Name

CommandType

Synopsis

CommandType commandType = Command.CommandType;

Command.CommandType = commandType;

Indicates how the CommandText property should be interpreted, using the values from the System.Data.CommandType enumeration. Table 19-2 lists possible values.

Table 19-2. CommandType values

Value	Description
StoredProcedure	CommandText holds the name of the stored procedure that will be invoked. Input and output parameters for the stored procedure are contained in the Command.Parameters collection.
TableDirect	CommandText holds the name of the table that will be queried. All the columns and rows will be retrieved from this table when the command is executed. You can also use a comma-delimited list of tables that will be automatically joined together.
Text	CommandText holds the full text of the SQL command. The command may be a direct SQL statement, a stored procedure call with inline parameters, or a parameterized query, in which case the Command.Parameters collection holds the input and output parameters.

Example

The following code snippet configures a Command object to call a stored procedure called GetCustomers. The CommandText and Connection properties are set using a Command constructor.

SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("GetCustomers", con);

cmd.CommandText = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

Note

TableDirect isn’t supported by all providers and isn’t suitable for an enterprise-level application because it returns all the information from all the rows of a table. This wastes bandwidth and server time retrieving information that may not be important. A much better approach is to selectively limit the rows you return with a WHERE clause and the columns of information you need. Ideally, database access should be performed through a stored procedure, which can be precompiled and optimized on the database server.