Sie sind auf Seite 1von 3

Using NOLOCK and READPAST table hints in SQL Server

Takeaway: Table locking hints provide developers much tighter control of their transactions.
Look at the benefits and disadvantages of using the NOLOCK and READPAST table hints in SQL
Server.

When data in a database is read or modified, the database engine uses special types of controls,
called locks, to maintain integrity in the database. Locks basically work by making sure database
records involved in a transaction cannot be modified by other transactions until the first
transaction has committed, ensuring database consistency.

When designing database applications, you should keep in mind the different types of locks that
will be issued, and the different levels of isolation your transactions will occur. Typically, the SQL
Server defaults work fine for what you are trying to accomplish. However, there will be times
when it is advantageous to manually make hints to how locks are issued on your tables in your
SQL statements.

This article focuses on two table hints: NOLOCK and READPAST. I'll set up a table to use for our
example queries. Execute the script in Listing A (At the last of the doc) to create the
SalesHistory table and populate the table with data.

NOLOCK

This table hint, also known as READUNCOMMITTED, is applicable to SELECT statements only.
NOLOCK indicates that no shared locks are issued against the table that would prohibit other
transactions from modifying the data in the table.

The benefit of the statement is that it allows you to keep the database engine from issuing locks
against the tables in your queries; this increases concurrency and performance because the
database engine does not have to maintain the shared locks involved. The downside is that,
because the statement does not issue any locks against the tables being read, some "dirty,"
uncommitted data could potentially be read. A "dirty" read is one in which the data being read is
involved in a transaction from another connection. If that transaction rolls back its work, the data
read from the connection using NOLOCK will have read uncommitted data. This type of read
makes processing inconsistent and can lead to problems. The trick is being able to know when
you should use NOLOCK.

As a side note, NOLOCK queries also run the risk of reading "phantom" data, or data rows that
are available in one database transaction read but can be rolled back in another. (I will take a
closer look at this side effect in part two of this article series.)

The following example shows how NOLOCK works and how dirty reads can occur. In the script
below, I begin a transaction and insert a record in the SalesHistory table.

BEGIN TRANSACTION
INSERT INTO SalesHistory
(Product, SaleDate, SalePrice)
VALUES
('PoolTable', GETDATE(), 500)

The transaction is still open, which means that the record that was inserted into the table still has
locks issued against it. In a new query window, run the following script, which uses the NOLOCK
table hint in returning the number of records in the SalesHistory table.
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM SalesHistory WITH(NOLOCK)

The number of records returned is 301. Since the transaction that entered the record into the
SalesHistory table has not been committed, I can undo it. I'll roll back the transaction by issuing
the following statement:

ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

This statement removes the record from the SalesHistory table that I previously inserted. Now I
run the same SELECT statement that I ran earlier:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM SalesHistory WITH(NOLOCK)

This time the record count returned is 300. My first query read a record that was not yet
committed -- this is a dirty read.

READPAST

This is a much less commonly used table hint than NOLOCK. This hint specifies that the
database engine not consider any locked rows or data pages when returning results.

The advantage of this table hint is that, like NOLOCK, blocking does not occur when issuing
queries. In addition, dirty reads are not present in READPAST because the hint will not return
locked records. The downside of the statement is that, because records are not returned that are
locked, it is very difficult to determine if your result set, or modification statement, includes all of
the necessary rows. You may need to include some logic in your application to ensure that all of
the necessary rows are eventually included.

The READPAST table hint example is very similar to the NOLOCK table hint example. I'll begin a
transaction and update one record in the SalesHistory table.

BEGIN TRANSACTION
UPDATE TOP(1) SalesHistory
SET SalePrice = SalePrice + 1

Because I do not commit or roll back the transaction, the locks that were placed on the record
that I updated are still in effect. In a new query editor window, run the following script, which uses
READPAST on the SalesHistory table to count the number of records in the table.

SELECT COUNT(*)

FROM SalesHistory WITH(READPAST)

My SalesHistory table originally had 300 records in it. The UPDATE statement is currently locking
one record in the table. The script above that uses READPAST returns 299 records, which means
that because the record I am updating is locked, it is ignored by the READPAST hint.
LISTING A

IF OBJECT_ID('SalesHistory')>0

DROP TABLE SalesHistory;

GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[SalesHistory]

(
[SaleID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
[Product] [char](150) NULL,
[SaleDate] [datetime] NULL,
[SalePrice] [money] NULL
)

GO

DECLARE @i SMALLINT

SET @i = 1

WHILE (@i <=100)

BEGIN
INSERT INTO SalesHistory
(Product, SaleDate, SalePrice)
VALUES
('Computer', DATEADD(mm, @i, '3/11/1919'), DATEPART(ms, GETDATE()) + (@i + 57))

INSERT INTO SalesHistory


(Product, SaleDate, SalePrice)
VALUES
('BigScreen', DATEADD(mm, @i, '3/11/1927'), DATEPART(ms, GETDATE()) + (@i +
13))

INSERT INTO SalesHistory


(Product, SaleDate, SalePrice)
VALUES
('PoolTable', DATEADD(mm, @i, '3/11/1908'), DATEPART(ms, GETDATE()) + (@i +
29))

SET @i = @i + 1

END

GO

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen