Can I specify an input sql file with bcp?

As far as I'm concerned the BCP utility only supports Transact-SQL queries directly written to the command line. Ex:

bcp "SELECT Name FROM AdventureWorks.Sales.Currency" queryout Currency.Name.dat -T -c

According to its reference the "-i" option:

Specifies the name of a response file, containing the responses to the command prompt questions for each data field when a bulk copy is being performed using interactive mode (-n, -c, -w, or -N not specified).

Notice that it differs from the sqlcmd Utility "-i" option:

Identifies the file that contains a batch of SQL statements or stored procedures. Multiple files may be specified that will be read and processed in order (...)

I did other way for fix that.

I create a batch file which read a file and send your content in bcp command. See:

@ECHO off

SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion

SET queryFile=%1
SET outFileName=%2

FOR /F "delims=" %%i IN (%queryFile%) DO SET join=!join! %%i

ECHO %join%

bcp "%join%" queryout %outFileName% /S.\SQLE_CAESAR /d /c /t"|" /T

That script receive two parameters:

1. Filename which has a query;
2. Filename for export data;

Execute a script in cmd like that: export-query.bat query.sql export.txt

I hope helped.

I had this problem today and found a convenient workaround, at least in an ad-hoc situation.

Temporary tables can be created by any user with connect permissions. This means you can also create GLOBAL temporary tables.

Just run your query in enterprise manager (or sql cmd or whatever) using SELECT ...INTO with a global temporary table e.g.

SELECT * 
INTO ##mytemptable
FROM SomeTable 
WHERE [massive where clause, for example] 

You can then use the temporary table in the BCP query with a simple

SELECT * FROM ##mytemptable

Then drop the temp table through enterprise manager

DROP TABLE ##mytemptable