Importing Private Keys to Bitcoin-QT

[W2014]

I would like to import a private key to the Bitcoin-QT client.

My questions:

1) Can I import a WIFC key, i.e., compressed private key, beginning with "K" or "L" rather than WIF key beginning with "5" ?  Does Bitcoin-QT accept both private key encoding formats -- i.e., compressed and non-compressed?

2) If I import the key from another client, should I be concerned that the key exists in two wallets?

Please note that I do not want to simply send funds from one client to another.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[didjaydisteele]

If you are using cold storage, a paper wallet or generating vanity addresses you may need to import a private key. Since Bitcoin-QT/bitcoind v.0.6.0, you can import private keys using RPC command importprivkey.

[Abdussamad]

I would like to import a private key to the Bitcoin-QT client.

My questions:

1) Can I import a WIFC key, i.e., compressed private key, beginning with "K" or "L" rather than WIF key beginning with "5" ?  Does Bitcoin-QT accept both private key encoding formats -- i.e., compressed and non-compressed?

2) If I import the key from another client, should I be concerned that the key exists in two wallets?

Please note that I do not want to simply send funds from one client to another.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

1) Yes. It uses compressed keys itself now.

2) Yes that might cause confusion about where the funds from the key went. You also may want to learn about change addresses.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change

If you are trying to spend funds in a paper wallet you want to make sure that it is not reused as a change address. So ideally don't import it into an existing wallet. Instead create a new wallet, and send all the funds to an address in  your primary wallet.