Sending several SQL commands in a single transaction

Question

I have a huge list of INSERT INTO ... strings. Currently I run them with:

using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
    connection.Open();
    foreach (var commandString in sqlCommandList)
    {
        SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(commandString, connection);
        command.ExecuteNonQuery();
    }
}

I see that each ExecuteNonQuery() also executes commit.

1. Is there a way to insert all rows in a single transaction (commit in the end)?
2. The reason I want a single transaction is to make my "inserts" process faster. Will a single transaction also make it quicker?

Answer 1

Its recommended to use SQL transaction in case you are executing Multiple queries in one thread , you can have it like this :

    SqlTransaction trans; 

    try
    {
        SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString);
        connection.Open();

        trans = connection.BeginTransaction(); 

        foreach (var commandString in sqlCommandList)
        {
            SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand(commandString, connection,trans);
            command.ExecuteNonQuery();
        }

        trans.Commit(); 
    }
    catch (Exception ex) //error occurred
    {
        trans.Rollback();
        //Handel error
    }

Answer 2

You might probably gain some performance by using just one single transaction and command, as follows:

using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
   try
   {
      connection.Open();

      using (SqlTransaction trans = connection.BeginTransaction())
      {
          using (SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand("", connection,trans))
          {
             command.CommandType = System.Data.CommandType.Text;

             foreach (var commandString in sqlCommandList)
             {
                command.CommandText = commandString;
                command.ExecuteNonQuery();
             }
          }

          trans.Commit();
       }        
    }
    catch (Exception ex) //error occurred
   {
       //Handel error
   }
}