OPENROWSET (Transact-SQL)

Syntax

OPENROWSET 
( { 'provider_name', { 'datasource';'user_id';'password' 
   | 'provider_string' } 
   , {   [ catalog. ] [ schema. ] object 
       | 'query' 
     } 
   | BULK 'data_file', 
       { FORMATFILE ='format_file_path' [ <bulk_options> ]
       | SINGLE_BLOB | SINGLE_CLOB | SINGLE_NCLOB }
} ) 

<bulk_options> ::=
   [ , CODEPAGE = { 'ACP' | 'OEM' | 'RAW' | 'code_page' } ] 
   [ , ERRORFILE ='file_name' ]
   [ , FIRSTROW = first_row ] 
   [ , LASTROW = last_row ] 
   [ , MAXERRORS = maximum_errors ] 
   [ , ROWS_PER_BATCH =rows_per_batch ] 

   [ , ORDER ( { column [ ASC | DESC ] } [ ,...n ] ) [ UNIQUE ] 

Arguments

• 'provider_name'
  Is a character string that represents the friendly name (or PROGID) of the OLE DB provider as specified in the registry. provider_name has no default value.

• 'datasource'
  Is a string constant that corresponds to a particular OLE DB data source. datasource is the DBPROP_INIT_DATASOURCE property to be passed to the IDBProperties interface of the provider to initialize the provider. Typically, this string includes the name of the database file, the name of a database server, or a name that the provider understands to locate the database or databases.

• 'user_id'
  Is a string constant that is the user name passed to the specified OLE DB provider. user_id specifies the security context for the connection and is passed in as the DBPROP_AUTH_USERID property to initialize the provider. user_id cannot be a Microsoft Windows login name.

• 'password'
  Is a string constant that is the user password to be passed to the OLE DB provider. password is passed in as the DBPROP_AUTH_PASSWORD property when initializing the provider. password cannot be a Microsoft Windows password.

• 'provider_string'
  Is a provider-specific connection string that is passed in as the DBPROP_INIT_PROVIDERSTRING property to initialize the OLE DB provider. provider_string typically encapsulates all the connection information required to initialize the provider. For a list of keywords that are recognized by the SQL Server Native Client OLE DB provider, see Initialization and Authorization Properties.

• catalog
  Is the name of the catalog or database in which the specified object resides.

• schema
  Is the name of the schema or object owner for the specified object.

• object
  Is the object name that uniquely identifies the object to work with.

• 'query'
  Is a string constant sent to and executed by the provider. The local instance of SQL Server does not process this query, but processes query results returned by the provider, a pass-through query. Pass-through queries are useful when used on providers that do not make available their tabular data through table names, but only through a command language. Pass-through queries are supported on the remote server, as long as the query provider supports the OLE DB Command object and its mandatory interfaces. For more information, see SQL Server Native Client (OLE DB) Reference.

• BULK
  Uses the BULK rowset provider for OPENROWSET to read data from a file. In SQL Server, OPENROWSET can read from a data file without loading the data into a target table. This lets you use OPENROWSET with a simple SELECT statement.

  The arguments of the BULK option allow for significant control over where to start and end reading data, how to deal with errors, and how data is interpreted. For example, you can specify that the data file be read as a single-row, single-column rowset of type varbinary, varchar, or nvarchar. The default behavior is described in the argument descriptions that follow.

  For information about how to use the BULK option, see "Remarks," later in this topic. For information about the permissions that are required by the BULK option, see "Permissions," later in this topic.

  Note

  When used to import data with the full recovery model, OPENROWSET (BULK ...) does not optimize logging.

  For information on preparing data for bulk import, see Preparing Data for Bulk Export or Import.

• 'data_file'
  Is the full path of the data file whose data is to be copied into the target table.

• FORMATFILE ='format_file_path'
  Specifies the full path of a format file. SQL Server supports two types of format files: XML and non-XML.

