Using Provider Statistics 

With Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0, support for run-time statistics is a new feature of the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server. You must enable statistics by setting the StatisticsEnabled property of the SqlConnection object to True after you have a valid connection object created. After statistics are enabled, you can review them as a "snapshot in time" by retrieving an IDictionary reference via the RetrieveStatistics method of the SqlConnection object. You enumerate through the list as a set of name/value pair dictionary entries. These name/value pairs are unordered. At any time, you can call the ResetStatistics method of the SqlConnection object to reset the counters. If statistic gathering has not been enabled, an exception is not generated. In addition, if RetrieveStatistics is called without StatisticsEnabled having been called first, the values retrieved are the initial values for each entry. If you enable statistics, run your application for a while, and then disable statistics, the values retrieved will reflect the values collected up to the point where statistics were disabled. All statistical values gathered are on a per-connection basis.

Statistical Values Available

Currently there are 18 different items available from the Microsoft SQL Server provider. The number of items available can be accessed via the Count property of the IDictionary interface reference returned by RetrieveStatistics. All of the counters for provider statistics use the common language runtime Int64 type (long in C# and Visual Basic), which is 64 bits wide. The maximum value of the int64 data type, as defined by the int64.MaxValue field, is ((2^63)-1)). When the values for the counters reach this maximum value, they should no longer be considered accurate. This means that int64.MaxValue-1 ((2^63)-2) is effectively the greatest valid value for any statistic.

The following table describes the current statistical values available. Note that the key names for the individual values are not localized across regional versions of the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Retrieving a Value

The following console application shows how to enable statistics on a connection, retrieve four individual statistic values, and write them out to the console window.

Option Strict On

Imports System
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Module Module1

  Sub Main()
    Dim connectionString As String = GetConnectionString()
    
    Using awConnection As New SqlConnection(connectionString)
      ' StatisticsEnabled is False by default.
      ' It must be set to True to start the 
      ' statistic collection process.
      awConnection.StatisticsEnabled = True

      Dim productSQL As String = "SELECT * FROM Production.Product"
      Dim productAdapter As _
          New SqlDataAdapter(productSQL, awConnection)

      Dim awDataSet As New DataSet()

      awConnection.Open()

      productAdapter.Fill(awDataSet, "ProductTable")

      ' Retrieve the current statistics as
      ' a collection of values at this point
      ' and time.
      Dim currentStatistics As IDictionary = _
          awConnection.RetrieveStatistics()

      Console.WriteLine("Total Counters: " & _
          currentStatistics.Count.ToString())
      Console.WriteLine()

      ' Retrieve a few individual values
      ' related to the previous command.
      Dim bytesReceived As Long = _
          CLng(currentStatistics.Item("BytesReceived"))
      Dim bytesSent As Long = _
          CLng(currentStatistics.Item("BytesSent"))
      Dim selectCount As Long = _
          CLng(currentStatistics.Item("SelectCount"))
      Dim selectRows As Long = _
          CLng(currentStatistics.Item("SelectRows"))

      Console.WriteLine("BytesReceived: " & bytesReceived.ToString())
      Console.WriteLine("BytesSent: " & bytesSent.ToString())
      Console.WriteLine("SelectCount: " & selectCount.ToString())
      Console.WriteLine("SelectRows: " & selectRows.ToString())

      Console.WriteLine()
      Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue")
      Console.ReadLine()
    End Using

  End Sub

  Function GetConnectionString() As String
    ' To avoid storing the connection string in your code,
    ' you can retrive it from a configuration file.
    Return "Data Source=localhost;Integrated Security=SSPI;" & _
      "Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks"
  End Function
End Module

[C#]

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

namespace CS_Stats_Console_GetValue
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string connectionString = GetConnectionString();

      using (SqlConnection awConnection = 
        new SqlConnection(connectionString))
      {
        // StatisticsEnabled is False by default.
        // It must be set to True to start the 
        // statistic collection process.
        awConnection.StatisticsEnabled = true;

        string productSQL = "SELECT * FROM Production.Product";
        SqlDataAdapter productAdapter = 
          new SqlDataAdapter(productSQL, awConnection);

        DataSet awDataSet = new DataSet();

        awConnection.Open();

        productAdapter.Fill(awDataSet, "ProductTable");
        // Retrieve the current statistics as
        // a collection of values at this point
        // and time.
        IDictionary currentStatistics =
          awConnection.RetrieveStatistics();

