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How to access the first column in SQL and why does this code give me error?

Can someone tell my why my expectedNumber reader throws an error
The name reader does not exist in its current context
As far as I can see all this is doing is reading the first row and first column, don't understand why the reader is throwing a tantrum.
It doesn't like the line:
ExpectedNumber = reader.GetInt16(0);
The query is :
SELECT TOP (1) [ExpectedNumber]
FROM [dbo].[MyDatabase]
WHERE id = '{0}'
Code:
try
{
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(string.Format(Query, id), Connection))
{
Connection.Open();
using (SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
// Check is the reader has any rows at all before starting to read.
if (reader.HasRows)
{
int ExpectedNumber = 0;
// Read advances to the next row.
while (reader.Read() == true)
{
// To avoid unexpected bugs access columns by name.
ExpectedNumber = reader.GetInt16(0);
}
Connection.Close();
return ExpectedResult;
}
Assert.Fail("No results returned from expected result query");
return 0;
}
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Connection.Close();
throw;
}

You should escape your query parameters, otherwise your code is vulnerable to SQL injection attacks, also, by using command parameters as in the example below you can make sure you are using the right data type (it seems you are trying to pass an int id as a string).
You are just trying to get one value so you don't need to use a reader and can use ExecuteScalar instead.
Finally, you don't need to handle closing the connection if you enclose it in a using block so you can avoid the try catch block as well.
string query = "SELECT TOP (1) [ExpectedNumber] FROM [dbo].[MyDatabase] WHERE id = #id";
using (var connection = new SqlConnection("connStr"))
{
connection.Open();
using (var cmd = new SqlCommand(query, connection))
{
cmd.Parameters.Add("#id", SqlDbType.Int).Value = id;
object result = cmd.ExecuteScalar();
if (result != null && result.GetType() != typeof(DBNull))
{
return (int)result;
}
Assert.Fail("No Results Returned from Expected Result Query");
return 0;
}
}
Note: this code assumes you are using SQL Server, for other systems the format of the parameters in the connection string might change, e.g. for Oracle it should be :id instead of #id.

Cannot Use DbContext.Query inside a transaction

I am using EF6 to query a backend database. User can customize a temporary table and query the data from the temporary table. I am using
DataTable result = context.Query(queryStatement);
to get the result and it has been working fine.
Now the query is needed among a serious of other sqlcommand and a transaction is needed. So I have
public static DataTable GetData()
{
using (MyDbContext context = new MyDbContext())
using (DbContextTransaction tran = context.Database.BeginTransaction())
{
try
{
int rowAffected = context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand(
"UPDATE [MyDb].dbo.[TableLocks] SET RefCount = RefCount + 1 WHERE TableName = 'TESTTABLE1'");
if (rowAffected != 1)
throw new Exception("Cannot find 'TestTable1'");
//The following line will raise an exception
DataTable result = context.Query("SELECT TOP 100 * FROM [MyDb].dbo.[TestTable1]");
//This line will work if I change it to
//context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("SELECT TOP 100 * FROM [MyDb].dbo.[TestTable1]");
//but I don't know how to get the result out of it.
context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand(
"UPDATE [MyDb].dbo.[TableLocks] SET RefCount = RefCount - 1 WHERE TableName = 'TestTable1'");
tran.Commit();
return result;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
tran.Rollback();
throw (ex);
}
}
}
But this throws an exception while executing context.Query
ExecuteReader requires the command to have a transaction when the connection
assigned to the command is in a pending local transaction. The Transaction
property of the command has not been initialized.
And when I read this article: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/ef6/saving/transactions
It says:
Entity Framework does not wrap queries in a transaction.
Is it the reason cause this issue?
How can I use context.Query() inside a transaction?
What else I can use?
I tried all other method, none of them work - because the return datatype cannot be predicted before hand.
I just realized that, the Query method is defined in MyDbContext!
public DataTable Query(string sqlQuery)
{
DbProviderFactory dbFactory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(Database.Connection);
using (var cmd = dbFactory.CreateCommand())
{
cmd.Connection = Database.Connection;
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
cmd.CommandText = sqlQuery;
using (DbDataAdapter adapter = dbFactory.CreateDataAdapter())
{
adapter.SelectCommand = cmd;
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
adapter.Fill(dt);
return dt;
}
}
}

