I write a comma delimited text file composed from info from another text file. When I try to import this file into SQLEXPRESS/SQL 2005 using 'BULK INSERT' it appears that the first field of the first row is prefixed with 3 characters (ASCII 139,175, 168). This stops the first row from being imported and generates an error message. The extra characters do not show using WordPad, Excel, 'Debug <filename>' or 'Peek'. I actually found them when opening the file with OpenOffice Calc! When I remove the 3 characters in Calc and save, the file will import with BULK INSERT without any problems. How can I get rid of these characters?