Entity Framework is very useful when dealing with many data classes. I am finding that when dealing with a large amount of records, Entity Framework is not the fastest solution. There is BulkInsert feature in Entity Framework but I have not seen anything faster than SQL BulkCopy yet. I will explain how to use it using an example below:
The example will be in two different steps. STEP 1: Convert the list to a data table easily STEP 2: Insert the data using SQL BulkCopy function and the data table from Step 1 For this example, I will say we have students variable stored as IEnumerable<Student> type.
PRE-REQUISITE:
Have a list of entities to insert ready
STEP 1: Convert the list to a data table easily
You can use the following static method to use to convert students to a data table type:
Then you can use this method as below:
Now you have a data table ready for the SQL Bulk Copy.
STEP 2: Insert the data using SQL BulkCopy function and the data table from Step 2
Using dtStudents from STEP 1, you can use the code block below to insert data.
SqlBulkCopy is a part of Microsoft.Data.SqlClient namespace, so you must include it.
That's it. Enjoy and thank you!
