SQL Timeout Exception Prevention and Tuning Stored Procedures

Prevent Stored Procedure Timeout

Write efficient Stored Procedures

Prevent More Disk Reads

Prevent Dead Locks

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

The following are the collection of my learning as a SQL developer.

Because of large data on the tables, the join operations and other operations will take up lot of time hence causing the application to time out, also reducing the performance.

Parameter Sniffing

In short, parameter sniffing is one exec plan for all parameter combinations. 

- This option causes the compilation process to ignore the value for the specified variable and use the specified value instead.

- Unlike the other workaround (Option(Recompile)), this option avoid the overhead of recompiling the query every time.

This is the most common problem, The workaround is to declare the input params  again with different variable name and use the

 new variable through out the SP.

In the Example @local_SetupId

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[pr_get_user_ids]

(

@in_SetupId  int

)

As

begin

Declare @local_SetupId int =@in_SetupId

Select UserId from UserDetail where SetupId=@local_SetupId

end

Use Local Temp Tables

Store the data from large tables such as Product / Orders/ Hierarchy into Local temp Tables and Use them when joining – This is will Prevent the joining of heavy tables.

This is Subject to temp Db Size. Consider the temp Db size.

Select only the needed columns for your Transaction operation and put it into a local temp  table. Hence on performing joins the tables will be lighter  and preventing the use of excess Resource.

In the Example We have filtered out few columns  from productHierarchy table using setupid in Where  clause and used it to join with Product table.

SELECT * into #TempProductHierarchy FROM

(SELECT ProductHierarchy,ProductHierarchyId,ProductId from ProductHierarchyDetails where SetupId=@local_SetupId ) AS TPH          

SELECT ProductCodeInterface from masters.Product P

inner join #tempProductHierarchy on P.ProductId=#TempProductHierarchy.ProductId

Instead of

SELECT ProductCodeInterface from masters.Product P

inner join masters.ProductHierarchyDetail PHD on P.ProductId=PHD.ProductId

where P.SetupId=@local_SetupId

Use NON Clustered Index

Use Non Clustered Index on temp tables for quicker Execution

Once you have created a temp table, set index on the primary key of the table – on which you will be performing the join operation.

In the example we have read the Product Hierarchy  table into a temp table and we have created a non-clustered  index onto the primary key i.e ProductId

 SELECT * into #TempProductHierarchy FROM

(SELECT ProductHierarchy,ProductHierarchyId,ProductId from ProductHierarchyDetails

where SetupId=@local_SetupId ) AS TPH                     

Create NonClustered Index IDX_TP4 On #TempProductHierarchy(ProductId)

Use With(NOLOCK)

NOLOCK typically (depending on your DB engine) means give me your data, and I don't care what state it is in, and don't bother holding it still while you read from it. It is all at once faster, less resource-intensive

Use NOLOCK on master tables and not everywhere.

Using NoLock may become dangerous sometimes, so check the query exec plan when in doubt.

Select * from  ProductHierarchy  WITH(NOLOCK)

Join On the InputParameter

This will reduce the operation size and the disk read

Join on input parameter instead of filtering in where condition.

As you can see here we have joined on  setupid i.e the input parameter instead of  joining on the setupid of the other table  and then filtering in where condition. 

SELECT * from trans.Promotion P

inner join masters.Product PP with(NOLOCK)   on PP.SetupId=@local_SetupId

inner join masters.Customer CC with(NOLOCK) on CC.SetupId=@local_SetupId

Instead Of

SELECT * from trans.Promotion P

inner join masters.Product PP with(NOLOCK)   on PP.SetupId=P.SetupId

inner join masters.Customer CC with(NOLOCK) on CC.SetupId=P.SetupId

Where PP.SetupId=@local_SetupId

Prevent the use of “Select *”

Causes Indexing issues and Binding issues

Dont use "SELECT *" in a SQL query

Insead use Select ProductId, ProductName from Products

Use EXISTS

To check if any data exists in a particular table, use EXISTS  instead of relying on Count its more effective.

