Updating large number of rows - asp.net

I have a large number of rows in a SQL Server table. I need to select all those rows and run an update query for each of those rows. I need to know what's the best option do it from the following
run a select query and get a DataTable and use the following code in the application
foreach(DataRow item in DataTable.Rows)
{
//perform update
}
in the database level use a stored procedure, select the set of data and use SQL Server cursor to perform the update

Option 1 vs option 2 means you work with disconnected dataset vs connected data readers.
As discussed other times here in SO in fact this means more memory needs at once on the client vs a connection kept open longer and smaller chunk of data transmitted more often while looping on results. Since your main focus is on the update of data i think both options are probably similar and if you have many records i would probably go for the second one, using datareader, to do not have to load all those records at once in a dataset.
As others already pointed out the best performances would be achieved having a set based update stored procedure to which you would pass certain parameters and all records are atomically updated at once. Or also have a look at SqlBulk updates.

i have also one suggestion
foreach(DataRow item in DataTable.Rows) {
//perform update
}
here you can use LINQ .so it can give fast response

Like Marc already commented, go for option 3, and do a set based update if at all possible (and usually it is). If you think it isn't, maybe you could ask a separate question on how to do that. The more specifics you will give, the better the proposed solutions will fit your situation

Related

OpenEdge Database Row Version

I am attempting to implement a row version strategy for tables in our OpenEdge database.
The simple solution i have come up with would be to add an integer iRowVersion field to each table and have the write trigger validate and increment the field as follows:
TRIGGER PROCEDURE FOR WRITE OF Customer OLD BUFFER oldCustomer.
IF Customer.iRowVersion < oldCustomer.iRowVersion THEN
RETURN ERROR "RowVersion Out Of Date".
ASSIGN Customer.iRowVersion = Customer.iRowVersion + 1.
This will prevent any concurrent changes being overwritten, however i am unsure the increment by one per row is the best.
SQL ROWVERSION is incremented accross the entire database, and to emulate that approach would use a sequence instead:
ASSIGN Customer.iRowVersion = NEXT-VALUE(rowVersionSequence).
In our large database where many records will be changing, this has the potential to increase the sequence very quickly. Having a sequence per table would curtail this but seems over the top and the +1 approach keeps it simple.
To clarify the question - would it be better to increment a row version number based on the rows last version, or should the SQL like approach be taken - making every row version unique to the database.
Additionally if going down the SQL style route, would the create trigger need to assign an initial row version? (otherwise all new unmodified records initialise at 0).
To version control records in the OpenEdge database I now have a solution that should work well, and is fairly simple.
Each table that needs to have a row version will have a RowVersion field, of type Integer.
We have a program that generates write triggers when we create new tables, so updating this to add some new code has been simple. The write trigger now checks the record to see if the table has a RowVersion field, and if so it then increments the version by 1.
Checking to make sure the row version matches before updating is the responsibility of the programmer in the code / script they are running.
There were several reasons for this method, but it keeps things simple:
Integers are simple and easy to read when running queries and debugging the database. Given our application uses, it is unlikely we would ever overflow an integer either.
A sequence is not needed to keep rowversions unique. They don't need to be. Each record just increments its own row version.
Although ProDataSets can do optimistic locking, there is no guarantee that the records in use will always be read / written using these, and therefore a field gives us the flexibility to write different code depending on the use.
Usually row versions should be checked before updating, if there was data issues, then fix scripts might need to be run to overwrite data regardless. For this we leave the checking to be done in a calling procedure (and not the trigger) for a write operation to a record.

LINQ to entities performance regarding where clause

Let's say i have a table in a database with 10k records. I dont need to actually use those 10k records anymore, but i still need to keep them in the database. That very table is now going to be used to store new data. So there's gonna be more records coming on top of the 10K records already present in the table. As opposed to the "old" 10K records, i do need to work with the newly inserted data. Right now im doing this to get the data i need:
List<Stuff> l = (from x in db.Table
where x.id > id
select x).ToList();
My question now is: how does the where clause in LINQ (or in SQL in general) work under the covers? Is the ENTIRE table going to be searched until (x.id > id) is true? Because let's say the table will increase from 10k records to 20K. It'd be a little silly to look through the entire 20 k records, if i know that i only have to start looking from a certain point.
I've had performance problems (not dramatic, but bad enough to be agitated by it) with this while using LINQ to entities, which i kinda don't understand because it should be no problem at all for a modern computer to sift through a mere 20 k records. I've been advised to use a stored procedure instead of a LINQ query, but i dont know whether or not this will boost performance?
Any feedback will be appreciated.
It's going to behave just like a similarly worded SQL query would. The question is whether the overhead you're experiencing is happening in the query or in the conversion of the query to a list. The query itself as you've written should equate literally to:
Select ID, Column1, Column2, Column3, ... , Column(n+1)
From db.Table
Where ID > id
This query should be fairly fast depending on the nature of the data. The query itself will not be executed until it is acted upon, however. In this case, you're converting it to a list, which is the equivalent of acting upon it. I can't find the comment someone made to me about this practice, but I've found it too be quite helpful in keeping performance clean. Unless you have some very specific need, you should leave your queries as IQueryable. Converting them to lists doubles the effort because first the query must be executed and then the result set must be converted into an appropriate IEnumerable (List in this case).
So you have 2 potential bottlenecks. The simple query could be taking a long time to query a massive collection of data, or the number of records could be bottenecking at the poing where the List is created. Another possibility is the nature of ID in this case. If it is numeric, that will save you some time. If it's performing a text-based search then it's going to be heavier.
To answer your specific question, yes, it's going to search every record in the database and return all of the records that match the expression. Edit: If the database has a proper index on the column in question, it will not search EVERY record but rather will use the index to perform the search. From comment from #Pleun.
As for using a stored procedure, that's a load of hogwash, but it's a perfectly acceptable alternative. I have several programs that routinely run similar queries against a database with over 40 million records, and the only performance issue I've run into so far has been CPU usage when multiple users are performing rapid firing queries. To solve your specific issue, I'd recommend that you tune it a little in SQL Management Studio until the query you want returns to your interface with an acceptable speed. Then you can convert that query into a compatible Linq statement. As long as you leave it as an IQueryable it should exhibit similar results.

Strategy for handling variable time queries?

I have a typical scenario that I'm struggling with from a performance standpoint. The user selects a value from a dropdown and clicks a button. A stored procedure takes that value as an input parameter, executes, and returns the results to a grid. For just one of the values ('All'), the query runs for roughly 2.5 minutes. For the rest of the values the query runs less than 1ms.
Obviously, having the user wait for 2.5 minutes just isn't going to fly. So, what are some typical strategies to handle this?
Some of my own thoughts:
New table that stores the information for the 'All' value and is generated nightly
Cache the data on the caching server
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Update
A little bit more info:
sp returns two result sets. The first is a group by rollup summary and the second is the first result set, disaggregated (roughly 80,000 rows).
I would first look at if your have the proper indexes in place. Using the Query Analyzer and the Database Tuning Assistant is a simple and often effective way of seeing what indexes might help.
If you still have performance problems after creating the appropriate indexes you might then look at adding tables/views to speed things up. If your query does a lot of joins you might consider creating an indexed view that allows you to do a select with no joins on the denormalized data. Since indexed views are persisted you can see big gains from their use.
You can read up on indexed views here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd171921%28v=sql.100%29.aspx
and read about the database tuning adviser here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms166575.aspx
Also, how many records does "All" return? I have seen people get hung up on the "All" scenario before, but if it returns 1 million records or something then the data is not usable to a person anyways...
Caching data is a good thing, but.... if the SP is inherently flawed, then you might want to actually fix it instead of trying to bandage it with caching.
You might also want to (since you didn't mention here) look at the number of rows "All" returns compared to the other selections and think about your indexes.
Also in your SP does the "All" cause it to run a different sets of tsql as in maybe a case or an if... or is it running the same code just with a different "WHERE"?
It might simply be that "ALL" just returns A LOT of records. You may want to implement paging and partial dataset return using ajax... (kinda like return the first 1000 records early so that it can be displayed and also show a throbber on the screen while the rest of the dataset is returned)
These are all options... if the number of records really isnt that different between ALL and the others... then it probably has something to do with the query/index/program flow.

Use LINQ to insert data from dataset to SQL

Let's say I have a dataset in an ASP.NET website (.NET 3.5) with 5 tables, each has roughly 30,000 rows and an average of 12 columns. I want to insert all of the data from the dataset into 5 very-similar-but-not-quite-identical tables in SQL Server 2008. I also want to use LINQ (personal preference - trying to learn something new).
Is it as simple as iterating through the dataset and, for each row, creating a new instance of the associated class, initializing its data with the dataset's row, adding it to the data model, and then doing one giant SubmitChanges at the end?
Are there better ways of doing this with LINQ? Or is this the de-facto standard?
Creating objects and inserting them is fine. But to avoid a gigantic commit at the end, you might want to perform a SubmitChanges() every 100 rows or so.
Alternately you could get a copy of Red Gate's "SQL Data Compare" utility if you have the cash. Then you never have to write one of these things again. :-)
Edit 2010-04-19: If you want to use a transaction, I think you should still use my approach instead of a single SubmitChanges(). In this case you'll want to explicitly manage your own transaction in L2S (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386995.aspx). Run your queries in a try/catch and roll back the transaction if you get any failures.
Two last bits of advice:
Make sure your ASP.NET timeout is set high enough.
Consider printing out some kind of progress indicator. It makes running these kind of long-running things much more palatable.
Linq To Sql doesn't natively have anything like the SqlBulkCopy class. I did a quick search and it looks like there's an implementation for Linq To Sql. No clue if it is any good but it can't hurt to check it out.
DataContext.ExecuteCommand can be used with an arbitrary SQL statement. You could do a "INSERT FROM".

