Question

I need to update tens of thousands rows in SQL table row-after-row. How is it possible to speed-up this scenario by some batch update or semething? We use SQL Server 2008.

Edit: I need to update rows (issue SQL) from C# not from the stored procedure because the logic is complicated. I need to, let’s say, “retest” each row individually.

Edit2: We need to “update” whole table (each row). Is it possible to load table by chunks, update them in memory and save back to the database??? How in C#?

Answer 1

Many assumptions here, but what about creating a user defined table type and within your business layer, populate that in-memory table with all the rows that need updated at once and then call a proc that does a proper, set-based update.

CREATE PROC dbo.RBARBane(@tvp dbo.MyUserDefinedTableType)
AS
BEGIN
    UPDATE
        T
    SET
        col1 = TVP.col1
        -- all the columns that need updated
    FROM
        dbo.Table T
        INNER JOIN
            @tvp TVP
            ON TVP.key1 = T.key1
END