Question

I’m getting an error when trying to upload a .csv to my sql server using asp.net uploadfile tool. The application is on the localhost and the SQL Server is NOT located on the same machine. It creates the table inside the database with the proper columns, just doesn’t fill it up with the data. Here is the code error: “Cannot bulk load because the file “c:\users\visual studio 2010\Projects\webImport\webImport\UploadedCSVFiles\Employee.csv” could not be opened. Operating system error code 3(The system cannot find the path specified.).

Here is the code behind:

        private void LoadDataToDatabase(string tableName, string fileFullPath, string delimeter)
    {
        string sqlQuery = string.Empty;
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        sb.AppendFormat(string.Format("BULK INSERT {0} ", tableName));
        sb.AppendFormat(string.Format(" FROM '{0}'", fileFullPath));
        sb.AppendFormat(string.Format(" WITH ( FIELDTERMINATOR = '{0}' , ROWTERMINATOR = '\n' )", delimeter));

        sqlQuery = sb.ToString();
        using (SqlConnection sqlConn = new SqlConnection(GetConnectionString()))
        {
            sqlConn.Open();
            SqlCommand sqlCmd = new SqlCommand(sqlQuery, sqlConn);
            sqlCmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
            sqlConn.Close();
        }
    }

    protected void BTNImport_Click1(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (FileUpload1.HasFile)
        {
            FileInfo fileInfo = new FileInfo(FileUpload1.PostedFile.FileName);
            if (fileInfo.Name.Contains(".csv"))
            {

                string fileName = fileInfo.Name.Replace(".csv", "").ToString();
                string csvFilePath = Server.MapPath("UploadedCSVFiles") + "\\" + fileInfo.Name;

                //Save the CSV file in the Server inside 'MyCSVFolder' 
                FileUpload1.SaveAs(csvFilePath);
                //Fetch the location of CSV file 
                string filePath = Server.MapPath("UploadedCSVFiles") + "\\";
                string strSql = "SELECT * FROM [" + fileInfo.Name + "]";
                string strCSVConnString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + filePath + ";" + "Extended Properties='text;HDR=YES;'";
                // load the data from CSV to DataTable 
                OleDbDataAdapter adapter = new OleDbDataAdapter(strSql, strCSVConnString);
                DataTable dtCSV = new DataTable();
                DataTable dtSchema = new DataTable();
                adapter.FillSchema(dtCSV, SchemaType.Mapped);
                adapter.Fill(dtCSV);

                if (dtCSV.Rows.Count > 0)
                {
                    CreateDatabaseTable(dtCSV, fileName);
                    Label2.Text = string.Format("The table ({0}) has been successfully created to the database.", fileName);

                    string fileFullPath = filePath + fileInfo.Name;
                    LoadDataToDatabase(fileName, fileFullPath, ",");
                    Label1.Text = string.Format("({0}) records has been loaded to the table {1}.", dtCSV.Rows.Count, fileName);
                }
                else
                {
                    Label3.Text = "File is empty.";
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Label3.Text = "Unable to recognize file.";
            }

        }
    }

I’m guessing it has something to do with the Server.MapPath. Is it possible to route the file to be saved and executed on a different server then the application. if that makes any sense.

Answer 1

If you use the TSQL form of bulk load, that code executes on the SQL server, so the file path you specify is relative to the DB server.

In your case, I think you should look at SqlBulkCopy and the “Fast CSV Reader” from code project; they work very well together. Then you are processing the CSV on your web-server, and sending the bulk stream to the SQL server via a very efficient API.