Which is fastest? Data retrieval

Is it quicker to make one trip to the database and bring back 3000+ plus rows, then manipulate them in .net & LINQ or quicker to make 6 calls bringing back a couple of 100 rows at a time?
It will entirely depend on the speed of the database, the network bandwidth and latency, the speed of the .NET machine, the actual queries etc.
In other words, we can't give you a truthful general answer. I know which sounds easier to code :)
Unfortunately this is the kind of thing which you can't easily test usefully without having an exact replica of the production environment - most test environments are somewhat different to the production environment, which could seriously change the results.
Is this for one user, or will many users be querying the data? The single database call will scale better under load.
Speed is only one consideration among many.
How flexible is your code? How easy is it to revise and extend when the requirements change? How easy is it for another person to read and maintain your code? How portable is your code? what if you change to a diferent DBMS, or a different progamming language? Are any of these considerations important in your case?
Having said that, go for the single round trip if all other things are equal or unimportant.
You mentioned that the single round trip might result in reading data you don't need. If all the data you need can be described in a single result table, then it should be possible to devise a query that will get that result. That result table might deliver some result data in more than one row, if the query denormalizes the data. In that case, you might gain some speed by obtaining the data in several result tables, and composing the result yourself.
You haven't given enough information to know how much programming effort it will be to compose a single query or to compose the data returned by 6 queries.
As others have said, it depends.
If you know which 6 SQL statements you're going to execute beforehand, you can bundle them into one call to the database, and return multiple result sets using ADO or ADO.NET.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311274
the problem I have here is that I need it all, i just need it displayed separately...
The answer to your question is 1 query for 3000 rows is better than 6 queries for 500 rows. (given that you are bringing all 3000 rows back regardless)
However, there's no way you're going (to want) to display 3000 rows at a time, is there? In all likelihood, irrespective of using Linq, you're going to want to run aggregating queries and get the database to do the work for you. You should hopefully be able to construct the SQL (or Linq query) to perform all required logic in one shot.
Without knowing what you're doing, it's hard to be more specific.
* If you absolutely, positively need to bring back all the rows, then investigate the ToLookup() method for your linq IQueryable< T >. It's very handy for grouping results in non-standard ways.
Oh, and I highly recommend LINQPad (free) for trying out queries with Linq. It has loads of examples, and it also shows you the sql and lambda forms so you can familiarize yourself with Linq<->lambda form<->Sql.
Well, the answer is always "it depends". Do you want to optimize on the database load or on the application load?
My general answer in this case would be to use as specific queries as possible at the database level, therefore using 6 calls.
Thx
I was kind of thinking "ball park", but it sounds as though its a choice thing...the difference is likely small.
I was thinking that getting all the data and manipulating in .net would be the best - I have nothing concrete to base this on (hence the question), I just tend to feel that calls to the DB are expensive and if I know i need all the data...get it in one hit?!?
Part of the problem is that you have not provided sufficient information to give you a precise answer. Obviously, available resources need to be considered.
If you pull 3000 rows infrequently, it might work for you in the short term. However, if there are say 10,000 people that execute the same query (ignoring cache effects), this could become a problem for both the app and db.
Now in the case of something like pagination, it makes sense to pull in just what you need. But that would be a general rule to try to only pull what is necessary. It's much more elegant to use a scalpel instead of a broadsword. =)
If you are talking about a query that has already been run by SQL (so optimized by SQL Server), working with LINQ or a SqlDataReader might actually have the same performance.
The only difference will be "how hard will it be to maintain your code?"
LINQ doesn't query anything to the database until you ask for the result with ".ToList()" or ".ToArray()" or even ".Count()". LINQ is dynamically building your query so it is exactly the same as having a SqlDataReader but with runtime verification.
Rather than speculating, why don't you try both and measure the results?
It depends
1) if your connector implementation precaches a lot of objects AND you have big rows (for example blobs, contry polygons etc.) you have a problem, you have to download a LOT of data. I've optimalized once a code that had this problem and it was just downloading some megs of garbage all the time via localhost, and my software runs now 10 times faster because i removed the precaching by an option
2) If your rows are small and you have a good chance that you need to read through all the 3000, you're better going on a big resultset
3) If you don't use prepared statements, all queries have to be parsed! Big resultset might be better.
Hope it helped
I always stick to the rule of "bring in what I need" and nothing more...the problem I have here is that I need it all, I just need it displayed separately.
So say...
I have a table with userid and typeid. I want to display all records with a userid, and display on the page in grids say separated by typeid.
At the moment I call sproc that does "select field1, field2 from tab where userid=1",
then on the page set the datasource of a grid to from t in tab where typeid=2 select t;
Rather than calling a different sproc "select field1, field2 from tab where userid=1 and typeid=2" 6 times.
??

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