implement updateable recordsets in c#

Question

What would it take to implement an updateable recordset in c#? Think what is available for Sql CE, but implemented for others like Sql Server. Do the recordset classes basically implement 99% of this and would just need some tinkering to get it added, or would this be a big undertaking? Perhaps using some code from Mono and extending it?

Just fyi, one of the early betas of .net 1.1 (if I have my versions correct) actually did implement this, but was later removed due to fear of abuse. Valid concern, but it sure would be handy in certain scenarios.

Answer 1

There is no component available to imitate a scrollable cursor that produces and update over a live connection. And for some very good reasons that are far from being abused. Not least of which is the fact that it's a very poor use of resources on the SQL Server.

Yes, the SqlDataReader does provide a fast-forward and read-only version of a query. Further, the reader only retrieves one row at a time and leaves the connection open the entire time. This allows you to fetch through a very large result set and leave the resources on the SQL Server, and you can do it very quickly.

However, the process of making that a live feed back to the SQL Server can be simulated pretty easily. And to do this I'm going to recommend Dapper , for two reasons:

1. It's performance is unrivaled.
2. It's very light weight and easy to use.

Let's keep it simple first...

First let's start with a very simple example, so let's assume I have a table:

CREATE TABLE Foo (
    ID INT PRIMARY KEY IDENTITY(1, 1),
    Field1 FLOAT,
    Field2 VARCHAR(50)
)

so now let's get some data from Foo , but before we can we need a simple model to put it into:

public class Foo
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public float Field1 { get; set; }
    public string Field2 { get; set; }
}

and now we just need to get some data:

using Dapper;

...

public void ReadFoo()
{
    IDbConnection conn = new SqlConnection("[some connection string]");
    conn.Open();
    var list = conn.Query<Foo>("SELECT * FROM Foo");

    // and now you have a list of Foo objects you can iterate against
}

Now let's update the data yeah?

Alright, so now that we know how to get data using Dapper, let's see how we might simulate a live stream to the database yeah? So first let's build a base class:

public class DapperModelBase
{
    public abstract string PKField { get; }

    protected void OnPropertyValueChanged(string propertyName, object val)
    {
        var sql = string.Format("update {0} set {1} = @value where {2} = @id",
            this.GetType().Name,
            propertyName,
            this.PKField);

        IDbConnection conn = new SqlConnection("[some connection string]");
        conn.Execute(sql, new
            {
                value = val,
                id = this.GetType().GetProperty(this.PKField).GetValue(this, null)
            });
    }
}

so now we need to modify the Foo class just a tidge:

public class Foo
{
    // implement the abstract property
    public string PKField { get { return "ID"; } }
    public int ID { get; set; }

    private float _field1;
    public float Field1
    {
        get { return _field1; }
        set
        {
            _field1 = value;
            OnPropertyValueChanged("Field1", value);
        }
    }

    private string _field2;
    public string Field2
    {
        get { return _field2; }
        set
        {
            _field2 = value;
            OnPropertyValueChanged("Field2", value);
        }
    }
}

so now when we update an editable property while iterating we are sending back commands to make this a live feed:

// and now you have a list of Foo objects you can iterate against
foreach (var foo in list)
{
    ...
    ...
    foo.Field1 = 123f; // sends an update
    ...
    ...
    foo.Field2 = "Hello World!" // sends an update
}

now, let's take this one step further, and let's assume that the result set you're getting back is massive , and when I say that I mean 100's of MB. Well, Dapper can handle that too, simply change the line that gets data from:

var list = conn.Query<Foo>("SELECT * FROM Foo");

to:

var list = conn.Query<Foo>("SELECT * FROM Foo", buffered: false);

but nothing else changes!