SqlBulkCopy Cannot insert the value NULL into column

Question

I am trying to Bulkinsert a certain list of custom objects into my database, using the fastmember (Fastmember NuGet) extension and sqlbulkcopy. However it gives me the following error:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException' occurred in System.Data.dll

Additional information: Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'functionblockId', table '\path...\DBFHX.MDF.dbo.connections'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails.

The statement has been terminated.

Code:

private void insertConnection(functionblock functionblock)
{
    using (var bcp = new SqlBulkCopy(db.Database.Connection.ConnectionString))
    {
        foreach (connection item in functionblock.connections)
                {
                    item.functionblockId = 1;
                }
        using (var creader = ObjectReader.Create(functionblock.connections, "step", "transition","steptotrans", "functionblockId"))
                {
                    bcp.DestinationTableName = "connections";
                    bcp.WriteToServer(creader);
                }   
    }
}

Using Model First, the Entity Framework generated the following table:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[connections] (
    [Id]              INT            IDENTITY (1, 1) NOT NULL,
    [step]            NVARCHAR (MAX) NOT NULL,
    [transition]      NVARCHAR (MAX) NOT NULL,
    [steptotrans]     BIT            NOT NULL,
    [functionblockId] INT            NOT NULL,
    CONSTRAINT [PK_connections] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([Id] ASC),
    CONSTRAINT [FK_functionblockconnection] FOREIGN KEY ([functionblockId]) REFERENCES [dbo].[functionblocks] ([Id])
);

The code works fine for a different table which also contains that same "functionblockId" and the same sort of other fields (does not contain a bit field though).

I manually did check all my values in functionblock.connections list and then in specific the object its 'functionblockId', it was all filled in with a number. Even better, as you see in the code I actually do fill it hardcoded before I bulkinsert it.

I have no clue on why this error is raised, does anyone have an idea?

Answer 1

After manually making a DataTable with test data it still gave me the same error.

I came across this post (codeproject solution), and applied the SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping to my case.

Code example:

using (var bcp = new SqlBulkCopy(fhxm.Database.Connection.ConnectionString))
                                    {
                                    using (var creader = ObjectReader.Create(functionblock.connections, "step", "transition", "steptotrans", "functionblockId"))
                                    {
                                    SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping mapstep = new SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping("step", "step");
                                    SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping maptran = new SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping("transition", "transition");
                                    SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping mapstt = new SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping("steptotrans", "steptotrans");
                                    SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping mapfunc = new SqlBulkCopyColumnMapping("functionblockId", "functionblockId");
                                    bcp.ColumnMappings.Add(mapstep);
                                    bcp.ColumnMappings.Add(maptran);
                                    bcp.ColumnMappings.Add(mapstt);
                                    bcp.ColumnMappings.Add(mapfunc);

                                    bcp.DestinationTableName = "connections";
                                    bcp.WriteToServer(creader);
                                    }   }