sqlbulkcopy using sql CE

Question

Is it possible to use SqlBulkcopy with Sql Compact Edition e.g. (*.sdf) files?

I know it works with SQL Server 200 Up, but wanted to check CE compatibility.

Answer 1

Is possible to increase a lot this kind of operation. To turn this operation usefull (I mean fast and pretty safe), u can use CE DataAdapter.

By sample, no care about keys, the steps listed bellow can help u:

1. Make sure that sorce and target tables have same fields structure;
2. Clone a virtual datatable with a datatable from source database (your select);
3. Create a CE command with the table name as commandtext (TableDirect as commandtype);
4. Create a CE dataadapter from CE command;
5. Create a CE commandbuilder from CE dataatapter;
6. Pass the Insert command from CE commandbuilder to CE dataadapter;

7. Copy "n" batch rows from your source datatable to the target datatable (the clone), doing something like this:

   '... previous codes
   For Each currentRow In sourceTable.Rows
      'u can do RaiseEvent Processing(currentRow, totalRows) here with DoEvents
      If targetTable.Rows.Count < 100 Then
         targetTable.InportRow(currentRow)
         targetTable.Rows(targetTable.Rows.Count - 1).SetAdded
      Else
         '...Here you wll call the CE DataAdapter's Update method (da.Update(targetTable))
         '...and then be sure you clone the targetTable again, erasing all previous  rows.
         '...Do a clone again, don't do just a "clear" in the Rows collection.  
         '...If u have an Autoincrement it will break all Foreign Keys.
      End If
      Next
      '... next codes
   

With this way u can update several rows with no much time.

I've some applications using this method and the average rate is about 1500 rows per second in a table with 5 NTEXT fields (slow) and 800000 rows.

Of course, all depends of your table's structure. IMAGE and NTEXT are both slow datatypes.

P.S.: As I said, this method don't care so much about keys, so be carefull.