Import Foxpro tables into SQL Server - sql-server-2008

Question

We have 800 different .dbf files and these need to load into SQL Server with their file name as the new table name, so file1.dbf has to be loaded into SQL Server into table file1.
Like this, we need to load all 800 Foxpro tables into SQL Server. Does anyone have an idea for this, or a script? Any help is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

There are multiple solutions to the problem. One is to use the upsizing wizard that ships with VFP. I only tried the original version and it was not good at all. I didn't use it since then. You may try uploading a test database with a single table that has, say a million rows in it, just to see if using that would be feasible to use (a million rows shouldn't take more than a minute).
What I did was to create a "generator" that would create the SQL server tables in the mapping I wanted (ie: memo to varchar or varbinary MAX, char to varchar etc). Then using a C# based activex code I wrote, I load the tables - multiple tables at a time (other ways of loading the tables were extremely slow). Since then that code is used to create SQL server tables and\or transfer exiting customers' data to SQL server.
Yet another effective way would be, create a linked server to VFP using VFPOLEDB and then use OpenQuery to get tables' structure and data:
select * into [TableName]
from OpenQuery(vfpserver, 'select * from TableName ...')
This one is fast too and allows you to use VFP specific functions inside the query, however resulting field types might not be as you like.

Answer 2

Below is a solution that is written in FoxPro 9. You will probably need to modify a bit as I only handled 3 data types. You will also have to look out for SQL reserved words as field names.
SET SAFETY OFF
CLOSE ALL
CLEAR ALL
CLEAR
SET DIRE TO "C:\temp"
** house keeping
RUN del *.fxp
RUN del *.CDX
RUN del *.bak
RUN del *.err
RUN del *.txt
oPrgDir = SYS(5)+SYS(2003) && Program Directory
oPath = "C:\temp\pathtodbfs" && location of dbfs
CREATE TABLE dbfstruct (fldno N(7,0), fldnm c(16), fldtype c(20), fldlen N(5,0), fldpoint N(7,0)) && dbf structure table
STORE SQLSTRINGCONNECT("DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver};SERVER=localhost;DATABASE=testdbf;UID=root;PWD=root; OPTION=3") TO oConn && SQL connection
SET DIRE TO (m.oPath)
STORE ADIR(aFL, "*.dbf") TO iFL && getting list of dbfs
SET DIRE TO (m.oPrgDir)
FOR i = 1 TO iFL
IF AT("dbfstruct.dbf", LOWER(aFL(i,1))) = 0 THEN
USE oPath + "\" + aFL(i,1)
LIST STRUCTURE TO FILE "struct.txt" && output dbf structure to text file"
SET DIRE TO (m.oPrgDir)
USE dbfstruct
ZAP
APPEND FROM "struct.txt" TYPE SDF
DELETE FROM dbfstruct WHERE fldno = 0 && removing non esential text
PACK
CLEAR
DELETE FILE "struct.txt"
SET DIRE TO (m.oPrgDir)
=SQLEXEC(oConn, "DROP TABLE IF EXISTS testdbf." + STRTRAN(LOWER(aFL(i,1)),".dbf", "")) && needed to remove tables already created when I was testing
sSQL = "CREATE TABLE testdbf." + STRTRAN(LOWER(aFL(i,1)),".dbf", "") + " ("
SELECT dbfstruct
GOTO TOP
DO WHILE NOT EOF()
#1,1 SAY "CREATING QUERY: " + aFL(i,1)
sSQL = sSQL + ALLTRIM(LOWER(dbfstruct.fldnm)) + " "
* You may have to add below depending on the field types of your DBFS
DO CASE
CASE ALLTRIM(dbfstruct.fldtype) == "Character"
sSQL = sSQL + "VARCHAR(" + ALLTRIM(STR(dbfstruct.fldlen)) + "),"
CASE ALLTRIM(dbfstruct.fldtype) == "Numeric" AND dbfstruct.fldpoint = 0
sSQL = sSQL + "INT(" + ALLTRIM(STR(dbfstruct.fldlen)) + "),"
CASE ALLTRIM(dbfstruct.fldtype) == "Numeric" AND dbfstruct.fldpoint > 0
sSQL = sSQL + "DECIMAL(" + ALLTRIM(STR(dbfstruct.fldlen)) + "),"
OTHERWISE
=MESSAGEBOX("Unhandled Field Type: " + ALLTRIM(dbfstruct.fldtype) ,0,"ERROR")
CANCEL
ENDCASE
SELECT dbfstruct
SKIP
ENDDO
sSQL = SUBSTR(sSQL, 1, LEN(sSQL)-1) + ")"
STORE SQLEXEC(oConn, sSQL) TO iSQL
IF iSQL < 0 THEN
CLEAR
?sSQL
STORE FCREATE("sqlerror.txt") TO gnOut && SQL of query in case it errors
=FPUTS(gnOut, sSQL)
=FCLOSE(gnOut)
=MESSAGEBOX("Error creating table on MySQL",0,"ERROR")
CANCEL
ENDIF
CLOSE DATABASES
ENDIF
ENDFOR
=SQLDISCONNECT(oConn)
SET DIRE TO (m.oPrgDir)
SET SAFETY ON