SQL Server 2000 (and probably later) other reason for System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A severe error occurred on the current command. (via SQL Server Forums)

While transitioning from SQL Server 2000 to 2008, I recently had the “A severe error occurred on the current command. The results, if any, should be discarded.”  occurring on SQL Server 2000 in the form as shown at the bottom of this message.

Many of the search results point you into the area of atabase corruption, or in using NVARCAR parameters with SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 2005 (the app didn’t use NVARCAR, nor did it use large VARCHAR parameters).

The cool thing on the SQL Server Forums – System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A severe error occurred on the current command post was that it summed up causes, and asked for more:

Posted – 06/17/2004 :  15:05:20

Rashid writes “Hi: Gurus I am getting these errors when I try to execute my application. According to MS knowledge base (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;827366) these errors happen due to following resons

1. You use a SqlClient class in a Finalize method or in a C# destructor.
2. You do not specify an explicit SQLDbType enumeration when you create a SqlParameter object. When you do not specify an explicit SQLDbType, the Microsoft .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server (SqlClient) tries to select the correct SQLDbType based on the data that is passed. SqlClient is not successful.
3. The size of the parameter that you explicitly specify in the .NET Framework code is more than the maximum size that you can use for the data type in Microsoft SQL Server.

None of these are true in my case. Are there any other reasons that can cause these problems..

There is one more: sending huge SQL Statements to your SQL Server is always a bad idea and gives this error too.

I didn’t know the app was doing this, and it was a big tough disecting through the logic of the app.

The app was an import application that usually did small imports. Somehow I thought the import I did was still “small” (a couple of thousand records is small for me), but it broke.

Investigation showed that the app:

1. Didn’t use transactions, but in stead:
2. Collected all imports into 1 big statement with small VARCHAR (yes the DB needs to become Unicode aware) parameters for every record to import
3. Fired that big statement to the database
   (since it was one big statement, the author probably reasoned it would run atomically)

I refactored the app into using a transaction, and rolling back on any exceptions (I got painfully reminded that SQL Server 2000 does not support Snapshot isolation, which is totally painless and optimized in Firebird and InterBase, but non existing in SQL Server 2000 and

Then I split the updates into using one statement per insert.

Now it runs fine under SQL Server 2000, so I hope it will migrate with little pain to SQL Server 2008.

–jeroen

via: SQL Server Forums – System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: A severe error occurred on the current command.

The actual error:

System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException was caught
  Message=A severe error occurred on the current command.  The results, if any, should be discarded.
A severe error occurred on the current command.  The results, if any, should be discarded.
  Source=.Net SqlClient Data Provider
  ErrorCode=-2146232060
  Class=11
  LineNumber=0
  Number=0
  Procedure=""
  Server=SQLSERVER2000
  State=0
  StackTrace:
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning()
       at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBehavior runBehavior, String resetOptionsString)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReaderTds(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, Boolean async)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.RunExecuteReader(CommandBehavior cmdBehavior, RunBehavior runBehavior, Boolean returnStream, String method, DbAsyncResult result)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.InternalExecuteNonQuery(DbAsyncResult result, String methodName, Boolean sendToPipe)
       at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.ExecuteNonQuery()
       at MyApp.Program.executeCommand(SqlCommand command, StringBuilder sql) in C:\Path\MyApp\Program.cs:line 163
  InnerException: