Tag Archives: T-SQL

How to dynamically pull all text file names from a folder into a SQL Server table

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So here’s a quick out of the box solution for . . . you guessed it, dynamically pulling all text files from a folder into a SQL Server table. On it’s own this script isn’t very powerful but it can be paired with SQL queries to make some powerful functionality.

To use simply change the @path variable to the directory path you’re targeting and as it states in the comments . . .

-- NOTE: MAKE SURE THE BACKSLASH IS INCLUDED AT THE END OF THE STRING
-- *.txt IS REFERENCED IN THIS EXAMPLE BUT *.xls COULD ALSO BE USED

Sayōnara


— THIS QUERY USES CMD TO CAPTURE ALL THE FILES IN A FOLDER
— AND WRITE THE FILE NAMES TO A TABLE
— THE QUERY REQUIRES THAT xp_cmdShell BE ENABLED TO WORK
— THE FOLLOWING ENABLES xp_cmdShell:
— TO ALLOW ADVANCED OPTIONS TO BE CHANGED
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options'
,1
GO
— TO UPDATE THE CURRENTLY CONFIGURED VALUE FOR ADVANCED OPTIONS
RECONFIGURE
GO
— TO ENABLE THE FEATURE
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell'
,1
GO
— TO UPDATE THE CURRENTLY CONFIGURED VALUE FOR THIS FEATURE
RECONFIGURE
GO
— THE FOLLOWING CREATES A TABLE AND POPULATES IT WITH THE FILES LOCATED IN THE SPECIFIED DIRECTORY
IF OBJECT_ID('ALLFILENAMES', 'U') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE ALLFILENAMES
CREATE TABLE ALLFILENAMES (
WHICHPATH VARCHAR(255)
,WHICHFILE VARCHAR(255)
)
DECLARE @filename VARCHAR(255)
,@path VARCHAR(255)
,@cmd VARCHAR(1000)
— GET THE LIST OF FILES TO PROCESS
— NOTES: MAKE SURE THE BACKSLASH IS INCLUDED AT THE END OF THE STRING
— *.txt IS REFERENCED IN THIS EXAMPLE BUT *.xls COULD ALSO BE USED
SET @path = 'C:\Users\Data\'
SET @cmd = 'dir ' + @path + '*.txt /b'
INSERT INTO ALLFILENAMES (WHICHFILE)
EXEC Master..xp_cmdShell @cmd
UPDATE ALLFILENAMES
SET WHICHPATH = @path
WHERE WHICHPATH IS NULL
SELECT *
FROM ALLFILENAMES

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DynamicallyPullTextFileNames

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How to get the hour from a datetime string (T-SQL)

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Often data is entered into the database as a string (varchar), when a more appropriate data type should have been applied.

Here’s a snippet of T-SQL for dealing with datetime data, stored as varchar, when what you really need is the hour. 

DECLARE @DateTime AS VARCHAR(25)

-- GET THE CURRENT DATETIME AND CONVERT INTO A STRING
SET @DateTime = (
		SELECT CONVERT(VARCHAR(25), GETDATE(), 120)
		)

--PRINT @DateTime
-- GET HOUR FROM DATETIME AS A STRING
SELECT DATEPART(HOUR, CONVERT(DATETIME, CONVERT(VARCHAR(13), @DateTime, 120) + ':00')) AS ConvertedHour

 

Why would data be stored as a varchar instead of using the appropriate data type in the first place?

The most common reason might be that XML files have been loaded without any data type conversions being applied, i.e. dates have been entered as strings along with everything else.

Why would you need this code?

Should you be confronted with data in this raw string form you would be unable to apply a clause regarding a specific hour. Ideally there should be some sort of staging table to convert the fields into the appropriate data types but if you simply wanted to apply some clauses to select specific data, which will be outputted to an excel file for example, that additional effort may be unnecessary.