to file : \n\t"
+sFile.Value);
return;
}
if (File.Exists(sFile.Value) & bOverwrite.IsFalse) {
sqlpipe.Send("File already exists : \n\t"+sFile.Value);
return;
}
int iFileSize = 0;
FileStream fs = null;
try {
byte[] ba = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(xml.Value);
iFileSize = ba.Length;
fs = new FileStream(sFile.Value, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
fs.Write(ba, 0, ba.Length);
sqlpipe.Send("Wrote "
+String.Format("{0:0,0.0}",iFileSize/1024)
+" KB to : \n\t"
+sFile.Value);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
sqlpipe.Send("Error as '"
+WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name
+"' during file write : \n\t"
+ex.Message);
sqlpipe.Send("Stack trace : \n"+ex.StackTrace);
}
finally
{
if (fs != null) {
fs.Close();
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
sqlpipe.Send("Error writing to file : \n\t"
+ex.Message);
}
}
}
}