SELECT OrderId,AmendVersion FROM trans.OrdersWHERE EXISTS (SELECT top 1 OrderId FROM trans.OrderExtract WHERE SetupId=1099)

Use Local Temp Tables (#TempTableName)

Prevent using Global hash tables (##)

SELECT * into #TempProduct FROM(SELECT ProductId,LevelId,ProductCodeInterface,Name from Product where SetupId=@local_SetupId and IsActive=1) AS TP                                          

Use Local Variables to Store the FunctionCall return

Prevent calling the string functions or date functions Over and over again, instead store ‘em in local variables  if you are going to reuse the value.

Declare @sampleString varchar(max) = 'nevermind the promotions'

Declare  @sizeOfString int

set @sizeOfString= len(@sampleString)

SELECT @sizeOfString

Use Try - Catch

BEGIN TRY

-- Logic / Query here

END TRY           

            

BEGIN CATCH           

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------           

           

  DECLARE           

      @ErrMsg  VARCHAR(255) -- Error Message           

     ,@ErrNo   INT    -- Error Number           

     ,@ErrSeverity INT    -- Error Severity           

     ,@ErrProc  VARCHAR(255) -- Error Procedure           

     ,@ErrLine  INT    -- Error Line           

               

  SELECT           

      @ErrMsg  = ERROR_MESSAGE()           

     ,@ErrNo   = ERROR_NUMBER()           

     ,@ErrSeverity = 17           

     ,@ErrProc  = ERROR_PROCEDURE()           

     ,@ErrLine  = ERROR_LINE()           

                           

  RAISERROR  (           

      @ErrMsg           

     ,@ErrSeverity           

     ,1           

     ,@ErrNo           

     ,@ErrLine           

     ,@ErrProc           

     )           

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------           

 END CATCH           

END           

           

           

           

     

 Use  SET NOCOUNT ON

Whenever we write any procedure and execute it a message appears in message window that shows number of rows affected with the statement written in the procedure.

When SET NOCOUNT is ON, the count is not returned.

SET NOCOUNT ON

Select PromotionId from Promotion 

Prevent Usage of DDL Statements

Do not try to use DDL statements inside a stored procedure that will reduces the chance to reuse the execution plan.
DDL statements like CREATE,ALTER,DROP,TRUNCATE etc.

Use Alias

If an alias is not present, the engine must resolve which tables own the specified columns. A short alias is parsed more quickly than a long table name or alias. If possible, reduce the alias to a single letter

--Wrong Statement

SELECT PromotionId , P.VersionedPromotionId, Name, PIE.InvestmentTypeId from Promotion P

Inner join PromotionInvestment PIE on PIE.VersionedPromotionId=P.VersionedPromotionId

where P.Name='Blah'

--Correct Statement

SELECT P.PromotionId , P.VersionedPromotionId, P.Name, PIE.InvestmentTypeId from Promotion P

Inner join PromotionInvestment PIE on PIE.VersionedPromotionId=P.VersionedPromotionId

where P.Name='Blah'

Don't use UPDATE instead of CASE

Take this scenario, for instance: You're inserting data into a temp table and need it to display a certain value if another value exists. Maybe you're pulling from the Customer table and you want anyone with more than $100,000 in orders to be labeled as "Preferred." Thus, you insert the data into the table and run an UPDATE statement to set the CustomerRank column to "Preferred" for anyone who has more than $100,000 in orders. The problem is that the UPDATE statement is logged, which means it has to write twice for every single write to the table. The way around this, of course, is to use an inline CASE statement in the SQL query itself. This tests every row for the order amount condition and sets the "Preferred" label before it's written to the table.

Avoid Functions on RHS

Dont use this

select *

from Promotion

where YEAR(StartDate) = 2015

and  MONTH(StartDate) = 6 

Use this

Select *

From Promotion

Where StartDate between '6/1/2015'

    and '6/30/2015'

 Specify optimizer hints in SELECT

most cases the query optimizer will pick the appropriate index for a particular table based on statistics, sometimes it is better to specify the index name in your SELECT query.

Do not use this unless you know what you are doing.

SELECT *

FROM Promotion

WITH ( Index(IdxPromotionId))

WHERE Name = 'blah'

and Setupid=1099 

Hope these tips will help you prevent and solve the timeout exception  you face. If you want to add any please mention in the comments.