📑 Understanding READ_UNCOMMITTED in SQL Server
READ_UNCOMMITTED is the lowest isolation level in SQL Server. When a query runs with this isolation level:
🟢 Benefits:
- Fastest reading performance
- No locks on data
- Never waits for locks to be released
🔴 Risks:
- Dirty Read: May read uncommitted data
- Non-Repeatable Read: Reading the same record twice might give different results
❓When to use:
- Non-critical reporting
- Displaying approximate stats and metrics
- Where eventual consistency is acceptable
- Reading low-importance data where 100% accuracy isn’t required
❓When NOT to use:
- Financial transactions
- Critical calculations
- Where data consistency is crucial
- Interdependent operations
using(var transaction = connection.BeginTransaction(IsolationLevel.ReadUncommitted))
{
// Read Data
}
