The following method is supposed to peroform a dirty read on an open connection. There are no transactions. Where do I set IsolationLevel?
public string DoDirtyRead(string storedProcName, SqlConnection connection)
{
using (SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(storedProcName, connection))
{
command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
// HOW TO SET IsolationLevel to READ_UNCOMMITTED here?
command.ExecuteNonQuery();
}
}
On the BeginTransaction method: (MSDN link)
And if you just want to use hints in your SP at the table level, use WITH(NOLOCK) - but use at your own risk.
If you don't want to do transactions, you can set it once when you open the connection and it will remain at that setting until you change it. So just do:
connection.BeginTransaction(IsolationLevel.ReadUncommitted).Commit();
Probably not the best for your specific case, since you are opening the connection, using it, and throwing it away, but I wanted to put this answer in for anyone with a longer-lived connection.
Given you already have an existing connection (and possibly an existing transaction), I'd use a TransactionScope to control the isolation level of the child. This does a dirty read rowcount (I believe):
using (var command = connection.CreateCommand())
using(new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOption.RequiresNew, new TransactionOptions{IsolationLevel = IsolationLevel.ReadUncommitted}))
{
command.CommandText = string.Format("select count(*) from {0}", tableName);
return (int)command.ExecuteScalar();
}
In your Stored Procedure, for transact-sql use:
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL read uncommitted -- 0
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL read committed -- 1
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL repeatable read -- 2
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL read serializable -- 3
Add another parameter to your stored procedure to indicate the isolation level you want the stored procedure to run with.
IF @isolevel = 0
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL read uncommitted;
ELSE
Also I believe uncommitted needs two "t's" in it.