Generating INSERT statements in SQL Server

Introduction
The stored procedure InsertGenerator generates the INSERT..VALUES statements for the specified table name.

SQL Server doesn t allow generation of INSERT statements for the table data, when Generate SQL Script option is selected. The workaround is to make use of DTS for transferring data across servers. However, there exists a need to generate INSERT statements from the tables for porting data. Simplest example is when small or large amount of data needs to be taken out on a removable storage media and copied to a remote location, INSERT..VALUES statements come handy.

Using the code

This small yet useful stored procedure will take as parameter the table name and generates the INSERT SQL statements for the same. The output can be redirected to either text format (Ctrl+T in Query Analyzer) or Output to a text file. The procedure accepts an input varchar type parameter that has to be the table name under consideration for statement generation

Create the following procedure

CREATE PROC InsertGenerator

(@tableName varchar(100)) as
--Declare a cursor to retrieve column specific information for the specified table DECLARE cursCol CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FOR SELECT column_name,data_type FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name = @tableName OPEN cursCol DECLARE @string nvarchar(3000) --for storing the first half of INSERT statement DECLARE @stringData nvarchar(3000) --for storing the data (VALUES) related statement DECLARE @dataType nvarchar(1000) --data types returned for respective columns

SET @string='INSERT '+@tableName+'(' SET @stringData=''

DECLARE @colName nvarchar(50)

FETCH NEXT FROM cursCol INTO @colName,@dataType

IF @@fetch_status<>0 begin print 'Table '+@tableName+' not found, processing skipped.' close curscol deallocate curscol return END

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS=0 BEGIN IF @dataType in ('varchar','char','nchar','nvarchar') BEGIN --SET @stringData=@stringData+'''''''''+isnull('+@colName+','''')+'''''',''+' SET @stringData=@stringData+''''+'''+isnull('''''+'''''+'+@colName+'+'''''+''''',''NULL'')+'',''+' END ELSE if @dataType in ('text','ntext') --if the datatype is text or something else BEGIN

SET @stringData=@stringData+'''''''''+isnull(cast('+@colName+' as varchar(2000)),'''')+'''''',''+' END ELSE IF @dataType = 'money' --because money doesn't get converted from varchar implicitly BEGIN SET @stringData=@stringData+'''convert(money,''''''+isnull(cast('+@colName+' as varchar(200)),''0.0000'')+''''''),''+' END ELSE IF @dataType='datetime' BEGIN --SET @stringData=@stringData+'''convert(datetime,''''''+isnull(cast('+@colName+' as varchar(200)),''0'')+''''''),''+' --SELECT 'INSERT Authorizations(StatusDate) VALUES('+'convert(datetime,'+isnull(''''+convert(varchar(200),StatusDate,121)+'''','NULL')+',121),)' FROM Authorizations --SET @stringData=@stringData+'''convert(money,''''''+isnull(cast('+@colName+' as varchar(200)),''0.0000'')+''''''),''+' SET @stringData=@stringData+'''convert(datetime,'+'''+isnull('''''+'''''+convert(varchar(200),'+@colName+',1 21)+'''''+''''',''NULL'')+'',121),''+' -'convert(datetime,'+isnull(''''+convert(varchar(200),StatusDate,121)+'''','NULL')+',121),)' FROM Authorizations END ELSE IF @dataType='image' BEGIN

SET @stringData=@stringData+'''''''''+isnull(cast(convert(varbinary,'+@colName+') as varchar(6)),''0'')+'''''',''+' END ELSE --presuming the data type is int,bit,numeric,decimal BEGIN --SET @stringData=@stringData+'''''''''+isnull(cast('+@colName+' as varchar(200)),''0'')+'''''',''+' --SET @stringData=@stringData+'''convert(datetime,'+'''+isnull('''''+'''''+convert(varchar(200),'+@colName+',1 21)+'''''+''''',''NULL'')+'',121),''+' SET @stringData=@stringData+''''+'''+isnull('''''+'''''+convert(varchar(200),'+@colName+')+'''''+''''',''NULL'')+'', ''+' END

SET @string=@string+@colName+','

FETCH NEXT FROM cursCol INTO @colName,@dataType END DECLARE @Query nvarchar(4000)

SET @query ='SELECT '''+substring(@string,0,len(@string)) + ') VALUES(''+ ' + substring(@stringData,0,len(@stringData)-2)+'''+'')'' FROM '+@tableName exec sp_executesql @query --select @query

CLOSE cursCol DEALLOCATE cursCol

GO SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF GO SET ANSI_NULLS ON GO