Bulk Insert Sql Server millions of record

Question

I have a Windows Service application that receives a stream of data with the following format

IDX|20120512|075659|00000002|3|AALI                 |Astra Agro Lestari Tbk.                                     |0|ORDI_PREOPEN|12  |00000001550.00|00000001291.67|00001574745000|00001574745000|00500|XDS1BXO1|                                        |00001574745000|ݤ
IDX|20120512|075659|00000022|3|ALMI                 |Alumindo Light Metal Industry Tbk.                          |0|ORDI        |33  |00000001300.00|00000001300.00|00000308000000|00000308000000|00500|--U3---2|                                        |00000308000000|õÄ

This data comes in millions of rows and in sequence 00000002....00198562 and I have to parse and insert them according to the sequence into a database table.

My question is, what is the best way (the most effective) to insert these data into my database? I have tried to use a simple method as to open a SqlConnection object then generate a string of SQL insert script and then execute the script using SqlCommand object, however this method is taking too long.

I read that I can use Sql BULK INSERT but it has to read from a textfile, is it possible for this scenario to use BULK INSERT? (I have never used it before).

Thank you

update: I'm aware of SqlBulkCopy but it requires me to have DataTable first, is this good for performance? If possible I want to insert directly from my data source to SQL Server without having to use in memory DataTable.

Solution 1

If you are writing this in C# you might want to look at the SqlBulkCopy class.

Lets you efficiently bulk load a SQL Server table with data from another source.

Solution 2

First, download free LumenWorks.Framework.IO.Csv library.

Second, use the code like this

StreamReader sr = new TextReader(yourStream);
var sbc = new SqlBulkCopy(connectionString);
sbc.WriteToServer(new LumenWorks.Framework.IO.Csv.CsvReader(sr));

Yeah, it is really that easy.