I saw a question in the forums related to inserting new rows into a SQL Server table only if they didn’t exist. The current solution was using an ADO.NET DataTable , checking for new rows and then pushing the rows back to SQL Server by calling the Update method on the DataAdapter. Although the solution works, the process becomes longer as each time the process is run the entire table is retrieved and compared.

There’s a number of approaches you could take to solve this problem. One solution is to use Table Valued Parameters which I’ve previously blogged about to push a batch of rows to SQL Server and add only new rows. This does require creating both a table type and stored procedure on the SQL Server and only works for SQL Server 2008 and higher:

<#
/* FROM SSMS */USE tempdb
GO
/* Create a Request table for testing purposes*/CREATE TABLE Request
( PKID INT,
 MessageText varchar(max));
GO
/* Create a RequestList table type */CREATE TYPE RequestList AS TABLE
( PKID INT,
 MessageText varchar(max));
GO
/* Create a procedure to use insert only new rows  */CREATE PROCEDURE uspSetRequest
    @TVP RequestList READONLY
    AS
    SET NOCOUNT ON
    INSERT Request
    SELECT tvp.PKID, tvp.MessageText
    FROM @TVP tvp
    LEFT JOIN Request r ON
    tvp.PKID = r.PKID
    WHERE r.PKID IS NULL;
 GO
 #>
#FROM Powershell
#Create an ADO.NET DataTable matching the RequestList Table Type:
$dt = new-object Data.datatable
$col =  new-object Data.DataColumn
$col.ColumnName = 'PKID'
$col.DataType = [Int32]
$dt.Columns.Add($Col)
$col =  new-object Data.DataColumn
$col.ColumnName = 'MessageText'
$col.DataType = [String]
$dt.Columns.Add($Col)
#BEGIN INSERT foreach Loops to add records to DataTable
#Example below inserts only one record
#Add a Row to the DataTable
$dr = $dt.NewRow()
$dr.Item('PKID') = 1
$dr.Item('MessageText') = 'It worked!'
$dt.Rows.Add($dr)
#END INSERT foreach Loops to add records to DataTable 
#Connection and Query Info
$serverName="$env:computernamesql1"
$databaseName='tempdb'
$query='uspSetRequest' 
#Connect
$connString = "Server=$serverName;Database=$databaseName;Integrated Security=SSPI;"
$conn = new-object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection $connString
$conn.Open()
#Create Sqlcommand type and params
$cmd = new-object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
$cmd.Connection = $conn
$cmd.CommandType = [System.Data.CommandType]"StoredProcedure"
$cmd.CommandText= $query
$null = $cmd.Parameters.Add("@TVP", [System.Data.SqlDbType]::Structured)
$cmd.Parameters["@TVP"].Value = $dt
#Execute Query and close connection
$cmd.ExecuteNonQuery() | out-null
$conn.Close()