SqlBulkCopy insert order

Question

To copy data from one database to another in different server with same schema, I am planning to use SqlBulkCopy class from C sharp library. Whether SqlBulkCopy will maintain the same order as it is in the datatable while inserting the records ?

Example: id is the identity column.

Server1, db1

TableA
id   name
1    name10
2    name20
3    name30
4    name40

Server2, db1

TableA
    id   name
    1    name1
    2    name2
    3    name3
    4    name4
    ..........
    ..........
    5000 name22
    5001 name33

• Step1: var dt = select * from server1.dbo.TableA order by id;
• Step2: SQL bulk copy into server2 bulkCopy.WriteToServer(dt);
• Step3: var resultDt = select top 4 id from server2.dbo.TableA order by id desc. Since we know the number of records we inserted I am using "top 4".
• Step4: resultDt.DefaultView.Sort = "id asc";

Question: Whether id in resultDt will represent id in dt for all the rows ? i.e,.

5002 from server2 = 1 from server1
5003 from server2 = 2 from server1
5004 from server2 = 3 from server1
5005 from server2 = 4 from server1

Note: Just for example purpose I have given less records. Actual table contains some thousands of records.

Answer 1

It looks like there is no guarantee of order while bulk insert. So I added a temporary id column to the destination table. Flow will be as follows:

Step1: var dt = select *, id as tempId from server1.dbo.TableA order by id;
Step2: SQL bulk copy into server2 bulkCopy.WriteToServer(dt);
Step3: var resultDt = select top 4 id, tempId from server2.dbo.TableA order by id desc. Since we know the number of records we inserted I am using "top 4".

Now id will be the new id generated by server2 and tempId will be the id from server1. Problem solved :)

Answer 2

Another solution is available in the below link:

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ee3d90b0-d212-4bf0-8f2a-5dcb716896eb/sqlbulkcopy-insert-order?forum=adodotnetdataproviders

• Create staging table(say tmp_tableA) with same structure of tableA without identity.
• Bulk copy the data into tmp_tableA.
• Now insert into tableA from tmp_tableA.