Question

I have a table on another SQL server which I need to copy from overnight. The structure of the destination table is very similar so I was just going to use something like the code below.
Source – http://forums.asp.net/t/1322979.aspx/1

I have not tried this yet, but is there a better/quicker way to do this in linq?

    //there exist two table list and listSecond
    DataClassesDataContext dataClass = new DataClassesDataContext(); //create the instance of the DataContext

    var str = from a in dataClass.lists select a;
    foreach (var val in str) // iterator the data from the list and insert them into the listSecond
    {
        listSecond ls = new listSecond();
        ls.ID = val.ID;
        ls.pid = val.pid;
        ls.url = val.url;
        dataClass.listSeconds.InsertOnSubmit(ls);

    }
    dataClass.SubmitChanges();
    Response.Write("success");

Answer 1

Using LINQ to insert large amounts of data is not a good idea, except maybe with complicated schemas that need much transformations before being copied. It will create a separate query for each row inserted, in addition to logging them all in the transaction log.

A much faster solution can be found here – it’s using SqlBulkCopy, which is a method for inserting large amounts of data in a single query, withouth transaction logging to slow it down. It will be an order of magnitude faster, and I’m telling you this from personal experience with both methods.