Generate insert SQL statements from a CSV file

It's a bit crude - but for one off jobs, I sometimes use Excel.

If you import the CSV file into Excel, you can create a formula which creates an INSERT statement by using string concatenation in the formula. So - if your CSV file has 3 columns that appear in columns A, B, and C in Excel, you could write a formula like...

="INSERT INTO MyTable (Col1, Col2, Col3) VALUES (" & A1 & ", " & B1 & ", " & C1 & ")"

Then you can replicate the formula down all of your rows, and copy, and paste the answer into a text file to run against your database.

Like I say - it's crude - but it can be quite a 'quick and dirty' way of getting a job done!


Well, if it's a CSV, and it this is a one time process, open up the file in Excel, and then write formulas to populate your data in any way you desire, and then write a simple Concat formula to construct your SQL, and then copy that formula for every row. You will get a large number of SQL statements which you can execute anywhere you want.