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Is it possible to use sql server bulk insert without a file?

Answer 1

+7 A:

I don't think you can do that with SQL Server's bulkcp tool, but if your app is written using .NET, you can use the System.Data.SqlClient.SqlBulkCopy class to bulk insert rows from a data table (or any datasource you can access with a SqlDataReader).

Chris 2010-09-07 18:28:01

You mean with an `IDataReader`.

SLaks 2010-09-07 18:30:22

To add to this: It's pretty easy to have a class implement iDataReader by reading information from an array. If you have want to store in an SQL database a bunch of information stored in an array, that's a good way to do it.

supercat 2010-09-07 19:20:13

@Slaks, yeah, I was being too specific.

Chris 2010-09-07 19:29:38

Answer 2

+1 A:

From the documentation on bulk insert:

BULK INSERT 
   [ database_name. [ schema_name ] . | schema_name. ] [ table_name | view_name ] 
      FROM 'data_file'

The FROM 'data_file' is not optional and is specified as such:

'data_file' Is the full path of the data file that contains data to import into the specified table or view. BULK INSERT can import data from a disk (including network, floppy disk, hard disk, and so on).

data_file must specify a valid path from the server on which SQL Server is running. If data_file is a remote file, specify the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name. A UNC name has the form \Systemname\ShareName\Path\FileName. For example, \SystemX\DiskZ\Sales\update.txt.

Your application could do the insert directly using whatever method meets your performance needs.

Sam 2010-09-07 18:30:56

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Is it possible to use sql server bulk insert without a file?

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