Generate INSERT INTO statements in MS-Access - sql

Question

I like to export data (single records) from one Access database to another one in another country. The idea is that I want to send a text file with INSERT INTO statements per email and the receiving PC just executes these INSERT INTO statements. I wrote already the code to read and execute the INSERT INTO statements in these text files.
Obviously I have to generate the INSERT INTO statements.
Here is an example.
I have the following table:
Table1
Id number
PersonName text
DoB date, can be empty
NumberOfChildern number, can be empty
I select the data like this:
SELECT Id, PersonName, DoB, NumberOfChildern FROM Table1;
What I want to generate are statements like this:
INSERT INTO Table1 (Id, PersonName, DoB, NumberOfChildern ) VALUES (1, ‘Peter’, #5-17-1990#, 1)
If all fields are always filled in then I could write one time the code and that's it. But there is a problem if a couple of fields might contain data or maybe no data.
Here are some similar but different versions of the above statement:
INSERT INTO Table1 (Id, PersonName, DoB, NumberOfChildern ) VALUES (1, ‘Peter’, #5-17-1990#, 1)
INSERT INTO Table1 (Id, PersonName, NumberOfChildern ) VALUES (1, ‘Peter’, 1)
INSERT INTO Table1 (Id, PersonName, DoB ) VALUES (1, ‘Peter’, #5-17-1990#)
INSERT INTO Table1 (Id, PersonName ) VALUES (1, ‘Peter’)
With just two fields which can contain NULL values there are already 4 different versions of this statement and with more fields it becomes more and more complicated (not really complicated but more work).
I think about writing code in VBA which analyzes the table and the records which I want to export to check which kind of fields are used (i.e. date) and then generate statements like above.
I am sure I can do this but I wonder if maybe others did this before.
I don't want to reinvent the wheel.
But searching for "generate SQL insert statements" is not really efficient.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

It's your lucky day. I have done this for SQL Server - with a few modifications done below it should work for Access SQL.
The key is to insert VALUES NULL, not create different statements if values are null.
The SET IDENTITY_INSERT ON/OFF probably isn't needed for Access.
Gustav has posted a generic function that can replace all Sqlify/SqlDate etc. helper functions and covers more data types.
Public Sub InsertStatementsSql(ByVal sTABLE As String)
Dim DB As DAO.Database
Dim TD As DAO.TableDef
Dim RS As DAO.Recordset
Dim fld As DAO.Field
Dim sKpl As String
Dim sStart As String
Dim sValues As String
Dim S As String
Dim v As Variant
Dim i As Long
Dim bIdentity As Boolean
Set DB = CurrentDb
Set TD = DB.TableDefs(sTABLE)
Set RS = DB.OpenRecordset(sTABLE, dbOpenSnapshot)
' Check for Autonumber/IDENTITY column
bIdentity = False
For i = 0 To TD.Fields.count - 1
If (TD.Fields(i).Attributes And dbAutoIncrField) > 0 Then
bIdentity = True
Exit For
End If
Next i
If bIdentity Then
sKpl = sKpl & "SET IDENTITY_INSERT " & sTABLE & " ON;" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
End If
' "INSERT INTO ... VALUES " for every line
For i = 0 To TD.Fields.count - 1
sStart = StrAppend(sStart, TD.Fields(i).Name, ", ")
Next i
sStart = "INSERT INTO " & sTABLE & " (" & sStart & ") VALUES "
' One line per record
Do While Not RS.EOF
sValues = ""
For i = 0 To TD.Fields.count - 1
v = RS(i)
If IsNull(v) Then
S = "NULL"
Else
Set fld = TD.Fields(i)
Select Case fld.Type
Case dbText, dbMemo: S = Sqlify(CStr(v))
Case dbDate: S = SqlDate(CDate(v))
Case dbDouble, dbSingle: S = SqlNumber(CDbl(v))
Case Else: S = CStr(v)
End Select
End If
sValues = StrAppend(sValues, S, ", ")
Next i
' Append line to full SQL
sKpl = sKpl & vbCrLf & sStart & " (" & sValues & ");"
RS.MoveNext
Loop
RS.Close
Set TD = Nothing
If bIdentity Then
sKpl = sKpl & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "SET IDENTITY_INSERT " & sTABLE & " OFF;" & vbCrLf
End If
Debug.Print sKpl
' see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/210216 or https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff192913.aspx
' or https://stackoverflow.com/a/25431633/3820271
'ClipBoard_SetData sKpl
End Sub
' ------------------- helper functions -----------------
' ein'string --> 'ein''string'
Public Function Sqlify(ByVal S As String) As String
S = Replace(S, "'", "''")
S = "'" & S & "'"
Sqlify = S
End Function
Public Function SqlDate(vDate As Date) As String
SqlDate = "#" & Format(vDate, "yyyy-mm-dd") & "#"
End Function
Public Function SqlNumber(num As Double) As String
SqlNumber = Replace(CStr(num), ",", ".")
End Function
Public Function StrAppend(sBase As String, sAppend As Variant, sSeparator As String) As String
If Len(sAppend) > 0 Then
If sBase = "" Then
StrAppend = Nz(sAppend, "")
Else
StrAppend = sBase & sSeparator & Nz(sAppend, "")
End If
Else
StrAppend = sBase
End If
End Function