March 13, 2002 at 8:31 am
Greetings . . .
I am a newbie to this forum (and relatively new to SQL Server), so please bear with me.
I want to import a large number of records into a SQL Server 2000 database. My concern is as follows: I do *not* want to allow import of duplicate data that spans multiple columns.
To illustrate my question, lets say I have a row with three columns. The data in the row is as follows:
Apple Pear Banana
I *do* want the import to allow any of the following:
Apple Orange Strawberry
Apple Pear Orange
Grape Mango Pear
However, I do NOT want to allow the following entry:
Apple Pear Banana
In other words, I don't want to allow import if ALL data columns already exist.
The import can get very large (more than 10000 records).
Does anyone know how I can address this?
Thanks in advance for your help!
March 13, 2002 at 8:48 am
First if your data is coming the DTS or Import wizard use a query to define what is coming from your remote source using the SELECT DISTINCT method, if there are additional columns this won't work though and you may need to import first, then delete those records that would duplicate.
Then either make the columns a single Primary Key, or create a unique constriant.
If these are the columns that matter most and queries run often against them then go the PK route across the columns and make a clustered index to save space and increase querying speed.
If not creat a unique constriant.
Which will stop anyone from entering another duplicate of those, but note it will stop imports as well.
"Don't roll your eyes at me. I will tape them in place." (Teacher on Boston Public)
March 13, 2002 at 10:09 am
March 13, 2002 at 10:12 am
I just tried it out (setting the multiple columns to the unique key), and it seems to work. Thanks for your help!
March 13, 2002 at 12:34 pm
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