Import Data from a Text or CSV file into SQL Server

I was recently in need of importing data from a CSV (Comma Separated File) to a table in SQL Server 2008.
After searching in Google for a little while, found this blog entry from Pinal Dave (SQL Authority) which always provides good content.

Besides passing along the technique described in Pinal's blog post, I would like to expand by explaining a few a snags that I ran into.

My source data in the CSV file, looks something like this:

HOU009,Windows Phone 7,Will Martinez,11/10/2011,Houston; TX,999,2
HOU010,WPF for Business Applications,Will Martinez,11/15/2011,Houston; TX,695,1

More an less I have all the data needed to fill the columns of my target table. My assumption is that my column id of type uniqueidentifier is going to be auto-generated. This is my table:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Courses](
   [id] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL DEFAULT NEWSEQUENTIALID(),
   [code] [varchar](50) NOT NULL,
   [description] [varchar](200) NULL,
   [instructor] [varchar](50) NULL,
   [date] [date] NULL,
       [venue] [varchar](50) NULL,
   [price] [money] NULL,
       [duration] [int] NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_Courses]
    PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([id] ASC,[code] ASC )
WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON)
  ON [PRIMARY]) ON [PRIMARY]

As you may notice, I have two datatypes that may be challenging, first my primary key is  of type uniqueidentifier and also, I'm using a date datatype.

Initially I tried to import my data from the CSV file using the below statement:

bulk insert [dbo].[Courses]
from 'C:\Courses.csv'
with (fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n')
go

On my first try I did not have any luck. I ran into the below issue:
Msg 4861, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Cannot bulk load because the file "C:\Courses.csv" could not be opened. Operating system error code 5(Access is denied.).

Moved my file to the Public directory and then make sure permissions were set to 'Everyone'. No luck, although I did not get the "access denied" error. My insert returns 0 row(s) affected.

At this point my guess was that I had a couple of issues:
- First I did not have a value for the Id column which is our primary key
- My column of type date could be a problem if there is an implicit conversion of string data

To work around the problem, I decided to create a new temporary table, without a primary key and with a datetime datafield.  Here is the table:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CoursesTemp](
   [code] [varchar](50) NOT NULL,
   [description] [varchar](200) NULL,
   [instructor] [varchar](50) NULL,
   [date] [datetime] NULL,
   [venue] [varchar](50) NULL,
   [price] [money] NULL,
   [duration] [int] NULL)

Ran my insert statement again:
bulk insert [dbo].[CoursesTemp]
from 'C:\Users\Public\Downloads\Courses.csv'
with (fieldterminator = ',', rowterminator = '\n')
go

Success! Finally got to see what I was waiting for...(20 row(s) affected)

At this point, life is easy. I can use the data I just inserted in the temporary table and use it to insert into the "live" table.

insert [dbo].[Courses]
  (code, description, instructor, date, venue, duration)
select
   code, description, instructor, cast(date as date), venue,
   duration
from [dbo].[CoursesTemp]

Notice that, my Id column is not listed, since it has a uniqueidentifier with a default of  NEWSEQUENTIALID , it automatically generates a GUID for each record.
To deal with the issue of the date field, noticed that there is a CAST statement that will convert the data to the appropriate datatype.

Below is how the data looks in my table.



Now I have the data I needed and my id column has nice GUIDs generated for every record.
I'm ready to get some work done.

Hope this helps somebody out there,
Will



CodeProject

How to Create and Execute Dynamic SQL on T-SQL

Have you ever had the need to use dynamic SQL?
Chances are that you had the need to manipulate a string to conform a SQL statement and then execute it via a SQLCommand -> CommandType.Text
This is common technique in the .NET world, but How about using dynamic SQL on a Stored Procedure?


At times, I had the need to bring data from a table column and then use it to conform a SQL Statement that will then be executed on demand. For example:

Imagine you have a table named t_settings, with a field named target_db. In this field we store a database name.
Now, using the data on this field you could do something like:


declare @sql varchar(255)
select @sql = 'select * from ' + rtrim(target_db) + '..another_table where 1=1' from t_settings
execute (@sql)

The execute statement provides all the magic. It allows you to execute a string command just as you would do with a SP.

Below is a somewhat silly example that you can try if you have the AdventureWorks database available.

declare @ContactID varchar(3)
declare @Sql varchar(255)
select @ContactID = Cast(ContactID as varchar) from person.contact where EmailAddress = 'kim3@adventure-works.com'
select @ContactID
--Manipulate the String that will become the query that we need to execute.
select @Sql = 'Select * from Sales.SalesOrderHeader where contactid = ' + @ContactID
execute (@sql)


Happy Coding,
Will

CodeProject