Use the Bulk insert action to read rows from a CSV or text file and insert them into a target database table in batches. With this action, you can load large datasets efficiently and capture the total inserted row count.

Use the Bulk insert action when performing large-scale data insert operations, such as loading thousands or millions of records from a file into a database.

Settings

  • In the Session name field, enter the name of the session you used to connect to the database server in the Connect action. For more details, see Using Connect action for database.
  • Enter the source file path to read in the Source file field.
    Note: You can specify the .csv and .txt files only.
  • In the Table name field, enter the target database table in which you want to insert the rows.
  • Enter the Delimiter value to specify how the source file columns are separated.
    Note: Comma is the default delimiter value. Other supported values include comma, tab, newline.
  • Specify the specificDelimiter. This is a custom delimiter character when Delimiter is set to Other. For example, use |.
  • In the Start row number field, enter the first data row to read from the source file.
    Note: The default value is 2 and it must be 2 or greater than the default value as the file contains a header row.
  • In the Columns mapping field, click Add mapping to map source file columns to target table columns. Ensure column names and data types match.
    • Specify the File column name that is the column header exactly as it appears in the source file for a mapping entry.
    • Enter the Table column name that matches target table column name for a mapping entry.
    Note:
    • Column mapping is optional.
    • If column mapping is not added, all columns from source file will be mapped to all columns of the target table.
    • Ensure that the target table exists in the database with the required columns. Also, verify the case sensitivity of column names for one to one mapping of fields.

    • This action is optimized for high-throughput scenarios and delivers significant performance benefits compared to row-by-row insertion.

    • For smaller data volumes, standard insert operations (for example, using Loop action) is more appropriate and simpler to configure.

  • Specifies how many rows to insert per batch in the Batch size field.
    Note: The default Batch size is 1000. It must be between 200 - 500000
  • Enter a timeout value that specifies the maximum wait time for each batch. The default value is 1800. It must be between 1 and 3600 seconds.
    Note: If a batch times out, the action returns the total number of rows successfully inserted. To resume processing, add 1 to this count and use that value as the Start row number for the next run.

Result: When you use this action, you can insert records in bulk and it returns the total number of inserted records as a Number.

Overall, this action performs bulk insert without requiring a Loop and runs synchronously, continuing until all rows are inserted or an error occurs—delivering significantly better performance than row-by-row insertion for large datasets.