I know of the stored_procedure xp_file used for file I/O, but what I need to do is get a value from a file, and compare counts of certain tables to that file.

The file is comma-separated, and the value I need is after the fourth comma.

Does anyone have a code snippet that will grab that value and store it in a variable? I can do it in basically any other language but stored procedures.

Would it be possible to write a VB6 EXE that will do that too, and then just call that EXE whenever I want to get the count? Only thing is, would I be able to get the value from the external EXE?

Thanks,
Mike

Can you please elaborate using examples ?? This little hard to IMAGINE...Sorry