ASP.NET 4 Unleashed

Executing Asynchronous Database Commands

Normally, when you execute a database command, the thread executing the command must wait until the command finishes before executing any additional code. In other words, normally, when you execute a database command, the thread is blocked.

When you take advantage of asynchronous commands, on the other hand, the database command is executed on another thread so that the current thread can continue performing other work. For example, you can use the current thread to execute yet another database command.

There are two reasons that you might want to use asynchronous database commands when building an ASP.NET page. First, executing multiple database commands simultaneously can significantly improve your ...