Overview: Importing Data from Tables (Master Data Services)
Applies to: 
SQL Server - Windows only
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Once you've created a model for your data in Master Data Services, you can start adding data and make changes to data. You use Master Data Services staging tables, stored procedures and Master Data Manager .
For instructions on how to add and modify data, see Import Data from Tables (Master Data Services).
Note
You can also use the SQL Server Master Data Services Add-in for Excel, to add data to the MDS repository ( Master Data Services database) from Excel. For more information, see Overview: Importing Data from Excel (MDS Add-in for Excel).
When you add and modify data, you can do the following.
Load and update members, and update attribute values
Deactivate and delete members
Move explicit hierarchy members
Adding and updating data includes the following main tasks.
Load data into the staging tables in the Master Data Services database.
Load the data from the staging tables into the appropriate Master Data Services tables.
You use staging stored procedures or Master Data Manager to load the data.
Note
In SQL Server 2016 (13.x), support for the SQL Server 2008 R2 (10.50.x) staging processes is deprecated.
Deactivating and Deleting Members (MDS)
Deactivating means the member can be reactivated. If you reactivate a member, its attributes and its membership in hierarchies and collections are restored. All previous transactions are intact. Deactivation transactions are visible to administrators in the Version Management functional area of the Master Data Manager.
Deleting means purging the member from the system permanently. All transactions for the member, all relationships, and all attributes are permanently deleted.
Note
You cannot use staging to reactivate members. You must do it manually in the Master Data Manager. For more information, see Reactivate a Member or Collection (Master Data Services).
You cannot use staging to delete or deactivate collections. For more information on manually deactivating collections, see Delete a Member or Collection (Master Data Services).
Moving explicit hierarchy members (MDS)
When you move the location of members in explicit hierarchies in bulk, you can designate the following.
A consolidated member as a parent of a consolidated member.
A consolidated member as a parent of a leaf member.
A leaf member as a sibling of a leaf or consolidated member.
A consolidated member as a sibling of a leaf or consolidated member.
Staging Tables and Stored Procedures (MDS)
The Master Data Services database includes the following types of staging tables that you can populate with your data.
For each entity in the model, there is a staging table. The table name indicates the corresponding entity, and the entity type such as leaf member. The following image shows the staging tables for the currency, customer, and product entities.
The name of the table is specified when an entity is created and cannot be changed. If the staging table name contains a _1 or other number, another table of that name already existed when the entity was created.
The Master Data Services includes the following types of staging stored procedures.
stg.udp_<name>_Leaf
stg.udp_<name>_Consolidated
stg.udp_<name>_Relationship
For each entity in the model, there are three stored procedures that correspond to the leaf member, consolidated member, and relationship staging tables. The following image shows the staging stored procedures for the currency, customer, and product entities.
For more information on the stored procedures, see Staging Stored Procedure (Master Data Services).
Logging Transactions (MDS)
All transactions that occur when data or relationships are imported or updated can be logged. An option in the stored procedure allows this logging. If you initiate the staging process using Master Data Manager, no logging occurs.
In Master Data Services Configuration Manager, the Log staging transactions setting does not apply to this method of staging data.