How do I run large SQL scripts that contain many keywords, including “GO” using C#?

Question

I'm creating a web application that serves as a front end to do SQL Replication.

I have many scripts stored in the properties of the program. Let's use the first one as an example. The first script is the script that you get from creating a publication on the publisher server.

USE [<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>]
EXEC sp_replicationdboption @dbname = N'<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>',
    @optname = N'publish', @value = N'true'
GO
USE [<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>]
EXEC [<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>].sys.sp_addlogreader_agent @job_login = N'XXX\Admin',
    @job_password = NULL, @publisher_security_mode = 0,
    @publisher_login = N'Admin', @publisher_password = N'<<PASSWORD>>',
    @job_name = NULL
GO

USE [<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>]
EXEC sp_addpublication @publication = N'<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>',
    @description = N'Transactional publication of database ''<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>'' from Publisher ''<<SOURCE_SERVER_NAME>>''.',
    @sync_method = N'concurrent', @retention = 0, @allow_push = N'true',
    @allow_pull = N'true', @allow_anonymous = N'false',
    @enabled_for_internet = N'false', @snapshot_in_defaultfolder = N'true',
    @compress_snapshot = N'false', @ftp_port = 21,
    @allow_subscription_copy = N'false', @add_to_active_directory = N'false',
    @repl_freq = N'continuous', @status = N'active',
    @independent_agent = N'true', @immediate_sync = N'false',
    @allow_sync_tran = N'false', @allow_queued_tran = N'false',
    @allow_dts = N'false', @replicate_ddl = 1,
    @allow_initialize_from_backup = N'false', @enabled_for_p2p = N'false',
    @enabled_for_het_sub = N'false'
GO

EXEC sp_addpublication_snapshot @publication = N'<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>',
    @frequency_type = 1, @frequency_interval = 1,
    @frequency_relative_interval = 1, @frequency_recurrence_factor = 0,
    @frequency_subday = 8, @frequency_subday_interval = 1,
    @active_start_time_of_day = 0, @active_end_time_of_day = 235959,
    @active_start_date = 0, @active_end_date = 0,
    @job_login = N'ICS\Admin', @job_password = NULL,
    @publisher_security_mode = 0, @publisher_login = N'Admin',
    @publisher_password = N'<<PASSWORD>>'

Instead of running this script in SQL Management Studio, I want to use my web application to run it.

I tried:

public static void CreatePublication(string server, string query)
{
    string finalConnString = Properties.Settings.Default.rawConnectionString.Replace("<<DATA_SOURCE>>", server).Replace("<<INITIAL_CATALOG>>", "tempdb");

     using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(finalConnString))
     {
         using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(query, conn))
         {
             conn.Open();

             cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
         }
      }
}

public static string ConstructCreatePublicationScript(string rawPublicationScript, string rawAddArticleScript,
            string password, string sourceServerName, string sourceDatabaseName, List<string> selectedTables)
{
    string createPublicationScript = "";
    string addArticleScript = "";

    createPublicationScript = rawPublicationScript.Replace("<<PASSWORD>>", password)
            .Replace("<<SOURCE_SERVER_NAME>>", sourceServerName)
            .Replace("<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>", sourceDatabaseName);

    createPublicationScript = createPublicationScript + "\n\n";

    foreach (string selectedTable in selectedTables)
    {
        addArticleScript = rawAddArticleScript.Replace("<<SOURCE_DATABASE_NAME>>", sourceDatabaseName)
             .Replace("<<SOURCE_TABLE_NAME>>", selectedTable);

             createPublicationScript = createPublicationScript + addArticleScript + "\n\n";
     }
            //write script to file

            return createPublicationScript;
     }

But ran into this error:

SqlException was caught

Incorrect syntax near 'GO'.
Incorrect syntax near 'GO'.
Incorrect syntax near 'GO'.
Incorrect syntax near 'GO'.
Incorrect syntax near 'GO'.

My question is, how can I run this whole script above in C#? Should I just get rid of the "GO" keywords?

Answer 1

Change your ConstructCreatePublicationScript to return a List<string> where each string element is a piece of your complete script splitted at the GO statement. This is necessary because the GO is the separator used by Management Studio and not a SQL statement

public static List<string> ConstructCreatePublicationScript(string rawPublicationScript, string rawAddArticleScript)
{
    .....

    List<string> result = new List<string>();
    result.AddRange(Regex.Split(createPublicationScript, "^GO$", RegexOptions.Multiline));
    return result;
}

then change your execution code to receive the list and execute each single string

public static void CreatePublication(string server, List<string> queries)    
{    
    string finalConnString = Properties.Settings.Default.rawConnectionString.Replace("<<DATA_SOURCE>>", server).Replace("<<INITIAL_CATALOG>>", "tempdb");    

     using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(finalConnString))    
     {    
         conn.Open();    
         foreach(string query in queries)
         {
             using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(query, conn))    
             {    
                 cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();    
             }
         }    
      }    
}

Answer 2

The GO command is not an SQL command, it's a command in SQL Management Studio. It separates batches in a script.

To run the script as SQL, split it on "GO" and execute each string by itself.

(You might want to use a regular expression like \bGO\b or \sGO\s to do the split, so that you catch only occurances that is not part of a word, if you would happen to have an identifier that contains "go".)

Answer 3

read the file. when you come across "GO" submit the query to server (without "GO" itself) and then go on reading.