        Console.WriteLine("Total Counters: " +
          currentStatistics.Count.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine();

        // Retrieve a few individual values
        // related to the previous command.
        long bytesReceived =
            (long) currentStatistics["BytesReceived"];
        long bytesSent =
            (long) currentStatistics["BytesSent"];
        long selectCount =
            (long) currentStatistics["SelectCount"];
        long selectRows =
            (long) currentStatistics["SelectRows"];

        Console.WriteLine("BytesReceived: " +
            bytesReceived.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine("BytesSent: " +
            bytesSent.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine("SelectCount: " +
            selectCount.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine("SelectRows: " +
            selectRows.ToString());

        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue");
        Console.ReadLine();
      }

    }
    private static string GetConnectionString()
    {
      // To avoid storing the connection string in your code,
      // you can retrive it from a configuration file.
      return "Data Source=localhost;Integrated Security=SSPI;" + 
        "Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks";
    }
  }
}

Retrieving All Values

The following console application shows how to enable statistics on a connection, retrieve all available statistic values using the enumerator, and write them to the console window.

Option Strict On

Imports System
Imports System.Collections
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.SqlClient

Module Module1
  Sub Main()
    Dim connectionString As String = GetConnectionString()

    Using awConnection As New SqlConnection(connectionString)
      ' StatisticsEnabled is False by default.
      ' It must be set to True to start the 
      ' statistic collection process.
      awConnection.StatisticsEnabled = True

      Dim productSQL As String = "SELECT * FROM Production.Product"
      Dim productAdapter As _
          New SqlDataAdapter(productSQL, awConnection)

      Dim awDataSet As New DataSet()

      awConnection.Open()

      productAdapter.Fill(awDataSet, "ProductTable")

      ' Retrieve the current statistics as
      ' a collection of values at this point
      ' and time.
      Dim currentStatistics As IDictionary = _
          awConnection.RetrieveStatistics()


      Console.WriteLine("Total Counters: " & _
          currentStatistics.Count.ToString())
      Console.WriteLine()

      Console.WriteLine("Key Name and Value")

      ' Note the entries are unsorted.
      For Each entry As DictionaryEntry In currentStatistics
        Console.WriteLine(entry.Key.ToString() & _
            ": " & entry.Value.ToString())
      Next

      Console.WriteLine()
      Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue")
      Console.ReadLine()
    End Using

  End Sub

  Function GetConnectionString() As String
    ' To avoid storing the connection string in your code,
    ' you can retrive it from a configuration file.
    Return "Data Source=localhost;Integrated Security=SSPI;" & _
      "Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks"
  End Function
End Module

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;

namespace CS_Stats_Console_GetAll
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string connectionString = GetConnectionString();

      using (SqlConnection awConnection = 
        new SqlConnection(connectionString))
      {
        // StatisticsEnabled is False by default.
        // It must be set to True to start the 
        // statistic collection process.
        awConnection.StatisticsEnabled = true;

        string productSQL = "SELECT * FROM Production.Product";
        SqlDataAdapter productAdapter =
            new SqlDataAdapter(productSQL, awConnection);

        DataSet awDataSet = new DataSet();

        awConnection.Open();

        productAdapter.Fill(awDataSet, "ProductTable");

        // Retrieve the current statistics as
        // a collection of values at this point
        // and time.
        IDictionary currentStatistics =
            awConnection.RetrieveStatistics();

        Console.WriteLine("Total Counters: " +
            currentStatistics.Count.ToString());
        Console.WriteLine();

        Console.WriteLine("Key Name and Value");

        // Note the entries are unsorted.
        foreach (DictionaryEntry entry in currentStatistics)
        {
          Console.WriteLine(entry.Key.ToString() +
              ": " + entry.Value.ToString());
        }

        Console.WriteLine();
        Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue");
        Console.ReadLine();
      }

    }
    private static string GetConnectionString()
    {
      // To avoid storing the connection string in your code,
      // you can retrive it from a configuration file.
      return "Data Source=localhost;Integrated Security=SSPI;" + 
        "Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks";
    }
  }
}

See Also

Other Resources

Using the .NET Framework Data Provider for SQL Server