topic Re: How can I import a BCP file in Talend Studio

How can I import a BCP file

pthomas — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 14:13:36 GMT

I have a system that provides a monthly 2-4gb backup via BCP (Bulk Copy Program - SQL Server). Can Talend import a BCP file? I need to parse it and break it up into different sections for insert into S3 buckets (parquet files).

Sorry for the vague question. We don't have a SQL Server to use as an intermediary so I'm looking at big file, extract, push to s3.

Re: How can I import a BCP file

gouravdubey5 — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 15:07:27 GMT

Hello,

Talend does not support reading or parsing native BCP (Bulk Copy Program) files directly. BCP is a SQL Server–specific binary format and requires SQL Server tools or a format definition to interpret the data structure.

Without SQL Server or a BCP format file, Talend cannot reliably determine column boundaries or data types.

Recommended approach:

Convert the BCP file at the source to a standard flat format (CSV, delimited, or fixed-length) using BCP character mode (-c) or a format file.

Ingest the converted file in Talend using standard file input components.

Process and write the data to S3 (for example as Parquet using Big Data / Spark components).

Talend can process large files (2–4 GB) efficiently when using streaming components, but the input must be in a supported file format.

Thanks,

Gourav

Re: How can I import a BCP file

marksouzacosta — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 01:09:18 GMT

Hi @pthomas,

Is your BCP file just a flat text file with a .BCP extension or is a binary file meant to be read only by SQL Server? Can you please confirm that?

I heard you don't have a SQL Server to use as an intermediary but, why not? I believe you can use a SQL Server Dev version as a temporary place.

Regards,

Mark Costa

Re: How can I import a BCP file

pthomas — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:47:34 GMT

It's binary. I was hoping Talend had a way to interpret the format but I guess not. I'm in an anti-Microsoft shop so dealing with SQL Server makes ears pop up.

The good news - for me - is that they decided to go a different route to get the data.