SqlCommand.ExecuteReader and getting past the first row

Question

I'm fairly new to ASP.NET and as a self-chosen assignment I am to create a simple blog. It's very nearly finished, but I've run into a problem. As you can see from the code I am first using a query to return the amount of blog entries from my SQL server database. A for loop then reads titles, dates and text content from all the rows and creates a html div which it loads them into. Works great except for one thing: ExecuteScalar() only reads the first row, which will return the same value for each iteration causing all the blog entries to be the same.

I need a way for the reader to move on with each iteration. I've considered making a SQLbulkcopy into another table which I can then delete the top row from in the for loop, but this seems like it would slow down the page a fair amount if it's to be done on each Page_Load.

string SQLreadTitle = "Select BLOG.BlogTitle from BLOG order by BlogID DESC";
string SQLreadDate = "Select BLOG.BlogDate from BLOG order by BlogID DESC";
string SQLreadText = "Select BLOG.BlogText from BLOG order by BlogID DESC";
string SQLcountIDs = "Select count(BlogID) from BLOG";

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

    int i;
    SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(cnString);
    con.Open();

    SqlCommand countIDs = new SqlCommand(SQLcountIDs, con);
    int count = Convert.ToInt32(countIDs.ExecuteScalar());



    for (i = 0; i < count; i++)
    {
        SqlCommand readTitle = new SqlCommand(SQLreadTitle, con);
        string titleString = readTitle.ExecuteScalar().ToString();
        SqlCommand readDate = new SqlCommand(SQLreadDate, con);
        string dateString = readDate.ExecuteScalar().ToString();
        SqlCommand readText = new SqlCommand(SQLreadText, con);
        string textString = readText.ExecuteScalar().ToString();



        System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl dynDiv =
        new System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl("DIV");
        dynDiv.ID = "BlogPost";
        dynDiv.InnerHtml = "<div id=\"BlogTitle\">" + 
            titleString + "</div><br /><div id=\"BlogDate\">"
            + dateString + "</div><br /><br /><div id=\"BlogText\">" 
            + textString + "</div>";
        Label1.Controls.Add(dynDiv);


    }
    con.Close();
}

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You are making life far too hard on yourself. You should have a single select statement then read each of the rows that is returned.

    string SQL = "Select BLOG.BlogTitle, BLOG.BlogDate, BLOG.BlogText from BLOG order by BlogID DESC";
    // Positions of the columns you are reading
    const int TITLE_ORDINAL = 0;
    const int DATE_ORDINAL = 1;
    const int TEXT_ORDINAL = 2;

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        using (var con = new SqlConnection(cnString))
        {
            con.Open();
            try
            {
                using (var oCommand = new SqlCommand(SQL, con))
                {
                    using (var oReader = oCommand.ExecuteReader())
                    {
                        while (oReader.Read())
                        {
                            var dynDiv = new System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl("DIV");
                            dynDiv.ID = "BlogPost";
                            dynDiv.InnerHtml = "<div id=\"BlogTitle\">" +
                                oReader.GetString(TITLE_ORDINAL) + "</div><br /><div id=\"BlogDate\">"
                                + oReader.GetString(DATE_ORDINAL) + "</div><br /><br /><div id=\"BlogText\">"
                                + oReader.GetString(TEXT_ORDINAL) + "</div>";
                            Label1.Controls.Add(dynDiv);
                        }
                    }
                }
            } finally {
                con.Close();
            }
        }
    }