Using SQL Express I am seeing certain insert commands not executing in real time.

Question

Using SQL Express I am seeing certain insert commands not executing in real time.

Bob Fischer 71

They are executed after the main process, which has its own set of select/insert statements, is done and closes its connection. All of the operations work against the same database and tables using the same connection global in VB.NET. No data is lost. The 'cached' commands execute from subroutines of the main process, with their own connection object. Transactions are used but committed and the connection closed after each insert in the subroutine. Does SQL Express not support this simultaneously?

Erland Sommarskog 121.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2021-12-14T22:15:53.797+00:00

I am sorry, but I am not able to understand your question. You first describe how some application behaves, and then all of a sudden there is a question about SQL Express. Can you clarify what you have in mind?
Xingyu Zhao-MSFT 5,381 Reputation points

2021-12-15T05:36:57.68+00:00

Hi @Bob Fischer ,
I have a question to confirm with you.
Did the code fail in SQL Express but can work in SQL Server?
Bob Fischer 71 Reputation points

2021-12-15T12:30:12.85+00:00

The code works in both cases. The only difference is that some of the table inserts are done after the main process completes. The delayed inserts are those called from the main process in a subroutine.
Erland Sommarskog 121.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2021-12-15T22:08:57.97+00:00

We still don't know how you have concluded that "some of the table inserts are done after the main process completes."

With the information you have shared so far, the only reasonable explanation is that the application is behaving differently in the two cases. There is certainly no difference between Express Edition and other editions that can explain this.

However, my experience from having answered questions in forums is that the real answer is often something completely different, and which becomes apparent once we get a more detailed description of the situation.

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Erland Sommarskog 121.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2021-12-14T22:15:53.797+00:00

I am sorry, but I am not able to understand your question. You first describe how some application behaves, and then all of a sudden there is a question about SQL Express. Can you clarify what you have in mind?
Xingyu Zhao-MSFT 5,381 Reputation points

2021-12-15T05:36:57.68+00:00

Hi @Bob Fischer ,
I have a question to confirm with you.
Did the code fail in SQL Express but can work in SQL Server?
Bob Fischer 71 Reputation points

2021-12-15T12:30:12.85+00:00

The code works in both cases. The only difference is that some of the table inserts are done after the main process completes. The delayed inserts are those called from the main process in a subroutine.
Erland Sommarskog 121.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2021-12-15T22:08:57.97+00:00

We still don't know how you have concluded that "some of the table inserts are done after the main process completes."

With the information you have shared so far, the only reasonable explanation is that the application is behaving differently in the two cases. There is certainly no difference between Express Edition and other editions that can explain this.

However, my experience from having answered questions in forums is that the real answer is often something completely different, and which becomes apparent once we get a more detailed description of the situation.

Answer 1

Tom Phillips 17,771

There is no difference in the engine by edition.

Answer 2

Bob Fischer 71

The behavior is being observed in SQL Express and I cannot duplicate this in SQL Server in development mode. The problem is that I do not understand why this delayed execution of certain commands occurs, which I tried to explain as simply as possible. You can ignore my musing about some possible inadequacy in SQLExpress, but it occurred to me that the Express version may have different behaviors.

Erland Sommarskog 121.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2021-12-14T22:28:31.947+00:00

Your description is very vague, but it sounds like you are describing an application behaviour. Do you see this application behaving differently depending on which edition you are connected to? How are you making these observations?
Bob Fischer 71 Reputation points

2021-12-14T22:45:35.777+00:00

I only have two data points: the software performing on different hardware and SQL Express, and the same app performing on my development machine and full SQL Server. There is no rigor to these observations, but given that SQL Express is involved I could accept a performance hit for the misbehaving app. This behavior is not a listed difference in the lists I have read comparing EXPRESS with the standard version. I found no blogs about this elsewhere. It might be an anomaly of this app in this location.

Answer 3

Erland Sommarskog 121.4K MVP Volunteer Moderator

It is still not clear how you make these observations.

It could be that some joker has implemented the application to behave differently depending on the edition of SQL Server. Or the edition has nothing do with it, and the differences you see are due to something else.

Bob Fischer 71 Reputation points

2021-12-14T23:49:10.537+00:00

As the author of the software, I am the joker you blame for the behavior.
Erland Sommarskog 121.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2021-12-15T07:57:17.543+00:00

Well, see what happens when you don't share enough information. How was I to know?

Anyway, I guess in this case you can share the relevant part of the source code, and more clearly explain what you are seeing. Right now, with the amount of information you have shared, it is not possible to answer your question.

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Using SQL Express I am seeing certain insert commands not executing in real time.

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