Difference between Parameters.Add(string, object) and Parameters.AddWithValue

Question

I read the MSDN documentation and examples here and I know that the correct syntax for a Paramters.Add call is :

   command.Parameters.Add("@ID", SqlDbType.Int);    command.Parameters["@ID"].Value = customerID;  

Where you have to specify the Parameter Name, the SqlDbType AND the Value with .Value.

Now the correct syntax for a Parameters.AddWithValue call is :

   command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@demographics", demoXml); 

Single line and skip the Type part.

My Question is : How is it that when I do it like this,

   command.Parameters.Add("@demographics", demoXml);    // .Add method with .AddWithValue syntax 

I don't get any compiling error and even weirder, everything seems to work properly when the code is executed ?

Answer 1

There is no difference in terms of functionality. In fact, both do this:

return this.Add(new SqlParameter(parameterName, value)); 

The reason they deprecated the old one in favor of AddWithValue is to add additional clarity, as well as because the second parameter is object, which makes it not immediately obvious to some people which overload of Add was being called, and they resulted in wildly different behavior.

Take a look at this example:

 SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand();  command.Parameters.Add("@name", 0); 

At first glance, it looks like it is calling the Add(string name, object value) overload, but it isn't. It's calling the Add(string name, SqlDbType type) overload! This is because 0 is implicitly convertible to enum types. So these two lines:

 command.Parameters.Add("@name", 0); 

and

 command.Parameters.Add("@name", 1); 

Actually result in two different methods being called. 1 is not convertible to an enum implicitly, so it chooses the object overload. With 0, it chooses the enum overload.