SQL Server input

Read a table or SQL query from Microsoft SQL Server. A Bookmark can read only the rows added or changed since the last successful run.

Category

Input

Connection

SQL Server

What it does

Reads from a Microsoft SQL Server database through a saved Connection and streams the result into the pipeline in batches. Pick a table with the live schema and table browser, or write your own T-SQL when you want the server to filter, join or aggregate before the rows move. Credentials live on the Connection and never enter the pipeline.

Inputs and outputs

When to use it

• Pull a table or query result out of SQL Server
• Push filtering, joins and aggregation down to SQL Server, where they run faster
• Move data out of a line-of-business system into a warehouse or a file

Examples

dbo.Sales

SELECT id, name, total FROM dbo.Orders WHERE status = 'paid'

SELECT TOP 100 * FROM dbo.Orders

SELECT region, SUM(total) FROM dbo.Orders GROUP BY region

Bookmark column: updated_at · Start from: 2026-01-01 00:00:00

Tips

• Press ⤢ beside SQL query for the SQL Studio: a full-screen editor that browses the connection's schemas, tables and columns, shows the columns your query returns without running it, and runs it with Run to here without closing.
• Pre-SQL runs on this same connection immediately before the query, so session settings stick: SET DATEFORMAT ymd, SET LANGUAGE us_english, SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED, or a procedure that prepares the extract. It also runs when you press Test, because a test run really does read from the database, so keep it to session setup.
• The query is T-SQL, the server's own dialect. This is a source query, not a Trinium row expression.
• Columns appear as soon as you pick a table or write a query, with no test run needed. Trinium asks SQL Server to describe the result set, which runs nothing.
• A query WINS whenever both a table and a query are filled in, so clear the query to go back to reading the table.
• Dates, times, datetimes and datetimeoffsets come across as real dates, so you can sort, filter and do date math on them straight away. guid and decimal arrive as exact text; retype a decimal with Manage Columns if you want a fixed one. CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX), …) anything else exotic.
• A query that returns no rows still passes its columns downstream, so a Union or Join below it keeps working.
• Pick a Connection first; add one on the Connections page if the list is empty.
• How the connection reaches the server (plain, preferred or verified TLS) is set on the Connection, not here.
• Bookmark: each Live run reads only the rows whose bookmark column is past where the last SUCCESSFUL run stopped. A failed or cancelled run never moves it, so after an outage one run reads everything that was missed. Staging and Production keep their own; a Test run always reads from Start from and never moves it.
• The bookmark column must move forward whenever a row is added or changed: an updated_at stamp, or an ever-increasing id. A row whose bookmark column is empty is never read, and a row DELETED in the database is never seen, so reload the table now and then if deletes matter.
• With a hand-written query, write WHERE updated_at >= ${bookmark} where the value goes. Editing the table, query, connection or column keeps the bookmark, and the run's Messages say when it last read something else. A Bookmark column of another kind (a date where it was a number) is refused until you Set or Reset it in the node's Bookmark panel.
• Each value of a text parameter the pipeline uses keeps its own bookmark, so region = EU and region = US each read only their own new rows. A number or true/false parameter in the table name is refused, because one bookmark would serve every value; make it a text parameter with a list of choices. A date in the table name (events_${date:%Y%m%d}) carries the bookmark into each new day's table, so bookmark a date-time column there.
• When the pipeline uses a text parameter anywhere, such as ${region} in this query or in a Filter after it, each value keeps its own bookmark, so a run for one region never moves another's. A value's first run reads from Start from, and date, number and true/false parameters share one bookmark. Starting or stopping using a text parameter pauses the bookmark the same way, until you Set where the value starts or Reset the old bookmark.
• Lookback (date-time columns only) re-reads the N minutes before where the last successful run stopped, to catch rows a long transaction committed late. A first run and every Test run read exactly from Start from. Re-read rows load again, so use it with an Upsert output.

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