Stored proc running 30% slower through Java versus running directly on database

Question

I\'m using Java 1.6, JTDS 1.2.2 (also just tried 1.2.4 to no avail) and SQL Server 2005 to create a CallableStatement to run a stored procedure (with no parameters). I am seein

Answer 1

Checking: Is your problem that two applications (SSMS, Java) are making the exact same identical call to SQL Server, and SQL Server is acting differently for each? If so, I hit things like this every year or two, and they hurt my brain for days.

Once, I ultimately isolated each process call and logging everything for the entire process in Profiler. I eventually noticed that the Login event (under TextData) showed a host of information, like so:

-- network protocol: TCP/IP
set quoted_identifier on
set arithabort off
set numeric_roundabort off
set ansi_warnings on
set ansi_padding on
set ansi_nulls on
set concat_null_yields_null on
set cursor_close_on_commit off
set implicit_transactions off
set language us_english
set dateformat mdy
set datefirst 7
set transaction isolation level read committed

The "Existing Connection" event will show this information as well--but, sometimes immediately subsequent calls (batches, RPCs, I disremember just now) are sent [ISQL or OSQL did this, I think] to immediately reset some of these -- Arithabort and Quoted_Identifier seem to be favorites, and other SET options also get modified depending on the settings or requirements of whatever connectivity protocols your application's database interface is using.

Another one: some settings are kept as attributes of a procedure at "create" time, and others are factored in at compile time. On the one hand, your connection's SET values may be being overwritten by the configuration saved at the time the procedure was created; on the other hand, your two connections may differ so much that two execution plans are generated for one procedure. (All of this information is, after sufficient research, available in the sys. tables and DMVs.)

In short, it seems to me that SQL obscurities are messing you up. To this day, I loathe all these goombah settings. Things below my notice keep messing around with them [I mean, really, what fool would set implicit_transaction for a connection pool on? But once they did...] and it's hard to build structures when the ground (rules) keep changing out from underneath you. After all, remember what the guy said about building castles in a swamp...