May be you are missing this section -
you are free to execute database operations either directly on the
SqlConnection itself, or on the DbContext. All such operations are
executed within one transaction. You take responsibility for
committing or rolling back the transaction and for calling Dispose()
on it, as well as for closing and disposing the database connection
And then this codebase -
using (var conn = new SqlConnection("..."))
{
conn.Open();
using (var sqlTxn =
conn.BeginTransaction(System.Data.IsolationLevel.Snapshot))
{
try
{
var sqlCommand = new SqlCommand();
sqlCommand.Connection = conn;
sqlCommand.Transaction = sqlTxn;
sqlCommand.CommandText =
#"UPDATE Blogs SET Rating = 5" +
" WHERE Name LIKE '%Entity Framework%'";
sqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery();
using (var context =
new BloggingContext(conn, contextOwnsConnection: false))
{
context.Database.UseTransaction(sqlTxn);
var query = context.Posts.Where(p => p.Blog.Rating >= 5);
foreach (var post in query)
{
post.Title += "[Cool Blog]";
}
context.SaveChanges();
}
sqlTxn.Commit();
}
catch (Exception)
{
sqlTxn.Rollback();
}
}
}
Specially this one -
context.Database.UseTransaction(sqlTxn);

Sorry guys, as mentioned above, I thought the Query method is from EF, but I examined the code and found it is actually coded by another developer, defined in class MyDbContext. Since this class is generated by EF, and I never think somebody have added a method.
It is
public DataTable Query(string sqlQuery)
{
DbProviderFactory dbFactory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory(Database.Connection);
using (var cmd = dbFactory.CreateCommand())
{
cmd.Connection = Database.Connection;
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
cmd.CommandText = sqlQuery;
//And I added this line, then problem solved.
if (Database.CurrentTransaction != null)
cmd.Transaction = Database.CurrentTransaction.UnderlyingTransaction;
using (DbDataAdapter adapter = dbFactory.CreateDataAdapter())
{
adapter.SelectCommand = cmd;
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
adapter.Fill(dt);
return dt;
}
}
}

C# Populate Object

I know people are going to scream that this topic is all over the internet. I know, I've read them. And I still don't understand it. I simply want to populate my object from the results of a stored procedure. Now this stored procedure takes at least 2 parameters - an action and what to find.
#Action
#customername
The #Action simply determine what the stored procedure needs to do and returns the results. So for example if I want to update a customer, I'd call the sp through my object:
public class Customer()
{
//properties
public int UpdateCustomer()
{
using (SQLConnection connection = new SqlConnection(Helper.CnnVal("DataConnection")))
{
SQLCommand = new SqlCommand(Helper.Procedure("Customer"), connection);
command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
SqlParameterCollection parameterCollection = command.Parameters;
parameterCollection.Add("#Action", SqlDbType.NVarChar, -1).Value = "Update"
//complete the rest of it....
}
}
}
This works well. So the problem arises when I simply want to populate the object with the results of the sp. In this case I would pass "Retrieve" as the #Action parameter and this.customer_name as the #customername parameter to the sp.
But how do I put the results from the stored procedure into the object?
I have this...
public void GetCustomer()
{
using (SQLConnection connection = new SqlConnection(Helper.CnnVal("DataConnection")))
{
var retrieval = new DynamicParameters();
retrieval.Add("#Action", "Retrieve");
retrieval.Add("#name", this.customer_Name);
connection.Open():
connection.Execute(Helper.Procedure("Customer"), retrieval, commandType: CommandType.StoredProcedure);
}
}
But I don't think it's working.
Back a long time ago I used to run a "fetch" for PHP when I needed to populate an object. Should I go back to this?

You need to execute a SqlReader on the command, Something like this:
using (var connection = new SqlConnection("Connection"))
using (var command = new SqlCommand("Retrieve", connection))
{
command.CommandType = System.Data.CommandType.StoredProcedure;
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("#Action", "Retrieve");
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("#name", this.customer_Name);
connection.Open();
using (var reader = command.ExecuteReader())
{
while (reader.Read())
{
var item = new YourClass();
// You can use GetX() methods to get the value of the fields
item.Name = reader.GetString("name");
// You can also access the fields by using bracket notation
item.Age = (int)reader["age"];
// Be careful of nullable fields though!
}
}
}

Using #Encrypt0r advice and guidance I got it working:
public void GetCustomer() {
using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(Helper.CnnVal("DataConnection"))) {
SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(Helper.Procedure("Customer"), connection);
command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("#Action", "Retrieve");
command.Parameters.AddWithValue("#name", this.customer_name);
connection.Open();
using (var reader = command.ExecuteReader()) {
while (reader.Read()) {
this.tbl_id = (int)reader["tbl_id"];
this.customer_name = (string)reader["customer_name"];
this.customer_id = reader.GetInt32(customer_id);
this.customer_address = (string)reader["customer_address"];
this.customer_city = (string)reader["customer_city"];
this.customer_state = (string)reader["customer_state"];
this.customer_zip = reader.GetInt32(customer_zip);
}
}

How to copy MySqlDataReader into an array and then loop throught the array?

