BUG: BCP May Export Corrupted DBCS Characters That Are Stored In a Char or Varchar Data Type (323502)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (all editions)

This article was previously published under Q323502

BUG #: 356458 (SHILOH_BUGS)
BUG #: 85675 (MDAC_BUGS)

SYMPTOMS

Double-byte character set (DBCS) characters that are exported by the bcp utility, may contain corrupted data if all of the following conditions are true:

The exported column's data type is char or varchar.
The DBCS data stored in the exported column has 1022 bytes, or more, in size.

The -c switch is used. For example:

bcp "pubs..test" out out.txt -S. -T -c

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use one of the following methods:

Use the -w switch instead of the -c switch when you run the bcp utility. For example:
```
bcp pubs..test out out.txt -S. -T -w
					
```
-or-
Use the nchar or the nvarchar data type instead of a char or a varchar data type for the DBCS columns. -or-
Use the SQL Server 7.0 bcp client.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce the Behavior

Follow these steps to reproduce the behavior:

Create a new table with a char or a varchar column:

use pubs
go
create table test (col1 varchar(5000))
go

Insert 1024 DBCS characters (2048 bytes) into the table you created in step 1:
```
insert test values(replicate(0x8260, 1024))
go
					
```
Run the following bcp command at the command prompt:
```
bcp pubs..test out out.txt -S. -T -c
					
```

RESULT: Instead of seeing exactly 1024 characters of 0x8260, some of the characters are corrupted.

Modification Type:	Major	Last Reviewed:	10/3/2003
Keywords:	kbBug kbpending KB323502