  A format file is required to define column types in the result set. The only exception is when SINGLE_CLOB, SINGLE_BLOB, or SINGLE_NCLOB is specified; in which case, the format file is not required.

  For information about format files, see Using a Format File to Bulk Import Data.

• < bulk_options >
  Specifies one or more arguments for the BULK option.

• CODEPAGE = { **'**ACP '| **'**OEM '| **'**RAW '| 'code_page' }
  Specifies the code page of the data in the data file. CODEPAGE is relevant only if the data contains char, varchar, or text columns with character values more than 127 or less than 32.

  Note

  We recommend that you specify a collation name for each column in a format file.

  CODEPAGE value	Description
  ACP	Converts columns of char, varchar, or text data type from the ANSI/Microsoft Windows code page (ISO 1252) to the SQL Server code page.
  OEM (default)	Converts columns of char, varchar, or text data type from the system OEM code page to the SQL Server code page.
  RAW	No conversion occurs from one code page to another. This is the fastest option.
  code_page	Indicates the source code page on which the character data in the data file is encoded; for example, 850. Important SQL Server does not support code page 65001 (UTF-8 encoding).

• ERRORFILE ='file_name'
  Specifies the file used to collect rows that have formatting errors and cannot be converted to an OLE DB rowset. These rows are copied into this error file from the data file "as is."

  The error file is created at the start of the command execution. An error will be raised if the file already exists. Additionally, a control file that has the extension .ERROR.txt is created. This file references each row in the error file and provides error diagnostics. After the errors have been corrected, the data can be loaded.

• FIRSTROW **=**first_row
  Specifies the number of the first row to load. The default is 1. This indicates the first row in the specified data file. The row numbers are determined by counting the row terminators. FIRSTROW is 1-based.

• LASTROW **=**last_row
  Specifies the number of the last row to load. The default is 0. This indicates the last row in the specified data file.

• MAXERRORS **=**maximum_errors
  Specifies the maximum number of syntax errors or nonconforming rows, as defined in the format file, that can occur before OPENROWSET throws an exception. Until MAXERRORS is reached, OPENROWSET ignores each bad row, not loading it, and counts the bad row as one error.

  The default for maximum_errors is 10.

  Note

  MAX_ERRORS does not apply to CHECK constraints, or to converting money and bigint data types.

• ROWS_PER_BATCH **=**rows_per_batch
  Specifies the approximate number of rows of data in the data file. This value should be of the same order as the actual number of rows.

  OPENROWSET always imports a data file as a single batch. However, if you specify rows_per_batch with a value > 0, the query processor uses the value of rows_per_batch as a hint for allocating resources in the query plan.

  By default, ROWS_PER_BATCH is unknown. Specifying ROWS_PER_BATCH = 0 is the same as omitting ROWS_PER_BATCH.

• ORDER ( { column [ ASC | DESC ] } [ ,... n ] [ UNIQUE ] )
  An optional hint that specifies how the data in the data file is sorted. By default, the bulk operation assumes the data file is unordered. Performance might improve if the order specified can be exploited by the query optimizer to generate a more efficient query plan. Examples for when specifying a sort can be beneficial include the following:

  • Inserting rows into a table that has a clustered index, where the rowset data is sorted on the clustered index key.

  • Joining the rowset with another table, where the sort and join columns match.

  • Aggregating the rowset data by the sort columns.

  • Using the rowset as a source table in the FROM clause of a query, where the sort and join columns match.

  UNIQUE specifies that the data file does not have duplicate entries.

  If the actual rows in the data file are not sorted according to the order that is specified, or if the UNIQUE hint is specified and duplicates keys are present, an error is returned.

  Column aliases are required when ORDER is used. The column alias list must reference the derived table that is being accessed by the BULK clause. The column names that are specified in the ORDER clause refer to this column alias list. Large value types (varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), and xml) and large object (LOB) types (text, ntext, and image) columns cannot be specified.

