Importing Data into SQL

If you need to import data from a file, this can be achieved by using SQL Bulk Insert command. Recently I did use this method to import some 500 000 data from few comma separated value (CSV) files and thought to share it with you. What you need to remember is, if you are importing data from more than one file the data should have the same format through out the files.

This is a sample set of data I imported into my table from the file named File1.csv.

Login,Name,Date,Result,Pass

U0001,Roman Silva,1/10/2010 17:23,100,TRUE

U0002,Anthony Don,28/09/2010 10:01,70,TRUE

U0003,Saman Perera,16/09/2010 11:31,90,TRUE

U0004,Silvia Raz,26/09/2010 22:11,40,FALSE

U0005,Rebecca Maine,18/09/2010 11:30,100,TRUE

I used the following script to create a temporary table for my imported data.

1. SET ANSI_NULLS ON
2. GO
3.  
4. SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
5. GO
6.  
7. CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TABLENAME_ImportedData](
8.     [LoginId] [NVARCHAR](50) NOT NULL,
9.     [Name] [NVARCHAR](200) NULL,
10.     [Date] [DATETIME] NULL,
11.     [Result] [INT] NULL,
12.     [Pass] [NVARCHAR](8) NULL
13. ) ON [PRIMARY]
14.  
15. GO

To fetch data from the file I used the following script.

1. BULK INSERT [TABLENAME_ImportedData]
2. FROM 'D:\DataFiles\File1.csv'
3. WITH (
4.          FIELDTERMINATOR =',', -- Since my columns are seperated using commas (,).
5.          ROWTERMINATOR ='\n',  -- Since each data row is in its own line.
6.          FIRSTROW = 2          -- Since my first row is having column names. Please note FIRSTROW is not recommended to skip the column names.
7.       )

While running the script I faced an issue with the date since my server was set to US English as the default language. In US English the dates should be in MDY format. So I had 3 choices, either to change the date formats on my data files, change the server default language to another language which has its date format as DMY or change the date format of the server. I used the easy way to change the date format of the server by running  the following command.

1. SET DATEFORMAT dmy

If you like to change SQL server default language and need help please read my article on that.

Changing SQL Server Default Language

If you needed to change the default language of a SQL Server login you can do so by using sp_defaultlanguage command.

First determine the current default language by using the @@language variable as follows.

1. SELECT @@language

Then choose the language you want to change to from the available languages. You can find the available languages by the following command.

1. EXEC sys.sp_helplanguage

After selecting the language wanted to change, run the following command to change the default language, I am changing it to British using the following command.

1. DECLARE @Login NVARCHAR(30)
2. SET @Login = SYSTEM_USER
3. EXEC sp_defaultlanguage @Login, 'British'

Run the @@language to see whether the default language is changed as you wanted. Do not forget to use a new query window to see the changes.

Change Quick Access Default Application Icons on Samsung Galaxy S2

If you ever wanted to change the quick access default application icons on Samsung Galaxy S2 you can do this by going to applications screen. For example as seen in the following image we have Phone, Contacts, Messaging and Applications as the default set of icons.

To change this first go to the applications page by touching Applications.

Then touch the menu button on the phone to activate the menu and select Edit. This will take you to edit screen view. Now it is simple as dragging the application icon you want on your quick access to the icon you need to be replaced.

When you are satisfied, touch on the back button to save the changes. If you need to ignore the changes press the middle button.

As seen in the following images I have replaced the Contacts with Play Movies. Also if you want you keep only 3 or less icons in quick access you can achieve this by deleting unwanted icons using the edit view.