Import String Cache

The fastest way to get data into a Datawindow is to use the ImportString command. This flexible command will all you to import rows of data using a tab delimited string. The ImportString command will also allow you to import columns of data and multiple lines of data into a single column.

Enough of the praise and to get to the point! Although the ImportString command is faster than using an InsertRow and SetItem commands there is still an overhead to using the command when you are importing lots of data. Therefore is you are bulk importing lots of data in a loop it is quicker to build up a very long string of data and call the ImportString at regular intervals than to Import each row as it is built up. I have found that around 50k for the the size of the string give the optimum between string processing overhead and ImportString command overhead.

If you know your strings will always be less than 50k then you can do away with the length check in the loop and just Import at the end. A code example is shown below:

Example1:(no string limiter)

String ls_Import

DO WHILE 
   ...
   ...
   ls_Import += as_Parent + String( al_Seq ) + '~t' + ls_OScript '~r~n'
   ...
LOOP

lds_Script.ImportString( ls_Import )

Example2:(string limiter)

String ls_Import

DO WHILE 
   ...
   ...
   ls_Import += as_Parent + String( al_Seq ) + '~t' + ls_OScript '~r~n'
   IF Len( ls_Import ) > 50000 THEN
      lds_Script.ImportString( ls_Import )
      ls_Import = ''
   END IF
   ...
LOOP

IF Len( ls_Import ) > 0 THEN
   lds_Script.ImportString( ls_Import )

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