"Joe H" <hortoristic at gmail> wrote in message
news:%23JafXiT1IHA.4492@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Further research took me that this is done because it's faster on very
> large loads to load to use this method instead of inserting row by row

That could be true if you're taking advantage of SQL set-based statements to
manipulate the data around after you load it into the "staging" area. It's
fairly common practice to bulk load data directly into the staging area for
a few reasons: auditing (as you already mentioned), control (it's a lot
easier to manipulate source data in the database than in flat files, etc.),
and potentially speed (if you use SQL set-based manipulations). The speed
improvement isn't necessarily a given, however, especially if you need to
perform a lot of compex manipulations on your data before moving it to the
fact table in finalized form.

--

========
Michael Coles
"Pro SQL Server 2008 XML"
http://www.amazon.com/Pro-SQL-Server...dp/1590599837/