secretGeek.net

5 minutes to import CSV to a database: What do you do?

twitter, html, editor, tools, microsoft, UX, microISV, powershell, social network, nimbletext, ideas rat, sql, commandline

I challenged my twitter peeps:

Challenge: you have a csv file and you need to import it into a new table in a database. You have 5 mins to get it done. What tools do you use?

@secretgeek

and was overwhelmed with the responses! So many different ways people approach the problem, and so many different tools.

It reminds me of Miles' Law:

Where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.

  • If you sit in python all day, you'll write a python script.
  • If you sit in powershell all day, you'll use powershell
  • If you sit in SQL Server all day, you might use T-SQL itself to do the work.
  • If you sit in an editor all day, you might use search/replace to transform the data into sql statements.

I put all the solutions I saw into my "today I learneds" site, here's a table of contents for the topic:

In related CSV-news I should mention that I made a git repo: "Awesome CSV" where I collect all the coolest CSV tools, articles and specs from around the planet. It's a happening place for cool people to hang out and learn cool things.

And my own modest tool NimbleText treats everything as delimited text, lets you do powerful things quickly, and is arguably* the greatest invention in the history of the universe.

I also have an Awesome GUID repo, where I store awesome things related to GUIDs. There are surprisingly few things there. Hmmm.

* Whenever someone says 'arguably' it is safe to replace it with 'not'. This is arguably true in every circumstance.

 

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