Category: Powershell

Bob Pusateri shows how to keep a dataset up to date using Powershell and dbatools:

Now for the magic – let’s load some data! The dbatools command that does all the heavy lifting here is called Import-DbaCsvToSql. It loads CSV files into a SQL Server table quickly and easily. As an added bonus, the entire import is within a transaction, so if an error occurs everything gets rolled back. I like to specify my tables and datatypes ahead of time, but if you want to load into a table that doesn’t exist yet, this script will create a table and do its best to guess the appropriate datatype. To use, simply point it at a CSV file and a SQL Server instance, database, and (optionally) a table. It will take care of the rest.

It’s a nice post covering one more method of automating data loads without a major amount of orchestration.

Max Trinidad notes that a default parameter in the Export-Csv cmdlet has flipped between Powershell on Windows and Powershell Core 6:

For a long time, in Windows PowerShell, we had to add the parameter “-NoTypeInformation“, so the “#TYPE …” line on the first row of the *CSV would not be included.

So, in Windows PowerShell executing the command without the “-NoTypeInformation” parameter, will produce the following result:

Now, using the same command in PowerShell Core without the “-NoTypeInformation” parameter, will produce a different result:

This is a better default, but I think it’s going to burn some people who have scripts pre-built expecting to clear out that first line.

Chrissy LeMaire explains ways that the dbatools team reduced how long it takes to load their module:

We noticed that the longest part of importing the module was importing all the extra SMO DLL’s that we require for many of the commands. We import about 150 DLLs and it looks like that number will only grow as we begin to support more functionality (such as Integration services, etc.)

To address this concern, Fred added multi-threading via runspaces to our import process. Too cool! This resulted in a significant decrease in time.

Read on for more details; some of these tips might work on other slow modules, too.

Constantine Kokkinos shows how to track time spent on the last command in Powershell:

You can select any property from the output and get just the TotalSeconds, but I like this simple output for when I have to leave some work in progress and I need to come back and check some time in the future.

If you are confused by this code and want further explanations, keep reading!

That’s a lot simpler than the “classic” .NET way of setting up a StopWatch and tracking changes.