What is the best way to auto-generate INSERT statements for a SQL Server table?

Question

We are writing a new application, and while testing, we will need a bunch of dummy data. I\'ve added that data by using MS Access to dump excel files into the relevant table

Answer 1

I made a simple to use utility, hope you enjoy.

• It doesn't need to create any objects on the database (easy to use on production environment).
• You don't need to install anything. It's just a regular script.
• You don't need special permissions. Just regular read access is enough.
• Let you copy all the lines of a table, or specify WHERE conditions so only the lines you want will be generated.
• Let you specify a single or multiple tables and different condition statements to be generated.

If the generated INSERT statements are being truncated, check the limit text length of the results on the Management Studio Options: Tools > Options, Query Results > SQL Server > Results to Grid, "Non XML data" value under "Maximum Characters Retrieved".

    -- Make sure you're on the correct database
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
    BEGIN TRY
    BEGIN TRANSACTION

    DECLARE @Tables TABLE (
        TableName          varchar(50) NOT NULL,
        Arguments           varchar(1000) NULL
    );

    -- INSERT HERE THE TABLES AND CONDITIONS YOU WANT TO GENERATE THE INSERT STATEMENTS
    INSERT INTO @Tables (TableName, Arguments) VALUES ('table1', 'WHERE field1 = 3101928464');
    -- (ADD MORE LINES IF YOU LIKE) INSERT INTO @Tables (TableName, Arguments) VALUES ('table2', 'WHERE field2 IN (1, 3, 5)');



    -- YOU DON'T NEED TO EDIT FROM NOW ON.
    -- Generating the Script
    DECLARE @TableName  varchar(50),
            @Arguments  varchar(1000),
            @ColumnName varchar(50),
            @strSQL     varchar(max),
            @strSQL2    varchar(max),
            @Lap        int,
            @Iden       int,
            @TypeOfData int;

    DECLARE C1 CURSOR FOR
    SELECT TableName, Arguments FROM @Tables
    OPEN C1
    FETCH NEXT FROM C1 INTO @TableName, @Arguments;
    WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
    BEGIN

        -- If you want to delete the lines before inserting, uncomment the next line
        -- PRINT 'DELETE FROM ' + @TableName + ' ' + @Arguments

        SET @strSQL = 'INSERT INTO ' + @TableName + ' (';

        -- List all the columns from the table (to the INSERT into columns...)
        SET @Lap = 0;
        DECLARE C2 CURSOR FOR
        SELECT sc.name, sc.type FROM syscolumns sc INNER JOIN sysobjects so ON so.id = sc.id AND so.name = @TableName AND so.type = 'U' WHERE sc.colstat = 0 ORDER BY sc.colorder
        OPEN C2
        FETCH NEXT FROM C2 INTO @ColumnName, @TypeOfData;
        WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
        BEGIN
            IF(@Lap>0)
            BEGIN
                SET @strSQL = @strSQL + ', ';
            END

            SET @strSQL = @strSQL + @ColumnName;
            SET @Lap = @Lap + 1;
            FETCH NEXT FROM C2 INTO @ColumnName, @TypeOfData;
        END
        CLOSE C2
        DEALLOCATE C2

        SET @strSQL = @strSQL + ')'
        SET @strSQL2 = 'SELECT ''' + @strSQL + '
SELECT '' + ';

        -- List all the columns from the table again (for the SELECT that will be the input to the INSERT INTO statement)
        SET @Lap = 0;
        DECLARE C2 CURSOR FOR
        SELECT sc.name, sc.type FROM syscolumns sc INNER JOIN sysobjects so ON so.id = sc.id AND so.name = @TableName AND so.type = 'U' WHERE sc.colstat = 0 ORDER BY sc.colorder
        OPEN C2
        FETCH NEXT FROM C2 INTO @ColumnName, @TypeOfData;
        WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
        BEGIN
            IF(@Lap>0)
            BEGIN
                SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + ' + '', '' + ';
            END

            -- For each data type, convert the data properly
            IF(@TypeOfData IN (55, 106, 56, 108, 63, 38, 109, 50, 48, 52)) -- Numbers
                SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + 'ISNULL(CONVERT(varchar(max), ' + @ColumnName + '), ''NULL'') + '' as ' + @ColumnName + '''';
            ELSE IF(@TypeOfData IN (62)) -- Float Numbers
                SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + 'ISNULL(CONVERT(varchar(max), CONVERT(decimal(18,5), ' + @ColumnName + ')), ''NULL'') + '' as ' + @ColumnName + '''';
            ELSE IF(@TypeOfData IN (61, 111)) -- Datetime
                SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + 'ISNULL( '''''''' + CONVERT(varchar(max),' + @ColumnName + ', 121) + '''''''', ''NULL'') + '' as ' + @ColumnName + '''';
            ELSE IF(@TypeOfData IN (47, 39)) -- Texts
                SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + 'ISNULL('''''''' + RTRIM(LTRIM(' + @ColumnName + ')) + '''''''', ''NULL'') + '' as ' + @ColumnName + '''';
            ELSE -- Unknown data types
                SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + 'ISNULL(CONVERT(varchar(max), ' + @ColumnName + '), ''NULL'') + '' as ' + @ColumnName + '(INCORRECT TYPE ' + CONVERT(varchar(10), @TypeOfData) + ')''';

            SET @Lap = @Lap + 1;
            FETCH NEXT FROM C2 INTO @ColumnName, @TypeOfData;
        END
        CLOSE C2
        DEALLOCATE C2

        SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + ' as [-- ' + @TableName + ']
FROM ' + @TableName + ' WITH (NOLOCK) ' + @Arguments

        SET @strSQL2 = @strSQL2 + ';
';
        --PRINT @strSQL;
        --PRINT @strSQL2;
        EXEC(@strSQL2);

        FETCH NEXT FROM C1 INTO @TableName, @Arguments;
    END
    CLOSE C1
    DEALLOCATE C1

    ROLLBACK
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    ROLLBACK TRAN
    SELECT 0 AS Situacao;
    SELECT
        ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber
        ,ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity
        ,ERROR_STATE() AS ErrorState
        ,ERROR_PROCEDURE() AS ErrorProcedure
        ,ERROR_LINE() AS ErrorLine
        ,ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage,
        @strSQL As strSQL,
        @strSQL2 as strSQL2;
END CATCH