Transfer data from table to table in sqlserver

SqlBulkCopy class

 

link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.sqlclient.sqlbulkcopy.aspx

 

remarks:

 

Microsoft SQL Server includes a popular command-prompt utility named bcp for moving data from one table to another, whether on a single server or between servers. The SqlBulkCopy class lets you write managed code solutions that provide similar functionality. There are other ways to load data into a SQL Server table (INSERT statements, for example), but SqlBulkCopy offers a significant performance advantage over them.

The SqlBulkCopy class can be used to write data only to SQL Server tables. However, the data source is not limited to SQL Server; any data source can be used, as long as the data can be loaded to a DataTable instance or read with a IDataReader instance.

 

C# exmaple:

 

using System.Data.SqlClient;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string connectionString = GetConnectionString();
        // Open a sourceConnection to the AdventureWorks database.
        using (SqlConnection sourceConnection =
                   new SqlConnection(connectionString))
        {
            sourceConnection.Open();

            // Perform an initial count on the destination table.
            SqlCommand commandRowCount = new SqlCommand(
                "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM " +
                "dbo.BulkCopyDemoMatchingColumns;",
                sourceConnection);
            long countStart = System.Convert.ToInt32(
                commandRowCount.ExecuteScalar());
            Console.WriteLine("Starting row count = {0}", countStart);

            // Get data from the source table as a SqlDataReader.
            SqlCommand commandSourceData = new SqlCommand(
                "SELECT ProductID, Name, " +
                "ProductNumber " +
                "FROM Production.Product;", sourceConnection);
            SqlDataReader reader =
                commandSourceData.ExecuteReader();

            // Open the destination connection. In the real world you would 
            // not use SqlBulkCopy to move data from one table to the other 
            // in the same database. This is for demonstration purposes only.
            using (SqlConnection destinationConnection =
                       new SqlConnection(connectionString))
            {
                destinationConnection.Open();

                // Set up the bulk copy object. 
                // Note that the column positions in the source
                // data reader match the column positions in 
                // the destination table so there is no need to
                // map columns.
                using (SqlBulkCopy bulkCopy =
                           new SqlBulkCopy(destinationConnection))
                {
                    bulkCopy.DestinationTableName =
                        "dbo.BulkCopyDemoMatchingColumns";

                    try
                    {
                        // Write from the source to the destination.
                        bulkCopy.WriteToServer(reader);
                    }
                    catch (Exception ex)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                    }
                    finally
                    {
                        // Close the SqlDataReader. The SqlBulkCopy
                        // object is automatically closed at the end
                        // of the using block.
                        reader.Close();
                    }
                }

                // Perform a final count on the destination 
                // table to see how many rows were added.
                long countEnd = System.Convert.ToInt32(
                    commandRowCount.ExecuteScalar());
                Console.WriteLine("Ending row count = {0}", countEnd);
                Console.WriteLine("{0} rows were added.", countEnd - countStart);
                Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to finish.");
                Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }
    }

    private static string GetConnectionString()
        // To avoid storing the sourceConnection string in your code, 
        // you can retrieve it from a configuration file. 
    {
        return "Data Source=(local); " +
            " Integrated Security=true;" +
            "Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;";
    }
}

It also can transfer data from Xml file to database table.

link:http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/TransferUsingSQLBulkCopy.aspx

Transferring Data from XML File to Database Table
The data source is not only limited to database tables, but you can also use XML files. Here is a very simple XML file which is used as a source for the bulk copy operation. (Products.xml) 
 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Products>
  <Product productID="1" productName="Chai" />
  <Product productID="2" productName="Football" />
  <Product productID="3" productName="Soap" />
  <Product productID="4" productName="Green Tea" />
</Products>


 
private static void PerformBulkCopyXMLDataSource()
{
    string connectionString =
            @"Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Trusted_Connection=true";
    DataSet ds = new DataSet();
    DataTable sourceData = new DataTable();
    ds.ReadXml(@"C:/Products.xml");
    sourceData = ds.Tables[0];
    // open the destination data
    using (SqlConnection destinationConnection =
                    new SqlConnection(connectionString))
    {
        // open the connection
        destinationConnection.Open();
        using (SqlBulkCopy bulkCopy =
                    new SqlBulkCopy(destinationConnection.ConnectionString))
        {
            // column mappings
            bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("productID", "ProductID");
            bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("productName", "Name");
            bulkCopy.DestinationTableName = "Products_TopSelling";
            bulkCopy.WriteToServer(sourceData);
        }
    }
}

The file is first read into the DataTable and then fed to the WriteToServer method of the SqlBulkCopy class. Since, the destination table is Products_TopSelling, we had to perform the column mapping.