Add multiple items to SharePoint List by using batch command ~ Programming Share

We'd known how to add one new item to the SharePoint List by using Items.Add() method. But adding multiple items is really more complex. In this post, I will give you a solution for it by using batch command.
I keep using the list named Employee with 5 columns: Title, Birthday, Male, Position, Salary. In this scenario, I have an xml file named Employees.xml with 2 items and I want to add them all to the Employee list

Employees.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Employees>
      <Employee>
            <Title>Le Dung</Title>
            <Birthday>1990/2/2</Birthday>
        <Male>Yes</Male>
            <Position>Developer</Position>
            <Salary>800</Salary>
      </Employee>
      <Employee>
            <Title>Phan Tu</Title>
            <Birthday>1990/1/1</Birthday>
        <Male>Yes</Male>
            <Position>Developer</Position>
            <Salary>800</Salary>
      </Employee>
</Employees>

The following is the complete code to adding multiple items from xml file to Sharepoint list using batch command.

        protected void addMultiItems()
        {
            SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
            {
                SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;
                XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
                xmlDoc.Load("C:\\Employees.xml");
                XmlElement elmRoot = xmlDoc.DocumentElement;
                XmlNodeList elemList = elmRoot.GetElementsByTagName("Employee");
                if (elemList.Count > 0)
                {
                    web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
                    SPList list = web.Lists["Employee"];
                    lock (this)
                    {
                        StringBuilder addXml = new System.Text.StringBuilder(51200);
                        addXml.Append("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?><ows:Batch OnError='Continue'>");
                        for(int i=0; i<elemList.Count; i++)
                        {
                            addXml.Append("<Method>");
                            addXml.AppendFormat("<SetList Scope=\"Request\">{0}</SetList>", list.ID);
                            addXml.Append("<SetVar Name=\"ID\">New</SetVar>");
                            addXml.Append("<SetVar Name=\"Cmd\">Save</SetVar>");
                            addXml.AppendFormat("<SetVar Name=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Title\">{0}</SetVar>", elemList[i]["Title"].InnerText != null ? elemList[i]["Title"].InnerText.ToString() : "");
                            string date = elemList[i]["Birthday"].InnerText != null ? elemList[i]["Birthday"].InnerText.ToString() : "";
                            if (date != string.Empty)
                            {
                                date = SPUtility.CreateISO8601DateTimeFromSystemDateTime(DateTime.Parse(date));
                                addXml.AppendFormat("<SetVar Name=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Birthday\">{0}</SetVar>", date);
                            }
                            addXml.AppendFormat("<SetVar Name=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Position\">{0}</SetVar>", elemList[i]["Position"].InnerText != null ? elemList[i]["Position"].InnerText.ToString() : "");
                            addXml.AppendFormat("<SetVar Name=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Salary\">{0}</SetVar>", elemList[i]["Salary"].InnerText != null ? elemList[i]["Salary"].InnerText.ToString() : "");

                            string strMale = elemList[i]["Male"].InnerText != null ? elemList[i]["Male"].InnerText.ToString() : "";
                            if (strMale != string.Empty)
                            {
                                if (strMale.ToUpper() != "YES")
                                {
                                    addXml.AppendFormat("<SetVar Name=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Male\">{0}</SetVar>", "False");
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                    addXml.AppendFormat("<SetVar Name=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Male\">{0}</SetVar>", "True");
                                }
                            }
                            addXml.Append("</Method>");
                        }
                        addXml.Append("</ows:Batch>");
                        web.ProcessBatchData(addXml.ToString());
                    }
                    web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
                }
            });
        }

Hope this helps!