Import

A New CSV Library: Built for SQL Server

Chrissy LeMaire

This post is about a huge update to the CSV import (and now export!) capabilities in dbatools. If you’ve used Import-DbaCsv, you’ve been using the LumenWorks CSV library under the hood for years. It’s been rock solid and I’ve sung its praises many times. But LumenWorks was last updated 7-8 years ago, and .NET has come a long way since then. I’ve been using Claude Code for various projects and had a Max 20x account when Anthropic announced they’d be pretty much giving away Opus 4.

Import-DbaCsv

Chrissy LeMaire (@cl), netnerds.net

Import-DbaCsv View Source Chrissy LeMaire (@cl), netnerds.net Windows, Linux, macOS Synopsis Imports CSV files into SQL Server tables using high-performance bulk copy operations. Description Import-DbaCsv uses .NET’s SqlBulkCopy class to efficiently load CSV data into SQL Server tables, handling files of any size from small datasets to multi-gigabyte imports. The function wraps the entire operation in a transaction, so any failure or interruption rolls back all changes automatically. When the target table doesn’t exist, you can use -AutoCreateTable to create it on the fly with basic nvarchar(max) columns.

Import-DbaCsv Design Considerations

Chrissy LeMaire

This post is about Import-DbaCsv, a command within the dbatools PowerShell module for SQL Server. I’ve been writing about CSV imports using PowerShell for a pretty long time and in VBScript for even longer. Initially, my primary concerns were ease-of-use and speed. Over time, I realized that what mattered most was: Ease-of-use Reliability Data quality management I learned a ton about performance from my speed experiments but in the end, I threw most of that out in favor of a higher quality and mildly slower solution using a .