Should I commit or rollback a read transaction?

Question

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?

• Commit the tr

Answer 1

Do you need to block others from reading the same data? Why use a transaction?

@Joel - My question would be better phrased as "Why use a transaction on a read query?"

@Stefan - If you are going to use AdHoc SQL and not a stored proc, then just add the WITH (NOLOCK) after the tables in the query. This way you dont incur the overhead (albeit minimal) in the application and the database for a transaction.

SELECT * FROM SomeTable WITH (NOLOCK)

EDIT @ Comment 3: Since you had "sqlserver" in the question tags, I had assumed MSSQLServer was the target product. Now that that point has been clarified, I have edited the tags to remove the specific product reference.

I am still not sure of why you want to make a transaction on a read op in the first place.