SQL SERVER BCP UTF8 import and export, support UTF8 after SQL SERVER 2014SP2

The bulk copy program utility (bcp) is a very powerful bulk copy tool between database and flat file. Normally used for large number of data import and export. But if you sql server version is older then 2014 SP2, unlucklly you cannot process UTF8 data even if there is a code page parameter -C , but it doesn’t support UTF8. Refer to Microsoft community document

code_pageSpecific code page number; for example, 850.

** Important ** SQL Server does not support code page 65001 (UTF-8 encoding).

If you want to process UTF8, then must need to upgrade SQL Server to version 2014 SP2 or later. Once you installed the upgrade, then you can use BCP to import or export UTF8 as below:

To import UTF-8 data to SQL Server, use the BCP utility and run the following bcp t_users in “D:\test.csv” -c -C 65001

To export UTF-8 data to SQL Server, use the BCP utility and run the following bcp t_users out ” D:\test.csv ” -c -C 65001