SqlBulkCopy - The given value of type String from the data source cannot be converted to type money of the specified target column

C# Problem Overview

I'm getting this exception when trying to do an SqlBulkCopy from a DataTable.

Error Message: The given value of type String from the data source cannot be converted to type money of the specified target column.
Target Site: System.Object ConvertValue(System.Object, System.Data.SqlClient._SqlMetaData, Boolean, Boolean ByRef, Boolean ByRef)

I understand what the error is saying, but how I can I get more information, such as the row/field this is happening on? The datatable is populated by a 3rd party and can contain up to 200 columns and up to 10k rows. The columns that are returned depend on the request sent to the 3rd party. All of the datatable columns are of string type. The columns in my database are not all varchar, therefore, prior to executing the insert, I format the datatable values using the following code (non important code removed):

//--- create lists to hold the special data type columns
List<DataColumn> IntColumns = new List<DataColumn>();
List<DataColumn> DecimalColumns = new List<DataColumn>();
List<DataColumn> BoolColumns = new List<DataColumn>();
List<DataColumn> DateColumns = new List<DataColumn>();

foreach (DataColumn Column in dtData.Columns)
{
    //--- find the field map that tells the system where to put this piece of data from the 3rd party
    FieldMap ColumnMap = AllFieldMaps.Find(a => a.SourceFieldID.ToLower() == Column.ColumnName.ToLower());

    //--- get the datatype for this field in our system
    Type FieldDataType = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(DestinationType.Property(ColumnMap.DestinationFieldName).PropertyType);

    //--- find the field data type and add to respective list
    switch (Type.GetTypeCode(FieldDataType))
    {
        case TypeCode.Int16:
        case TypeCode.Int32:
        case TypeCode.Int64: { IntColumns.Add(Column); break; }
        case TypeCode.Boolean: { BoolColumns.Add(Column); break; }
        case TypeCode.Double:
        case TypeCode.Decimal: { DecimalColumns.Add(Column); break; }
        case TypeCode.DateTime: { DateColumns.Add(Column); break; }
    }

    //--- add the mapping for the column on the BulkCopy object
    BulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add(new SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping(Column.ColumnName, ColumnMap.DestinationFieldName));
}

//--- loop through all rows and convert the values to data types that match our database's data type for that field
foreach (DataRow dr in dtData.Rows)
{
    //--- convert int values
    foreach (DataColumn IntCol in IntColumns)
        dr[IntCol] = Helpers.CleanNum(dr[IntCol].ToString());

    //--- convert decimal values
    foreach (DataColumn DecCol in DecimalColumns)
        dr[DecCol] = Helpers.CleanDecimal(dr[DecCol].ToString());

    //--- convert bool values
    foreach (DataColumn BoolCol in BoolColumns)
        dr[BoolCol] = Helpers.ConvertStringToBool(dr[BoolCol].ToString());

    //--- convert date values
    foreach (DataColumn DateCol in DateColumns)
        dr[DateCol] = dr[DateCol].ToString().Replace("T", " ");
}

try
{
    //--- do bulk insert
    BulkCopy.WriteToServer(dtData);
    transaction.Commit();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    transaction.Rollback();
                                
    //--- handles error
    //--- this is where I need to find the row & column having an issue
}

This code should format all values for their destination fields. In the case of this error, the decimal, the function that cleans that up will remove any character that is not 0-9 or . (decimal point). This field that is throwing the error would be nullable in the database.

The level 2 exception has this error:

Error Message: Failed to convert parameter value from a String to a Decimal.
Target Site: System.Object CoerceValue(System.Object, System.Data.SqlClient.MetaType, Boolean ByRef, Boolean ByRef, Boolean)

and the level 3 exception has this error:

Error Message: Input string was not in a correct format
Target Site: Void StringToNumber(System.String, System.Globalization.NumberStyles, NumberBuffer ByRef, System.Globalization.NumberFormatInfo, Boolean)

Does anyone have any ideas to fix? or any ideas to get more info?

C# Solutions

Solution 1 - C#

For the people stumbling across this question and getting a similar error message in regards to an nvarchar instead of money:

>The given value of type String from the data source cannot be converted to type nvarchar of the specified target column.

This could be caused by a too-short column.

For example, if your column is defined as nvarchar(20) and you have a 40 character string, you may get this error.

Source

Solution 2 - C#

Please use SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping.

Example:

private void SaveFileToDatabase(string filePath)
{
    string strConnection = System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MHMRA_TexMedEvsConnectionString"].ConnectionString.ToString();

    String excelConnString = String.Format("Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source={0};Extended Properties=\"Excel 12.0\"", filePath);
    //Create Connection to Excel work book 
    using (OleDbConnection excelConnection = new OleDbConnection(excelConnString))
    {
        //Create OleDbCommand to fetch data from Excel 
        using (OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand("Select * from [Crosswalk$]", excelConnection))
        {
            excelConnection.Open();
            using (OleDbDataReader dReader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
            {
                using (SqlBulkCopy sqlBulk = new SqlBulkCopy(strConnection))
                {
                    //Give your Destination table name 
                    sqlBulk.DestinationTableName = "PaySrcCrosswalk";

                    // this is a simpler alternative to explicit column mappings, if the column names are the same on both sides and data types match
                    foreach(DataColumn column in dt.Columns) {
                         s.ColumnMappings.Add(new SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping(column.ColumnName, column.ColumnName));
                     }
                   
                    sqlBulk.WriteToServer(dReader);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Solution 3 - C#

Since I don't believe "Please use..." plus some random code that is unrelated to the question is a good answer, but I do believe the spirit was correct, I decided to answer this correctly.

