Insert ADO.Net DataTable into an SQL table

Question

The current solution i implemented is awful!

I use a for... loop for inserting records from an ADO.NET data-table into an SQL table.

I would like to insert at once the data-table into the SQL table, without iterating...

Is that possible, or am i asking too much?

Answer 1

I think you are looking for SQLBulkCopy.

Answer 2

You can pass the entire DataTable as a single Table Valued Parameter and insert the entire TVP at once. The following is the example from Table-Valued Parameters in SQL Server 2008 (ADO.NET):

// Assumes connection is an open SqlConnection.
using (connection)
{
// Create a DataTable with the modified rows.
DataTable addedCategories = CategoriesDataTable.GetChanges(
    DataRowState.Added);

// Define the INSERT-SELECT statement.
string sqlInsert = 
    "INSERT INTO dbo.Categories (CategoryID, CategoryName)"
    + " SELECT nc.CategoryID, nc.CategoryName"
    + " FROM @tvpNewCategories AS nc;"

// Configure the command and parameter.
SqlCommand insertCommand = new SqlCommand(
    sqlInsert, connection);
SqlParameter tvpParam = insertCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue(
    "@tvpNewCategories", addedCategories);
tvpParam.SqlDbType = SqlDbType.Structured;
tvpParam.TypeName = "dbo.CategoryTableType";

// Execute the command.
insertCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

TVP are only available in SQL 2008.