Parsing tab selimited text into SQL table

SQLServerCentral is supported by Red Gate Software Ltd.

Popular Topics

Home

Members

Calendar

Who's On

Home » SQL Server 2005 » SQL Server 2005 Strategies » Parsing tab selimited text into SQL table

14 posts, Page 2 of 2

««1 2

Parsing tab selimited text into SQL table

Rate Topic

Display Mode

Topic Options

Author

Message

opc.three

Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2012 8:58 AM

SSCertifiable

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 11:14 PM
Points: 6,706, Visits: 11,738

Lisa Cherney (3/14/2012)

If you need to do this from a .net application, load your data from the file into a DataTable and then use the SQLBulkCopy class (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.sqlclient.sqlbulkcopy.aspx) to move the data to your database.

Caveat to this approach: make sure the memory on your server is ample, the generic implementation of this technique requires that the entire data file be loaded into memory before it is bulk copied to the server.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community. --Plato

Believe you can and you're halfway there. --Theodore Roosevelt

Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler --Albert Einstein

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. --Albert Einstein

1 apple is not exactly 1/8 of 8 apples. Because there are no absolutely identical apples. --Giordy

Post #1266802

Jeff Moden

Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2012 10:20 PM

SSC-Dedicated

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 9:57 PM
Points: 32,906, Visits: 26,790

Ummmm... that class has a batch size parameter to it. I'm not a C# programmer but wouldn't that prevent the whole 9 yards from being loaded at once?

--Jeff Moden

"RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for "Row-By-Agonizing-Row".

First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
Stop thinking about what you want to do to a row... think, instead, of what you want to do to a column."

For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/

For better answers on performance questions, click on the following...
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/SQLServerCentral/66909/

Post #1267236

opc.three

Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2012 10:38 PM

SSCertifiable

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 11:14 PM
Points: 6,706, Visits: 11,738

The batch size comes into play when loading the data into the database which is downstream from the issue I am highlighting.

The SqlBulkCopy.WriteToServer method (4 overloads) is how the class is told to begin loading the data to the database. The most common of the three overloads is the one that accepts an ADO.NET DataTable, the WriteToServer(DataTable) method, and that DataTable by definition is a memory-resident object containing the data to load, the entire file in the most generic case. That is the most common way to leverage the SqlBulkCopy class and how the overwhelming majority of the basic internet tutorials show it.

The most interesting of the three overloads to me is the one that accepts an IDataReader. The example on MSDN alludes to the original intent of this overload which was to enable table-to-table data copying by passing in a SQL ExecuteReader (executes a SELECT from one database to load into another), a very powerful and handy amethod indeed. With only a few lines of code we can copy all data from all tables in one database to a database with the same schema on another instance (database copy wizard anyone?).

That said, I would find it much more interesting if one could easily pass an IDataReader hooked up to a flat-file reader. Then you would have something analogous to a subset of the bcp.exe functionality written in .NET, but I have not tried it nor looked to see if anyone has gone there mainly because we have SSIS, bcp.exe, BULK INSERT and many other tools already capable of doing the task and I have never been boxed into an environment where I would need such a thing.

edit: excuse me, there are 4 WriteToServer overloads, not 3

__________________________________________________________________________________________________
There are no special teachers of virtue, because virtue is taught by the whole community. --Plato

Believe you can and you're halfway there. --Theodore Roosevelt

Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler --Albert Einstein

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. --Albert Einstein

1 apple is not exactly 1/8 of 8 apples. Because there are no absolutely identical apples. --Giordy

Post #1267239

Jeff Moden

Posted Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:20 PM

SSC-Dedicated

Group: General Forum Members
Last Login: Yesterday @ 9:57 PM
Points: 32,906, Visits: 26,790

Thanks, Orlando.

--Jeff Moden

Post #1267245

« Prev Topic | Next Topic »

14 posts, Page 2 of 2

««1 2

Permissions