I am new to C# so yes this should be a faily easy question but I can't seem to find the answer to it.
I have a method that query a database.
What I am trying to do here is handle the loop though the data outside the method.
public MySqlDataReader getDataSet(string query)
{
MySqlDataReader dataset = null;
MySqlConnection conn = new MySqlConnection(conn_string);
if (startConnection(conn) == true)
{
MySqlCommand cmd = new MySqlCommand(query, conn);
dataset = cmd.ExecuteReader();
closeConnection(conn);
}
return dataset;
}
what I could do is write a while loop just before the closeConnection(conn); line and handle the data. But, I don't want to do it inside this method and I want to do it somewhere else in my code.
In one of my forms I want to read the database on the load so here is what I tried to do
public newDepartment()
{
InitializeComponent();
inputDepartmentName.Text = "Hi";
dbConnetion db = new dbConnetion();
MySqlDataReader ds = db.getDataSet("SELECT name FROM test;");
while (ds.Read())
{
//Do Something
}
}
The problem that I am having is that I get an error Invalid attempt to Read when reader is closed
Which I belive I get this issue because I close the connection and then I am trying to read it. so What I need to do is read the data from the query and put it in an array and then loop through the array and deal with the data in a different form.
How can I workaround this issue? if my idea is good then how can I copy the data into an array and how do I loop though the array?
Here is the full class
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using MySql.Data.MySqlClient;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace POS
{
public class dbConnetion
{
//private OdbcConnection conn;
private readonly string mServer;
private readonly string mDatabase;
private readonly string mUid;
private readonly string mPassword;
private readonly string mPort;
private readonly string conn_string;
public dbConnetion()
{
mServer = "localhost";
mDatabase = "pos";
mUid = "root";
mPassword = "";
mPort = "3306";
conn_string = String.Format("server={0};user={1};database={2};port={3};password={4};", mServer, mUid, mDatabase, mPort, mPassword);
}
//Start connection to database
private bool startConnection(MySqlConnection mConnection)
{
try
{
mConnection.Open();
return true;
}
catch (MySqlException ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK);
return false;
}
}
//Close connection
private bool closeConnection(MySqlConnection mConnection)
{
try
{
mConnection.Close();
return true;
}
catch (MySqlException ex)
{
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
return false;
}
}
public MySqlDataReader getDataSet(string query)
{
MySqlDataReader dataset = null;
MySqlConnection conn = new MySqlConnection(conn_string);
if (startConnection(conn) == true)
{
MySqlCommand cmd = new MySqlCommand(query, conn);
dataset = cmd.ExecuteReader();
closeConnection(conn);
}
return dataset;
}
public void processQuery(string strSQL, List<MySqlParameter> pars)
{
MySqlConnection conn = new MySqlConnection(conn_string);
if (startConnection(conn) == true)
{
MySqlCommand cmd = new MySqlCommand(strSQL, conn);
foreach (MySqlParameter param in pars)
{
cmd.Parameters.Add(param);
}
cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
closeConnection(conn);
}
}
}
}

Putting the records into an array would destroy the best feature of a using a datareader: that you only need to allocate memory for one record at a time. Try doing something like this:
public IEnumerable<T> getData<T>(string query, Func<IDataRecord, T> transform)
{
using (var conn = new MySqlConnection(conn_string))
using (var cmd = new MySqlCommand(query, conn))
{
conn.Open();
using (var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
while (rdr.Read())
{
yield return transform(rdr);
}
}
}
}
While I'm here, there's a very serious security flaw with this code and the original. A method like this that only accepts a query string, with no separate mechanism for parameters, forces you to write code that will be horribly horribly vulnerable to sql injection attacks. The processQuery() method already accounts for this, so let's extend getDataset() to avoid that security issue as well:
public IEnumerable<T> getData<T>(string query, List<MySqlParameter> pars, Func<IDataRecord, T> transform)
{
using (var conn = new MySqlConnection(conn_string))
using (var cmd = new MySqlCommand(query, conn))
{
if (pars != null)
{
foreach(MySqlParameter p in pars) cmd.Parameters.Add(p);
}
conn.Open();
using (var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
while (rdr.Read())
{
yield return transform(rdr);
}
}
}
}
Much better. Now we don't have to write code that's just asking to get hacked anymore. Here's how your newDepartment() method will look now:
public newDepartment()
{
InitializeComponent();
inputDepartmentName.Text = "Hi";
dbConnetion db = new dbConnetion();
foreach(string name in db.getDataSet("SELECT name FROM test;", null, r => r["name"].ToString() ))
{
//Do Something
}
}
One thing about this code is that is uses a delegate to have you provide a method to create a strongly-typed object. It does this because of the way the datareaders work: if you don't create a new object at each iteration, you're working on the same object, which can have undesirable results. In this case, I don't know what kind of object you're working with, so I just used a string based on what your SELECT query was doing.
Based on a separate discussion, here's an example of calling this for a more complicated result set:
foreach(var item in db.getDataSet(" long query here ", null, r =>
new columnClass()
{
firstname = r["firstname"].ToString(),
lastname = r["lastname"].ToString(),
//...
}
) )
{
//Do something
}

