Question

I recently built an app to test the speed difference between writing 100000 lines to a text file and 100000 inserts into a database

Here is the heart of the code

    private void RunTestBtn_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        Stopwatch FFtimer = new Stopwatch();
        FFtimer.Start();
        RunFFTest();
        FFtimer.Stop();
        TimeSpan FFts = FFtimer.Elapsed;
        string FFelapsedTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}",
        FFts.Hours, FFts.Minutes, FFts.Seconds,
        FFts.Milliseconds / 10);
        FFLabel.Content = "Flat File: " + FFelapsedTime;

        Stopwatch Datatimer = new Stopwatch();
        Datatimer.Start();
        DataFFTest();
        Datatimer.Stop();
        TimeSpan Datats = Datatimer.Elapsed;
        string DataelapsedTime = String.Format("{0:00}:{1:00}:{2:00}.{3:00}",
        Datats.Hours, Datats.Minutes, Datats.Seconds,
        Datats.Milliseconds / 10);
        DBLabel.Content = "Database: " + DataelapsedTime;

    }
    void RunFFTest()
    {
        using(StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(@"F:\test\FFtest.txt"))
        {
            for(int i = 0; i< 100000; i++)
            {
            writer.WriteLine("test");
            }

        }
    }

    void DataFFTest()
    {
        using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection("Data Source=EMMY;Initial Catalog=MyDB;User Id=SqlServiceUser;Password=MyPassword;"))
        {
            conn.Open();
            for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
            {
                using (SqlCommand cmd = conn.CreateCommand())
                {
                    cmd.CommandText = "INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES ('Test')";
                    cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
                }
            }
        }

    }

The end result is that the Flat file writing took 1 millisecond and the sql inserts took nine minutes and forty one seconds. I know the database will take longer, but is there any way to speed this up?

Answer 1

Possible options …

1. Use transactions (do multiple inserts per transaction)

2. Use SqlBulkCopy API