Bulk Inserts with XML

Last week, I blogged about how to perform one-to-many inserts with table-valued parameters, a feature new in 2008. For those who do not yet have 2008 or will not have it in the near future, it may still be beneficial to use XML for bulk inserts. لعبة طاولة 31 اون لاين مجانا

Here’s a pretty simple example of how to accomplish this:

/* Create some tables to work with */
CREATE TABLE dbo.orders
(
      order_id      INT IDENTITY(1,1)   Not Null
    , orderDate     DATETIME            Not Null
    , customer_id   INT                 Not Null
   
    CONSTRAINT PK_orders
        PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED(order_id)
);

CREATE TABLE dbo.orderDetails
(
      orderDetail_id    INT IDENTITY(1,1)   Not Null
    , order_id          INT                 Not Null
    , lineItem          INT                 Not Null
    , product_id        INT                 Not Null
   
    CONSTRAINT PK_orderDetails
        PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED(orderDetail_id)
   
    CONSTRAINT FK_orderDetails_orderID
        FOREIGN KEY(order_id)
        REFERENCES dbo.orders(order_id)
);
Go

/* Create a new procedure using an XML parameter */
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.insert_orderXML_sp
      @orderDate        DATETIME
    , @customer_id      INT
    , @orderDetailsXML  XML
AS
BEGIN

    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    DECLARE @myOrderID INT;

    INSERT INTO dbo.orders
    (
          orderDate
        , customer_id    
    )
    VALUES
    (
          @orderDate
        , @customer_id
    );
   
    SET @myOrderID = SCOPE_IDENTITY();
   
    INSERT INTO dbo.orderDetails
    (
          order_id
        , lineItem
        , product_id
    )
    SELECT @myOrderID
         , myXML.value('./@lineItem', 'int')
         , myXML.value('./@product_id', 'int')
    FROM @orderDetailsXML.nodes('/orderDetail') As nodes(myXML);
   
    SET NOCOUNT OFF;

END
GO


/* Call our stored procedure */
EXECUTE dbo.insert_orderXML_sp
      @orderDate = '2008-01-01'
    , @customer_id = 101
    , @orderDetailsXML = 
        '
         
         
         
         ';


/* Check our data */
SELECT * FROM dbo.orders;
SELECT * FROM dbo.orderDetails;


/* Clean up our mess */
DROP PROCEDURE insert_orderXML_sp;
DROP TABLE dbo.orderDetails;
DROP TABLE dbo.orders;

I’ve found that this is more efficient when performing large parent/child inserts, i.e. 1 parent record to 100 child records. Keep in mind that there’s a point where doing an insert with XML is more expensive than using a traditional INSERT stored procedure. I haven’t run any tests yet to help define what that threshold is… more to come on this in the near future.

More on the Nodes() Method can be found here in Books Online: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188282(SQL.90).aspx

Update: I’ve just learned that the “value” keyword is case-sensitive. Apparently my code box plug-in was defaulting “value” to “VALUE. بطاقة ابل باي ” 🙂

Here’s the error message you’ll get if you don’t have “value” in lower-case:
Cannot find either column “myXML” or the user-defined function or aggregate “myXML.VALUE”, or the name is ambiguous.