Microsoft SQL Server Driver v1.4.1¶

Note

This project is not associated with Microsoft.

Driver Version v1.4.1 Tested With Microsoft SQL Server 2025

This driver provides access to Microsoft SQL Server .

Installation & Quickstart¶

The driver can be installed with dbc :

dbc install mssql

Connecting¶

To use the driver, provide a SQL Server connection string as the uri option. The driver supports URI format and DSN-style connection strings, but URIs are recommended.

from adbc_driver_manager import dbapi

dbapi.connect(
  driver="mssql",
  db_kwargs={
      "uri": "mssql://sa:password@localhost:1433"
  }
)

Note: The example above is for Python using the adbc-driver-manager package but the process will be similar for other driver managers. See adbc-quickstarts .

Connection String Format¶

SQL Server URI syntax:

mssql://[user:[password]]@host[:port][/instance][?param1=value&param2=value]

sqlserver://[user:[password]]@host[:port][/instance][?param1=value&param2=value]

This follows the format of Microsoft’s official Go MSSQL driver .

Components:

scheme: mssql:// or sqlserver:// (required) - both schemes are supported
user/password: (optional) Credentials for standard SQL Server authentication.
host: (required) The hostname or IP address of the SQL Server machine.
port: (optional) Defaults to 1433.
instance: (optional) The name of the SQL Server instance (e.g., SQLExpress).
Query Parameters: Additional configuration options. For a list of common parameters, see the Microsoft’s official Go MSSQL driver

Note

Reserved characters in URI elements must be URI-encoded. For example, @ becomes %40.

Examples:

mssql://username:mypass@localhost?database=master&connection+timeout=30
mssql://username:mypass@localhost:1234?database=master&connection+timeout=30
mssql://username@localhost/SQLExpress?database=master&connection+timeout=30
sqlserver://sa@localhost/SQLExpress?database=master&connection+timeout=30
sqlserver://sa:mypass@localhost?database=master&connection+timeout=30
sqlserver://sa:mypass@localhost:1234?database=master&connection+timeout=30

EntraID (Azure Active Directory) authentication is enabled by adding a fedauth parameter to your connection URI. For more information, see the documentation for Microsoft’s official Go MSSQL driver .

This driver also supports other types of connection strings that are supported by Microsoft’s official Go MSSQL driver .

Feature & Type Support¶

Feature		Microsoft SQL Server
Bulk Ingestion	Create	✅
	Append	✅
	Create/Append	✅
	Replace	✅
	Temporary Table	✅
	Target Catalog	✅
	Target Schema	✅
	Non-nullable fields are marked NOT NULL	✅
Catalog (GetObjects)	depth=catalogs	✅
	depth=db_schemas	✅
	depth=tables	✅
	depth=columns (all)	✅
Get Parameter Schema		✅
Get Table Schema		✅
Prepared Statements		✅
Transactions		✅

Types¶

Database to Arrow¶

Database Type	Microsoft SQL Server
BIGINT	int64
BIT	bool
CHAR	string
DATE	date32[day]
DATETIME	timestamp[us] (with time zone)
DATETIME2	timestamp[us] (with time zone)
DECIMAL	decimal128
DOUBLE PRECISION	double
GEOGRAPHY	extension<geoarrow.wkb>
GEOMETRY	extension<geoarrow.wkb>
IMAGE	binary
INT	int32
MONEY	decimal128
NCHAR	string
NTEXT	string
NTEXT (mssql.query.large_text_type = large_string)	large_string
NTEXT (mssql.query.large_text_type = string_view)	string_view
NUMERIC	decimal128
NVARCHAR	string
REAL	float
SMALLDATETIME	timestamp[us] (with time zone)
SMALLINT	int16
SMALLMONEY	decimal128
TEXT	string
TEXT (mssql.query.large_text_type = large_string)	large_string
TEXT (mssql.query.large_text_type = string_view)	string_view
TIME	time64[ns] ⚠️ [1]
TIME(0)	time32[s]
TIME(1)	time32[ms]
TIME(2)	time32[ms]
TIME(3)	time32[ms]
TIME(4)	time64[us]
TIME(5)	time64[us]
TIME(6)	time64[us]
TIME(7)	time64[ns]
TINYINT	uint8
UNIQUEIDENTIFIER	extension<arrow.uuid>
VARBINARY	binary
VARCHAR	string
XML	string

Arrow to Database¶

Arrow Type	Microsoft SQL Server Type
	Bind	Ingest
	binary	VARBINARY	VARBINARY(MAX)
binary_view	VARBINARY	VARBINARY(MAX)
bool	BIT
date32[day]	DATE
decimal128	DECIMAL(10,2)	NUMERIC
double	DOUBLE PRECISION
extension<geoarrow.wkb>	(NA/not tested)	GEOGRAPHY, GEOMETRY
fixed_size_binary	VARBINARY	VARBINARY(MAX)
float	REAL
halffloat	REAL	(NA/not tested)
int16	SMALLINT
int32	INT
int64	BIGINT
large_binary	VARBINARY	VARBINARY(MAX)
large_string	NVARCHAR	NVARCHAR(MAX)
string	NVARCHAR	NVARCHAR(MAX)
string_view	NVARCHAR	NVARCHAR(MAX)
time32[ms]	TIME(3), TIME(2), TIME, TIME(1)	TIME(7) ⚠️ [3]
time32[s]	TIME, TIME(0)	TIME(7) ⚠️ [3]
time64[ns]	TIME, TIME(7)	TIME(7) ⚠️ [3]
time64[us]	TIME(6), TIME(5), TIME(4), TIME	TIME(7) ⚠️ [3]
timestamp[ms]	DATETIME2
timestamp[ms] (with time zone)	DATETIME2
timestamp[ns]	DATETIME2 [2]	DATETIME2
timestamp[ns] (with time zone)	DATETIME2 [2]	DATETIME2
timestamp[s]	DATETIME2
timestamp[s] (with time zone)	DATETIME2
timestamp[us]	DATETIME2
timestamp[us] (with time zone)	DATETIME2

Options¶

Options Affecting Queries¶

mssql.query.large_text_type : Values: string, string_view, or large_string. Default: string

Determines the Arrow string type to use for VARCHAR(MAX) and NVARCHAR(MAX) (and their deprecated aliases TEXT and NTEXT) columns.

This does not affect bulk ingest.

Compatibility¶

This driver was tested on:

Microsoft SQL Server 17.0.4045.5 Enterprise Evaluation Edition (64-bit)

Previous Versions¶

To see documentation for previous versions of this driver, see the following: