ADO vs ADO .NET and Data Transfer

The SqlBulkCopy class can be used to write data only to SQL Server tables. However, the data source is not limited to SQL Server; any data source can be used, as long as the data can be loaded to a DataTable instance or read with a IDataReader instance.

Example

Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        Dim connectionString As String = GetConnectionString()

        ' Open a connection to the AdventureWorks database.
        Using sourceConnection As SqlConnection = _
           New SqlConnection(connectionString)
            sourceConnection.Open()

            ' Perform an initial count on the destination table.
            Dim commandRowCount As New SqlCommand( _
            "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM dbo.BulkCopyDemoMatchingColumns;", _
                sourceConnection)
            Dim countStart As Long = _
               System.Convert.ToInt32(commandRowCount.ExecuteScalar())
            Console.WriteLine("Starting row count = {0}", countStart)

            ' Get data from the source table as a SqlDataReader.
            Dim commandSourceData As SqlCommand = New SqlCommand( _
               "SELECT ProductID, Name, ProductNumber " & _
               "FROM Production.Product;", sourceConnection)
            Dim reader As SqlDataReader = commandSourceData.ExecuteReader

            ' Open the destination connection. In the real world you would 
            ' not use SqlBulkCopy to move data from one table to the other   
            ' in the same database. This is for demonstration purposes only.
            Using destinationConnection As SqlConnection = _
                New SqlConnection(connectionString)
                destinationConnection.Open()

                ' Set up the bulk copy object. 
                ' The column positions in the source data reader 
                ' match the column positions in the destination table, 
                ' so there is no need to map columns.
                Using bulkCopy As SqlBulkCopy = _
                  New SqlBulkCopy(destinationConnection)
                    bulkCopy.DestinationTableName = _
                    "dbo.BulkCopyDemoMatchingColumns"

                    Try
                        ' Write from the source to the destination.
                        bulkCopy.WriteToServer(reader)

                    Catch ex As Exception
                        Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)

                    Finally
                        ' Close the SqlDataReader. The SqlBulkCopy
                        ' object is automatically closed at the end
                        ' of the Using block.
                        reader.Close()
                    End Try
                End Using

                ' Perform a final count on the destination table
                ' to see how many rows were added.
                Dim countEnd As Long = _
                    System.Convert.ToInt32(commandRowCount.ExecuteScalar())
                Console.WriteLine("Ending row count = {0}", countEnd)
                Console.WriteLine("{0} rows were added.", countEnd - countStart)

                Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to finish.")
                Console.ReadLine()
            End Using
        End Using
    End Sub

    Private Function GetConnectionString() As String
        ' To avoid storing the sourceConnection string in your code, 
        ' you can retrieve it from a configuration file. 
        Return "Data Source=(local);" & _
            "Integrated Security=true;" & _
            "Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks;"
    End Function
End Module