QUESTION: SQL Server Option and data consistency

davidec

Hello!
This is just a question about theory, I don't have any specific problem (I'm just studying for an exam and I had a doubt, so moderators could even move this question to the certification Forum).

In one of the preparation volumes (sorry if I quote):

... Although the data displayed by Microsoft Dynamics NAV is up-to-date, it is not
necessarily completely consistent. For example, an incomplete transaction might
cause inconsistencies to occur between the debit and credit in an account. ...

This says that if user A runs a report, let's say "Trial Balance", and while this report is still running and reading table G/L Account user B inserts some entries which change some accounts, it might happen that part of the data inserted by user B is read from the report and some not because it was not available when the report was reading the table...

Is this true? The native DB keeps track of database versions, which should avoid these cases, I thought the behaviour had been migrated to SQL Server as well. The solutions suggested after the quotation do not solve the problem in every case and locking tables is not always feasible...

Could anyone throw some light on this matter, please?

Thanks in advance!

kriki

In SQL this is a problem, but in general I have heard very few times this problem.

The only way to 'solve' this is to change the transactiontype in your report to make sure the data it reads has been commited. Of course, this can create some performance impacts.

[Topic moved from 'NAV/Navision' forum to 'SQL General' forum] It is more SQL-related then exams-related.