Since you are new to .Net I thought I point out that there are two layers of database access in ADO.Net. There are the data reader way that you are using and all of that is online only forward reading of queries. This is the lowest level access and will give you the best performance but it is more work. For most connection types you can only execute one command or have one active data reader per connection (And you can't close the connection before you have read the query as you are doing).
The other form is the offline data adapter and requires just a little bit different code, but is generally easier to use.
public DataTable getDataSet(string query)
{
MySqlConnection conn = new MySqlConnection(conn_string);
if (startConnection(conn) == true)
{
MySqlDataAdapter adapter = new MySqlDataAdapter(query, conn);
DataTable table = new DataTable();
adapter.Fill(table);
closeConnection(conn);
return table;
}
return null;
}
This will result in you getting a DataTable with columns and rows corresponding to the result of your query (Also look into command builders if you want to post changes back to the database later on from it, but for that you will need to keep the connection open).
One nice thing with using the data adapter is that it will figure out what the correct data types should be so you don't have to worry about invalid cast exceptions while reading the data from the data reader.
As somebody pointed out though you will need to read all the data into memory which could be a problem if you are dealing with a lot of memory. Also the DataTable class is really slow when you start dealing with a lot of records. Finally DataTable and DataSet classes also generally hook well into UI components in .Net so that their contents can easily be displayed to users.

ADO.NET ExecuteReader Returns No Results

I'm updating some old legacy code and I ran into a problem with the
SqlCommand.ExecuteReader() method. The problem is that it's not returning any
results. However, using SqlDataAdapter.Fill(), I get results back from the
database. What am I doing wrong? How can I get results back using the data
reader?
var connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyConnectionString"].ToString();
using (var sqlConnection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
using (var sqlCommand = new SqlCommand())
{
sqlCommand.Connection = sqlConnection;
sqlCommand.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
sqlCommand.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE ID = 1";
sqlConnection.Open();
// This code works.
//var dataTable = new DataTable();
//using (var sqlDataAdapter = new SqlDataAdapter(sqlCommand))
//{
// sqlDataAdapter.Fill(dataTable);
//}
// This code is not working.
using (var sqlDataReader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader())
{
while (sqlDataReader.Read())
{
// This fails because the data reader has no results.
var id = sqlDataReader.GetInt32(0);
}
}
}
}

Could it be that there is no Int32 in your results ?
var id = sqlDataReader.GetInt32(0); // <-- this might not be an Int32
Either try:
var id = sqlDataReader.GetValue(0);
Or cast to the correct type (BIGINT for example is Int64), not sure without seeing your data.

Try this..
var id = 0;
using (var sqlDataReader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader())
{
while (sqlDataReader.Read())
{
id = sqlDataReader.GetInt32(sqlDataReader.GetOrdinal("ColName"));
}
}
I have moved the variable outside of the reader code or the variable will only be accessible inside that scope. I would avoid specifying the ordinal in the code, in case someone altered the columns in the DB.
Also, specify the columns in the SQL statement... SELECT ColName FROM ... and use params in the query

If you got to that line then it has results
Does not mean the value is not null
And you should not use a SELECT *
If may have a problem with an implicit cast
Try Int32
try
{
if(sqlDataReader.IsDBNull(0))
{
// deal with null
}
else
{
Int32 id = sqlDataReader.GetInt32(0);
}
}
catch (SQLexception Ex)
{
Debug.WriteLine(Ex.message);
}

var connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyConnectionString"].ToString();
using (var sqlConnection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
sqlConnection.Open();
string sql = "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE ID = 1";
using (var sqlCommand = new SqlCommand(sql, sqlConnection))
{
using (var sqlDataReader = sqlCommand.ExecuteReader())
{
while (sqlDataReader.Read())
{
// This fails because the data reader has no results.
var id = sqlDataReader.GetInt32(0);
}
}
}
}