Which one is good way to Import Excel to Database? - sql

Hi i am using SQL Server 2008.
How can I import an Excel file into the database, which is the easiest way and simple to do?
OpenRowSet
BulkCopy
Linked Servers
SSIS
I have the above options to Import Excel to Database.

In my opinion SSIS wizard is best way to import excel data where you get row and column wise whole view of table data which will be inserted and also specify column names and contraints and parse data using query.
UPDATE :

If the data in your excel file does not require any processing to match your database table then I recommend you save your excel file as a csv and use a combination of BULK INSERT and the BCP.exe program.
To use BULK INSERT you will need a format file which defines how your datafile matches up to your database table. You can write this by hand to match the existing database table or you can use the following command to generate the format file you need:
bcp [ServerName].[SchemaName].[TableName] format nul -c -f [FormatFileOutputName].fmt -S[ServerHostName] -U[DbUserName] -P[DbUserPassword]
Now you will have 2 files:
DatafileName.csv
FormatFileName.fmt.
Use BULK INSERT within Sql Server to insert your data.
Note: If the columns in your datafile are in a different order than your database table then you can simply edit the generated format file to have them map correctly.

Related

How to retrieve the insert statements from an SQL Database that I imported from an Excel file

i recently used a MS excel database and imported it into an database but i want to get all the insert statements that the import made.
Is it possible? All i can see is the executed database in my object explorer but i want all the insert statements of the imported data??
OK let me try explain again :) i have thousands of rows of data in an excel spreadsheet, how do i convert the rows of data to a database. I'm asking like this now because i think i just messed up on the previous try:(
Export the table in sql format
The Format of Output of .sql file is In the form
Create Table Statements
Insert each entry statement So Open that .sql file and copy all INSERT statement
Hope this was your requirement

Finding rows in table using input from a CSV file - SQL

Using a SQL tool like SQL Developer / Toad for Oracle
Is it possible to write a SQL query that will do the following
SELECT * FROM TABLE
WHERE COLUMN1 IN CSV_FILE
The CSV file is just one column of data with no delimiters.
How can I achieve this?
Constraints
I cannot create a temp table to insert CSV file (no create permissions)
The data I am using of this column is the only index in that table so I cannot use other columns to query or else it will be really slow.
Thanks
Creating external table is the best way. If you dont have permission then the other way is to move the file to the path of any oracle directory(Oracle object - Directory). And with help of utl_file read the file, loop through it and do your operation inside a PL/SQL block which is too tedious.
See the eaxmples for using utl_file - http://psoug.org/reference/utl_file.html
But its better if you try and get create access.
Toad for Oracle data import (uses sqlldr internally)
Create a temp table and load the data using this utility and select the values
External tables
Create external table, load the data through the same and select the values.
Using SQL developer you can create a table in your schema and load this table with data from a csv file.
Notes:
You will need to create a void column per each column to import from excel
Excel export csv with ";" delimiter
If SQL developer(4.1.5) doesn't preview the fields in separated columns try moving forward/backwards with Next/back buttons
and a very graphical guide in the following page:
http://www.thatjeffsmith.com/archive/2012/04/how-to-import-from-excel-to-oracle-with-sql-developer/