When you are using Sql Bulk Copy, it attempts to align your input data directly with the data on the server. So, it takes the Server Table and performs a SQL statement similar to this:

INSERT INTO [schema].[table] (col1, col2, col3) VALUES

Therefore, if you give it Columns 1, 3, and 2, EVEN THOUGH your names may match (e.g.: col1, col3, col2). It will insert like so:

INSERT INTO [schema].[table] (col1, col2, col3) VALUES
                          ('col1', 'col3', 'col2')

It would be extra work and overhead for the Sql Bulk Insert to have to determine a Column Mapping. So it instead allows you to choose... Either ensure your Code and your SQL Table columns are in the same order, or explicitly state to align by Column Name.

Therefore, if your issue is mis-alignment of the columns, which is probably the majority of the cause of this error, this answer is for you.

TLDR

using System.Data;
//...
myDataTable.Columns.Cast<DataColumn>().ToList().ForEach(x => 
    bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add(new SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping(x.ColumnName, x.ColumnName)));

This will take your existing DataTable, which you are attempt to insert into your created BulkCopy object, and it will just explicitly map name to name. Of course if, for some reason, you decided to name your DataTable Columns differently than your SQL Server Columns... that's on you.

Solution 4 - C#

@Corey - It just simply strips out all invalid characters. However, your comment made me think of the answer.

The problem was that many of the fields in my database are nullable. When using SqlBulkCopy, an empty string is not inserted as a null value. So in the case of my fields that are not varchar (bit, int, decimal, datetime, etc) it was trying to insert an empty string, which obviously is not valid for that data type.

The solution was to modify my loop where I validate the values to this (repeated for each datatype that is not string)

//--- convert decimal values
foreach (DataColumn DecCol in DecimalColumns)
{
     if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(dr[DecCol].ToString()))
          dr[DecCol] = null; //--- this had to be set to null, not empty
     else
          dr[DecCol] = Helpers.CleanDecimal(dr[DecCol].ToString());
}

After making the adjustments above, everything inserts without issues.

Solution 5 - C#

Make sure that the column values u added in entity class having get set properties also in the same order which is present in target table.

Solution 6 - C#

There is another issue you have to take care of it when you try mapping column which is string length, for example TK_NO nvarchar(50) you will have to map to the same length as the destination field.

Solution 7 - C#

Not going to be everyone's fix, but it was for me:

So, i ran across this exact issue. The problem I seemed to have was when my DataTable didnt have an ID column, but the target destination had one with a primary key.

When i adapted my DataTable to have an id, the copy worked perfectly.

In my scenario, the Id column isnt very important to have the primary key so i deleted this column from the target destination table and the SqlBulkCopy is working without issue.

Solution 8 - C#

My issue was with the column mapping rather than the values. I was doing an extract from a dev system, creating the destination table, bulk copying the content, extracting from a prod system, adjusting the destination table and bulk copying the content so the column order from the 2 bulk copies wasn't matching

// explicitly setting the column mapping even though the source & destination column names
// are the same as the column orders will affect the bulk copy giving data conversion errors
foreach (DataColumn column in p_dataTable.Columns)
{
  bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add(
    new()
    {
      SourceColumn = column.ColumnName,
      DestinationColumn = column.ColumnName
    }
  );
}

bulkCopy.WriteToServer(p_dataTable);

Solution 9 - C#

short answer: change type from nvarchar(size) to nvarchar(Max) it is issue of string length size

note: all above suggestions made me write this short answer

Solution 10 - C#

I got the same error "occasionally". Note: column mapping was all correct, and that is why code worked most of the time.

And I found the root case to be string length issue. The target table column had datatype as nvarchar(255) - where as the value being sent was of length more then 255 chars in string.

Fixed it by increasing column length in DB.

p.s.: Sadly the error msg wont tell you which column of table is causing this error. That you have to guess/figure it out manually.

Solution 11 - C#

Check The data you are writing to Server. May be data has delimiter which is not used.

045|2272575|0.000|0.000|2013-10-07
045|2272585|0.000|0.000;2013-10-07

your delimiter is '|' but data has a delimiter ';'. So for this you are getting the error.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Ricketts	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - C#	Robotnik	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - C#	Joshy Joseph	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - C#	Suamere	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - C#	Ricketts	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - C#	santhoshraj	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - C#	Medhat Makram	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - C#	Ashetynw	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - C#	Pierre Collard Suero	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - C#	suntosh aqula	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - C#	Hemant Chauhan	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - C#	Md Kauser Ahmmed	View Answer on Stackoverflow