I have a read query that I execute within a transaction so that I can specify the isolation level. Once the query is complete, what should I do?
If you put the SQL into a stored procedure and add this above the query:
set transaction isolation level read uncommitted
then you don't have to jump through any hoops in the C# code. Setting the transaction isolation level in a stored procedure does not cause the setting to apply to all future uses of that connection (which is something you have to worry about with other settings since the connections are pooled). At the end of the stored procedure it just goes back to whatever the connection was initialized with.