Export records from SQL Server 2005 express edition

I have a little problem. My friend has a database with over 10 tables and each table has over 90-100 records.
I can't find a workaround to export the records (to put in a SQL file something like this: INSERT INTO .... VALUES ... for each existing records) from his tables to import in my database.
How to do that ?
I tried: right click on a table -> Script Table as -> INSERT TO -> File ...
but it only generate the INSERT statement.
There are a solution ? or this feature is only for commercial version ?
UPDATE
You can use BCP command with command prompt like this
For export: bcp ADatabase.dbo.OneTable out d:\test\OneTable.bcp -c -Usa -Ppassword
For import: bcp ADatabase.dbo.OneTable in d:\test\OneTable.bcp -c -Usa -Ppassword
these commands will create a BCP file which contains records for specified table. You can import using existing BCP file into another database
If you use remote database then:
bcp ADatabaseRemote.dbo.OneTableRemote out d:\test\OneTableRemote.bcp -Slocalhost/SQLExpress -Usa -Ppassword
Instead of localhost/SQLExpress, you can use localhost or other server name...
Probably the simplest way to do this would be to run a SELECT statement that outputs to a file. Then you can import that data into your database.
For simple moves, I have also done a copy/paste manually. Sometimes it is better to use Excel as a staging platform before pasting it into the new database. You may need to create a temporary table in your new database that matches up exactly with the data you are pasting over. For example, I usually don't put a PK on the temp table at first and make the PK field just an INT. That way the copy will go smoother.
In the corporate world, you would use SSIS to move this data around.
a couple of ways you could do this. One,select everything from each table and save the results as a csv or delimited file (you can do this from sql management studio). You can also script the tables as create and copy the scripts over to the new database, assuming it is a sql server also. Then for import use the load infile statement. You may have to google the syntax for sql server but I know this works in mysql and oracle. haven't tried it in sql server yet.
LOAD DATA INFILE 'myfile'
INTO TABLE stuff
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
SET id = NULL;
Or if you are going to another sql server use the sql export import wizard.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms141209.aspx

How to import pipe delimited text file data to SQLServer table

I have database table represented as text file in the following pattern:
0|ALGERIA|0| haggle. carefully f|
1|ARGENTINA|1|al foxes promise|
2|BRAZIL|1|y alongside of the pendal |
3|CANADA|1|eas hang ironic, silent packages. |
I need to import this data to a SQL Server 2008 database table. I have created the table with the types matching the schema.
How to import this data to the table?
EDIT: Solved by following the answer selected.
Note to anyone stumbling upon this in future: The datatype needs to be converted.
Refer: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sqlintegrationservices/thread/94399ff2-616c-44d5-972d-ca8623c8014e
You could use the Import Data feature by right mouse clicking the database, and then clicking Tasks then Import Data. This will give you a wizard which you can specify the delimiters etc. for your file and preview the output before you've inserted any data.
If you have a large amount of data you can use bcp to bulk import from file: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162802.aspx
The bcp utility bulk copies data
between an instance of Microsoft SQL
Server and a data file in a
user-specified format. The bcp utility
can be used to import large numbers of
new rows into SQL Server tables...
Except when used with the
queryout option, the utility requires
no knowledge of Transact-SQL. To
import data into a table, you must
either use a format file created for
that table or understand the structure
of the table and the types of data
that are valid for its columns.

BCP utility to create a format file, to import Excel data to SQL Server 2008 for BULK insertion

Am trying to import Excel 2003 data into SQL table for SQL Server 2008.
Tried to add a linked server but have met with little success.
Now am trying to check if there's a way to use the BCP utility to do a BULK insert or BULK operation with OPENROWSET, using a format file to get the Excel mapping.
First of all, how can I create a format file for a table, that has differently named columns than the Excel spreadsheet colums?
Next, how to use this format file to import data from say a file at: C:\Folder1\Excel1.xsl
into table Table1 ?
Thank you.
There's some examples here that demonstrate what the data file should look like (csv) and what the format file should look like. Unless you need to do this lots I'd just hand-craft the format file, save the excel data to csv, then try using bcp or OPENROWSET.
The format file specifies the column names for the destination. The data file doesn't have column headings so you don't need to worry about the excel (source) cols being different.
If you need to do more mapping etc, then create an SSIS package. You can use the data import wizard to get you started, then save as SSIS package, then edit to your heart's content.
If it's a one-off I'd use the SQL data import size, from right-click on database in mgmt studio. If you just have a few rows to import from excel I typically open a query to Edit Top 200 rows, edit the query to match the columns I have in excel, then copy and paste the rows from excel into SQL mgmt studio. Doesn't handle errors very well, but quick.