• SINGLE_BLOB
  Returns the contents of data_file as a single-row, single-column rowset of type varbinary(max).

  Important

  We recommend that you import XML data only using the SINGLE_BLOB option, rather than SINGLE_CLOB and SINGLE_NCLOB, because only SINGLE_BLOB supports all Windows encoding conversions.

• SINGLE_CLOB
  By reading data_file as ASCII, returns the contents as a single-row, single-column rowset of type varchar(max), using the collation of the current database.

• SINGLE_NCLOB
  By reading data_file as UNICODE, returns the contents as a single-row, single-column rowset of type nvarchar(max), using the collation of the current database.

Remarks

OPENROWSET can be used to access remote data from OLE DB data sources only when the DisallowAdhocAccess registry option is explicitly set to 0 for the specified provider, and the Ad Hoc Distributed Queries advanced configuration option is enabled. When these options are not set, the default behavior does not allow for ad hoc access.

When accessing remote OLE DB data sources, the login identity of trusted connections is not automatically delegated from the server on which the client is connected to the server that is being queried. Authentication delegation must be configured. For more information, see Configuring Linked Servers for Delegation.

Catalog and schema names are required if the OLE DB provider supports multiple catalogs and schemas in the specified data source. Values for catalog and schema can be omitted when the OLE DB provider does not support them. If the provider supports only schema names, a two-part name of the form schema**.object must be specified. If the provider supports only catalog names, a three-part name of the form catalog.schema.**object must be specified. Three-part names must be specified for pass-through queries that use the SQL Server Native Client OLE DB provider. For more information, see Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions (Transact-SQL).

OPENROWSET does not accept variables for its arguments.

Using OPENROWSET with the BULK Option

Permissions

OPENROWSET permissions are determined by the permissions of the user name that is being passed to the OLE DB provider. To use the BULK option requires ADMINISTER BULK OPERATIONS permission.

Examples

A. Using OPENROWSET with SELECT and the SQL Server Native Client OLE DB Provider

SELECT a.*
FROM OPENROWSET('SQLNCLI', 'Server=Seattle1;Trusted_Connection=yes;',
     'SELECT GroupName, Name, DepartmentID
      FROM AdventureWorks.HumanResources.Department
      ORDER BY GroupName, Name') AS a;

B. Using the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for Jet

SELECT CustomerID, CompanyName
   FROM OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0',
      'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\SAMPLES\Northwind.mdb';
      'admin';'',Customers)
GO

C. Using OPENROWSET and another table in an INNER JOIN

USE Northwind  
GO
SELECT c.*, o.*
FROM Northwind.dbo.Customers AS c 
   INNER JOIN OPENROWSET('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
   'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\SAMPLES\Northwind.mdb';'admin';'', Orders)    
   AS o 
   ON c.CustomerID = o.CustomerID 
GO

D. Using OPENROWSET to bulk insert file data into a varbinary(max) column

USE AdventureWorks
GO
CREATE TABLE myTable(FileName nvarchar(60), 
  FileType nvarchar(60), Document varbinary(max))
GO

INSERT INTO myTable(FileName, FileType, Document) 
   SELECT 'Text1.txt' AS FileName, 
      '.txt' AS FileType, 
      * FROM OPENROWSET(BULK N'C:\Text1.txt', SINGLE_BLOB) AS Document
GO

E. Using the OPENROWSET BULK provider with a format file to retrieve rows from a text file

1     Data Item 1
2     Data Item 2
3     Data Item 3

9.0
2
1  SQLCHAR  0  10 "\t"        1  ID                SQL_Latin1_General_Cp437_BIN
2  SQLCHAR  0  40 "\r\n"      2  Description        SQL_Latin1_General_Cp437_BIN

SELECT a.* FROM OPENROWSET( BULK 'c:\test\values.txt', 
   FORMATFILE = 'c:\test\values.fmt') AS a;

Additional Examples

See Also

Reference

Concepts

Other Resources

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