Question

I need to run a variable amount of insert statements. Is it best to run through a loop and execute the query one at a time? Or, is there a way to send all the inserts in one go?

Answer 1

Use a transaction and batch all the inserts. Not sure about the conditions you’re trying to do this under, but if it’s code executing SQL statements, just open the connection, start a transaction, execute everything, and then commit the transaction or roll it back if there was an exception.

Edit Some pseudocode:

SqlConnection cn = new SqlConnection("my connection string");
SqlTransaction txn = cn.BeginTransaction();

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("INSERT INTO MyTable (Field1) VALUES (@Value1)");
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
cmd.Parameters.Add("@Value1", SqlDbType.Whatever);

cmd.Connection = cn;
cmd.Transaction = txn;

foreach (var value1 in ListOfValues) {
  cmd.Parameters["@Value1"].Value = value1;
  int result = cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
}

txn.Commit();
cn.Close();

Of course you’ll need to enclose this in a try/catch block and rollback the transaction if there’s an exception. But this is basically it.