Why use the GetOrdinal() Method of the SqlDataReader

Question

What\'s the difference between reading a value from an SqlDataReader using this syntax:

Dim reader As SqlClient.SqlDataReader
reader(\"value\").ToString()
         


        

Answer 1

I think that the reason to use GetOrdinal() is so that you can cache the result and re-use it multiple times for performance.

E.g.

Dim reader As SqlClient.SqlDataReader
int valueOrdinal = reader.GetOrdinal("value");
while ( ... )
{
    var value = reader.GetString(valueOrdinal);
}