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  4. Best way to batchprocess a large update

Best way to batchprocess a large update

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  • L Lost User

    Jörgen Andersson wrote:

    The other problem is that the ID sequence is having gaps in it.

    That doesn't change the functionality, and since it should not be visible to the outside world it should not be a problem.

    Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

    J Offline
    J Offline
    Jorgen Andersson
    wrote on last edited by
    #7

    It was important to mention so that I don't get suggestions like WHERE ID BETWEEN @LastID AND @LastID + 5000

    Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

      When you use the TOP clause with the UPDATE statement, there's no guarantee that the rows to update will be picked in any particular order. Using the MAX(id) option, you could end up missing rows. I notice you've replaced the temporary table with a table variable. Was there a reason for that? IIRC, execution plans for table variables tend to assume they contain a very low number of rows, which might explain the poor performance.


      "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jorgen Andersson
      wrote on last edited by
      #8

      Richard Deeming wrote:

      When you use the TOP clause with the UPDATE statement, there's no guarantee that the rows to update will be picked in any particular order. Using the MAX(id) option, you could end up missing rows.

      I know, and you can't add an order by to an UPDATE or INSERT. But you can put the SELECT with TOP and ORDER BY in a CTE.

      Richard Deeming wrote:

      I notice you've replaced the temporary table with a table variable. Was there a reason for that?

      No particular reason. I like to keep the scope as local as possible, so it's mostly a habit.

      Richard Deeming wrote:

      IIRC, execution plans for table variables tend to assume they contain a very low number of rows, which might explain the poor performance.

      Table variables don't have statistics, which obviously could affect the plan, but since all ID's are unique I don't think it would make a big difference in this case But I will test it. <edit>Oh, and table variables can't go parallell, which obviously can affect performance a lot in this case.</edit>

      Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

        When you use the TOP clause with the UPDATE statement, there's no guarantee that the rows to update will be picked in any particular order. Using the MAX(id) option, you could end up missing rows. I notice you've replaced the temporary table with a table variable. Was there a reason for that? IIRC, execution plans for table variables tend to assume they contain a very low number of rows, which might explain the poor performance.


        "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

        J Offline
        J Offline
        Jorgen Andersson
        wrote on last edited by
        #9

        Done some testing now. And as I suspected, there is no difference in either performance or plan as long as the temp table has one column with unique values. Until the query goes parallel that is. Then the difference is quickly getting huge. But as long as I'm batching the query it stays the same until the batch is big enough to go parallel (which happens between 10000 and 20000 rows in this case). But then I will also get a table lock. And oddly enough, it also goes much slower when parallel until reaching 100000 rows per batch. I will do some more testing on this.

        Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • J Jorgen Andersson

          So I need to regularly update a table with data from another table. The problem is that if I update the normal way I get a table lock on the target table for half an hour, which is frowned upon by the users. So I need to run the update in batches. The other problem is that the ID sequence is having gaps in it. Larger gaps than the batch size. At the moment I have this solution:

          DECLARE
          @LastID int = 0,
          @NextID int,
          @RC int = 1;

          WHILE (@RC > 0)
          BEGIN
          SELECT TOP 5000
          @NextID = s.id
          FROM Source s
          WHERE s.id> @LastID
          ORDER BY s.id
          ;
          UPDATE t
          SET ------
          FROM Source s
          JOIN Target t ON t.id = s.id
          WHERE s.id > @LastID
          AND s.id <= @NextID
          ;
          SET @RC = @@ROWCOUNT;
          SET @LastID = @NextID ;
          END

          Which works just fine, but using two selects is getting under my skin. Any better suggestions for how to do it?

          Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

          realJSOPR Offline
          realJSOPR Offline
          realJSOP
          wrote on last edited by
          #10

          Add WITH(NOLOCK) to your selects and joins:

          DECLARE
          @LastID int = 0,
          @NextID int,
          @RC int = 1;

          WHILE (@RC > 0)
          BEGIN
          SELECT TOP 5000
          @NextID = s.id
          FROM Source s WITH(NOLOCK)
          WHERE s.id> @LastID
          ORDER BY s.id
          ;
          UPDATE t
          SET ------
          FROM Source s
          JOIN Target t WITH(NOLOCK) ON t.id = s.id
          WHERE s.id > @LastID
          AND s.id <= @NextID
          ;
          SET @RC = @@ROWCOUNT;
          SET @LastID = @NextID ;
          END

          ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
          -----
          You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
          -----
          When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

          Richard DeemingR 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • realJSOPR realJSOP

            Add WITH(NOLOCK) to your selects and joins:

            DECLARE
            @LastID int = 0,
            @NextID int,
            @RC int = 1;

            WHILE (@RC > 0)
            BEGIN
            SELECT TOP 5000
            @NextID = s.id
            FROM Source s WITH(NOLOCK)
            WHERE s.id> @LastID
            ORDER BY s.id
            ;
            UPDATE t
            SET ------
            FROM Source s
            JOIN Target t WITH(NOLOCK) ON t.id = s.id
            WHERE s.id > @LastID
            AND s.id <= @NextID
            ;
            SET @RC = @@ROWCOUNT;
            SET @LastID = @NextID ;
            END

            ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
            -----
            You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
            -----
            When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

            Richard DeemingR Offline
            Richard DeemingR Offline
            Richard Deeming
            wrote on last edited by
            #11

            But only if you understand the risks first. :) Using NOLOCK? Here's How You'll Get the Wrong Query Results. - Brent Ozar Unlimited®[^] Bad habits : Putting NOLOCK everywhere - SQL Sentry[^] Also, it won't work on the target table: Avoid using NOLOCK on SQL Server UPDATE and DELETE statements[^]


            "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

            "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined" - Homer

            realJSOPR 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

              But only if you understand the risks first. :) Using NOLOCK? Here's How You'll Get the Wrong Query Results. - Brent Ozar Unlimited®[^] Bad habits : Putting NOLOCK everywhere - SQL Sentry[^] Also, it won't work on the target table: Avoid using NOLOCK on SQL Server UPDATE and DELETE statements[^]


              "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

              realJSOPR Offline
              realJSOPR Offline
              realJSOP
              wrote on last edited by
              #12

              I didn't put nolock on the update statement - I put it on the join. You could just create a job that does the monster update at night.

              ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
              -----
              You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
              -----
              When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

              Richard DeemingR 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • realJSOPR realJSOP

                I didn't put nolock on the update statement - I put it on the join. You could just create a job that does the monster update at night.

                ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                -----
                You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                -----
                When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                Richard DeemingR Offline
                Richard DeemingR Offline
                Richard Deeming
                wrote on last edited by
                #13

                Quote:

                UPDATE t
                ...
                FROM Source s
                JOIN Target t WITH(NOLOCK) ON t.id = s.id
                ...

                That NOLOCK hint is on the target table. It's exactly the same as the first example from the article I linked to:

                Avoid using NOLOCK on SQL Server UPDATE and DELETE statements[^]:

                UPDATE t1
                SET t1.x = something
                FROM dbo.t1 WITH (NOLOCK)
                INNER JOIN ...;


                "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined" - Homer

                realJSOPR 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • J Jorgen Andersson

                  So I need to regularly update a table with data from another table. The problem is that if I update the normal way I get a table lock on the target table for half an hour, which is frowned upon by the users. So I need to run the update in batches. The other problem is that the ID sequence is having gaps in it. Larger gaps than the batch size. At the moment I have this solution:

                  DECLARE
                  @LastID int = 0,
                  @NextID int,
                  @RC int = 1;

                  WHILE (@RC > 0)
                  BEGIN
                  SELECT TOP 5000
                  @NextID = s.id
                  FROM Source s
                  WHERE s.id> @LastID
                  ORDER BY s.id
                  ;
                  UPDATE t
                  SET ------
                  FROM Source s
                  JOIN Target t ON t.id = s.id
                  WHERE s.id > @LastID
                  AND s.id <= @NextID
                  ;
                  SET @RC = @@ROWCOUNT;
                  SET @LastID = @NextID ;
                  END

                  Which works just fine, but using two selects is getting under my skin. Any better suggestions for how to do it?

                  Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                  realJSOPR Offline
                  realJSOPR Offline
                  realJSOP
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #14

                  Have you tried using a MERGE statement?

                  ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                  -----
                  You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                  -----
                  When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                  J 1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

                    Quote:

                    UPDATE t
                    ...
                    FROM Source s
                    JOIN Target t WITH(NOLOCK) ON t.id = s.id
                    ...

                    That NOLOCK hint is on the target table. It's exactly the same as the first example from the article I linked to:

                    Avoid using NOLOCK on SQL Server UPDATE and DELETE statements[^]:

                    UPDATE t1
                    SET t1.x = something
                    FROM dbo.t1 WITH (NOLOCK)
                    INNER JOIN ...;


                    "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                    realJSOPR Offline
                    realJSOPR Offline
                    realJSOP
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #15

                    We use WITH(NOLOCK) prolifically. Of course, we have indexes on all of our tables, and don't generally do massive updates in the middle of the work day. We have no issues.

                    ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                    -----
                    You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                    -----
                    When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                    J 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • realJSOPR realJSOP

                      We use WITH(NOLOCK) prolifically. Of course, we have indexes on all of our tables, and don't generally do massive updates in the middle of the work day. We have no issues.

                      ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                      -----
                      You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                      -----
                      When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      Jorgen Andersson
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #16

                      NOLOCK can cause nonclustered index corruption, and it's also deprecated[^].

                      Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                      realJSOPR 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • realJSOPR realJSOP

                        Have you tried using a MERGE statement?

                        ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                        -----
                        You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                        -----
                        When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

                        J Offline
                        J Offline
                        Jorgen Andersson
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #17

                        Yes. The update in my OP is greatly simplified. The actual update is a merge with more than 4000 rows.

                        Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • J Jorgen Andersson

                          NOLOCK can cause nonclustered index corruption, and it's also deprecated[^].

                          Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

                          realJSOPR Offline
                          realJSOPR Offline
                          realJSOP
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #18

                          That's something for our DBAs to worry about. :)

                          ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                          -----
                          You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                          -----
                          When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013

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