1GB of Data From MySQL to MS Access

Question

The Situation: I am creating an automated task which queries MySQL (through ODBC) and inserts the result set to a MS Access Database (.mdb) using OLEDB.

The Code:

OleDbConnection accCon = new OleDbConnection();
OdbcCommand mySQLCon = new OdbcCommand();
try
{
    //connect to mysql
    Connect();                
    mySQLCon.Connection = connection;              

    //connect to access
    accCon.ConnectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" +
        @"Data source= " + pathToAccess;
    accCon.Open();
    var cnt = 0;

    while (cnt < 5)
    {
        if (accCon.State == ConnectionState.Open)
            break;
        cnt++;
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(50);
    }

    if (cnt == 5)
    {
        ToolBox.logThis("Connection to Access DB did not open. Exit Process");
        return;
    }
} catch (Exception e)
{
    ToolBox.logThis("Faild to Open connections. msg -> " + e.Message + "\\n" + e.StackTrace);
}
OleDbCommand accCmn = new OleDbCommand();
accCmn.Connection = accCon;
//access insert query structure
var insertAccessQuery = "INSERT INTO {0} values({1});";
// key = > tbl name in access, value = > mysql query to b executed
foreach (var table in tblNQuery)
{
    try
    {
        mySQLCon.CommandText = table.Value;
        //executed mysql query                        
        using (var dataReader = mySQLCon.ExecuteReader())
        {
            //variable to hold row data
            var rowData = new object[dataReader.FieldCount];
            var parameters = "";
            //read the result set from mysql query
            while (dataReader.Read())
            {
                //fill rowData with the row values
                dataReader.GetValues(rowData);
                //build the parameters for insert query
                for (var i = 0; i < dataReader.FieldCount; i++)
                    parameters += "'" + rowData[i] + "',";

                parameters = parameters.TrimEnd(',');
                //insert to access
                accCmn.CommandText = string.Format(insertAccessQuery, table.Key, parameters);
                try
                {
                    accCmn.ExecuteNonQuery();
                }
                catch (Exception exc)
                {
                    ToolBox.logThis("Faild to insert to access db. msg -> " + exc.Message + "\\n\\tInsert query -> " + accCmn.CommandText );
                }                              
                parameters = "";
            }
        }
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        ToolBox.logThis("Faild to populate access db. msg -> " + e.Message + "\\n" + e.StackTrace);
    }
}
Disconnect();
accCmn.Dispose();
accCon.Close();

The Issues:

1. The memory usage goes very high (300MB++) while the MS Access file size does not change constantly! Seems like the insert caches the data rather that saving it to disk.

2. It is very slow! I know my query executes within a few second but rather insertion process takes long.

I have tried using prepared statement in MS Access and insert the values as parameters instead of string concat to create insert query. However I get this exception message:

Data type mismatch in criteria expression.

Anyone know how to fix this or have a better approach?

Answer 1

You could create a VBA macro that uses the DoCmd.TransferDatabase method to pull data through ODBC into your Access database. It would probably be much faster and simpler as well.

To run the VBA code from an external program or scheduled task, simply initiate Access to open your file with the /x command line switch and it will run the import macro on startup. A GB of data though is still going to take a while. I found an article by David Catriel that implemented this approach.

An even better option is to use a different database engine back-end like the free version of SQL Server Express. Then you have a lot more options and it is much more robust. If you need MS Access forms and reports, you can create an ADP project file if you use SQL Server, or you can use linked tables to get at your data. You could even use Access as a front-end to your MySQL database instead of copying all the data if that would satisfy your requirements.

Answer 2

Instead of writing code, you could turn to SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), and be done before lunch. It is available as an extension to Visual Studio, in case you do not have it on your computer already with SQL Server.

With SSIS you are able to create a reusable SSIS package that can be triggered from the command line or scheduled task. This guide shows how to pull data from MySQL into SQL Server, but the SQL Server part should be easy to replace with Access.

Answer 3

some changes with comment to add transaction for command execution. if transactions is not controlled manually, it will be created and committed every time automatically and it's a time consuming action

            OleDbConnection accCon = new OleDbConnection();
            OdbcCommand mySQLCon = new OdbcCommand();
            try
            {
                //connect to mysql
                Connect();
                mySQLCon.Connection = connection;

                //connect to access
                accCon.ConnectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" +
                                          @"Data source= " + pathToAccess;
                accCon.Open();
                var cnt = 0;

                while (cnt < 5)
                {
                    if (accCon.State == ConnectionState.Open)
                        break;
                    cnt++;
                    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(50);
                }

                if (cnt == 5)
                {
                    ToolBox.logThis("Connection to Access DB did not open. Exit Process");
                    return;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                ToolBox.logThis("Faild to Open connections. msg -> " + e.Message + "\\n" + e.StackTrace);
            }
//AMK: transaction starts here
            var transaction = accCon.BeginTransaction();
            OleDbCommand accCmn = new OleDbCommand();

            accCmn.Connection = accCon;
            accCmn.Transaction = transaction;
//access insert query structure
            var insertAccessQuery = "INSERT INTO {0} values({1});";
// key = > tbl name in access, value = > mysql query to b executed
            foreach (var table in tblNQuery)
            {
                try
                {
                    mySQLCon.CommandText = table.Value;
                    //executed mysql query                        
                    using (var dataReader = mySQLCon.ExecuteReader())
                    {
                        //variable to hold row data
                        var rowData = new object[dataReader.FieldCount];
                        var parameters = "";
                        //read the result set from mysql query
                        while (dataReader.Read())
                        {
                            //fill rowData with the row values
                            dataReader.GetValues(rowData);
                            //build the parameters for insert query
                            for (var i = 0; i < dataReader.FieldCount; i++)
                                parameters += "'" + rowData[i] + "',";

                            parameters = parameters.TrimEnd(',');
                            //insert to access
                            accCmn.CommandText = string.Format(insertAccessQuery, table.Key, parameters);
                            try
                            {
                                accCmn.ExecuteNonQuery();
                            }
                            catch (Exception exc)
                            {
                                ToolBox.logThis("Faild to insert to access db. msg -> " + exc.Message +
                                                "\\n\\tInsert query -> " + accCmn.CommandText);
                            }
                            parameters = "";
                        }
                    }
//AMK: transaction commits here if every thing is going well
                    transaction.Commit();
                }
                catch (Exception e)
                {
                    ToolBox.logThis("Faild to populate access db. msg -> " + e.Message + "\\n" + e.StackTrace);
//AMK: transaction rollback here if there is a problem
                    transaction.Rollback();
                }
            }
            Disconnect();
            accCmn.Dispose();
            accCon.Close();