Script: Create list items in a SharePoint list using PowerShell

Disclaimer: this script is given as is, we do not support it nor take responsibility for any use you make of it.

The script below creates list items in a SharePoint list that contains 100 columns named "Myfield1", "Myfield2", ..., "Myfield100".

To execute it, open a PowerShell prompt, register the script and run it as show below.

. .\CreateListItems.ps1

CreateListItems -spVersion SPOnline -siteUrl "https://yoursite.sharepoint.com/sites/TestHierarchy" -username "username" -password "password" -domain "yourdomain.onmicrosoft.com" -listName "Your list name" -noOfItems 1000

enum SPVersion
{
    SP2010
    SP2013
    SP2016
    SP2019
    SPOnline
}

Function LoadAssemblies {
    Param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]
        [SPVersion]$spVersion
    )
   
    $SP2010ClientDllPath = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\SharePoint Client"
    $SP2013ClientDllPath = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI"
    $SP2016ClientDllPath = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI"
    $SP2019ClientDllPath = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI"
 $SPOnlineClientDllPath = "C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI"
      

$clientDllPath = "Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
    $clientRuntimeDllPath = "Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"

    switch ($spVersion) {
        SP2010 {
            $clientDllPath = $SP2010ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientDllPath
            $clientRuntimeDllPath = $SP2010ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientRuntimeDllPath
            break;
        }
        SP2013 {
            $clientDllPath = $SP2013ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientDllPath
            $clientRuntimeDllPath = $SP2013ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientRuntimeDllPath
            break;
        }
        SP2016 {
            $clientDllPath = $SP2016ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientDllPath
            $clientRuntimeDllPath = $SP2016ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientRuntimeDllPath
            break;
        }
        SP2019 {
            $clientDllPath = $SP2019ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientDllPath
            $clientRuntimeDllPath = $SP2019ClientDllPath + "\" + $clientRuntimeDllPath
            break;
        }
        SPOnline {
            $clientDllPath = $SPOnlineClientDllPath + "\" + $clientDllPath
            $clientRuntimeDllPath = $SPOnlineClientDllPath + "\" + $clientRuntimeDllPath
            break;
        }
    }

    $client = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile($clientDllPath)
    $clientRuntime = [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile($clientRuntimeDllPath)
     
    if( !$client -or !$clientRuntime ){
        throw "Could not load Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll or Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"
    }
}

Function CreateItems {
    Param(
		[Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Web][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$parentWeb,
        [string][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$listName,
        [int][ValidateRange(1, 1000000)][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$noOfItems,
        [int][ValidateRange(1, 1000000)][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$startIndex
    )
 
    Write-Host "Number of items to create on list $($listName): $noOfItems"
 			
		$list = $parentWeb.Lists.GetByTitle($listName)
		
    for ($l = 1; $l -le $noOfItems; $l++)
	{
		$listItemInfo = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ListItemCreationInformation
		
		$newItem = $list.AddItem($listItemInfo)

		$newItem["Title"] = "This is item no. $($l + $startIndex - 1)"
		
		for ($j = 1; $j -le 100; $j++)
		{
			# fill your fields here
			$fieldName = "MyField$($j)";
			
			$newItem[$fieldName] = $j
		}

		$newItem.Update()

		if(0 -eq $l % 10) # adjust this accordingly to your item size to avoid teh error "The request message is too big. The server does not allow messages larger than 2097152 bytes."
		{
			$parentWeb.Context.ExecuteQuery()

			Write-Host "$($l) items created."
		}
    }
	
	# commit leftovers
	$parentWeb.Context.ExecuteQuery()

	Write-Host "$($l -1) items created."
}

Function CreateListItems {
    Param
	(
		[SPVersion][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$spVersion,
		[string][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$siteUrl,
		[string][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$username,
		[string][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$password,
		[string][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$domain,
		[string][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$listName,
        [int][ValidateRange(1, 1000000)][Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$noOfItems,
        [int][ValidateRange(1, 1000000)]$startIndex = 1
	)

Write-Host "Running..."

    LoadAssemblies $spVersion

    $creds = $null;
    $secPass = ConvertTo-SecureString $password -AsPlainText -Force

    $ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteUrl)
       
    if ($spVersion -ne [SPVersion]::SPOnline) {
        $creds = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($userName,$secPass,$domain)
        $ctx.AuthenticationMode = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientAuthenticationMode]::Default
    }
    else {
        $creds = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials("$($username)@$($domain)", $secPass)
    }
    $ctx.Credentials = $creds
    $ctx.Load($ctx.Web)
    try {

        $ctx.ExecuteQuery()
    }
    catch {
        throw $_.Exception
        return
    }

	Write-Host "Running..."

    CreateItems -parentWeb $ctx.Web -listName $listName -noOfItems $noOfItems -startIndex $startIndex
}

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