BCP vs Bulk Insert

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BCP vs Bulk Insert

bsluman

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November 22, 2002 at 10:29 am

#174739

Hey, anybody know which one of these is faster for importing data to a table?

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Ian Scarlett SSC-Insane Points: 23197 More actions · Answer 1

Bulk insert is supposed to be faster - up to twice as fast, because it interacts with SQL Server at a lower level than BCP.

Mkumari Hall of Fame Points: 3498 More actions · Answer 2

I Would say bulk insert.If there are indexes on the table the inserts will become slow.

Simon Sabin SSCrazy Eights Points: 8142 More actions · Answer 3

BULK INSERT is faster but not considerably. if you want to insert from TSQL the use BULK insert if from DOS then use bcp. There is no benefit in trying to use BULK INSERT from DOS. Plus in BULK INSERT the file location is relative to the server, unlike bcp where its is relative to the client.

Simon Sabin

Co-author of SQL Server 2000 XML Distilled

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904347088

Simon Sabin
SQL Server MVP

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