Avoid lock of tables when inserting into from stored procedure - sql

Question

I want to return an output from a stored procedure by using insert into. For performance reasons, the target table is a memory-optimized table type.
I now figured out that while the stored procedure is running, all in the stored procedure affected rows are kept locked until the stored procedure completes.
Example:
insert into #ModifiedSecurities (SecurityID, AttributeTypeID)
exec Securities.spSecuritiesImportBody
#ProcessingID = #ProcessingID
During execution of Securities.spSecuritiesImportBody (which takes up to 10 minutes), all by spSecuritiesImportBody affected table rows are locked until the stored procedure completes (even the tables have nothing to do with the output of the stored procedure).
While in a single insert statement this behavior might make sense, I don't see any use of it and therefore want to get rid of these locks.
Is there any way to execute the stored procedure without creating these locks?
Here a code sample I made:
Execute the preparation
Run the code
Try to select from dbo.ProcessingsTesting while code is running. It won't be possible as table is locked. The lock is being create during dbo.UpdProcessing. However, for some reason, the lock is not being released.
select *
from dbo.ProcessingsTesting
-- start of preparation
drop procedure dbo.UpdProcessing
drop table dbo.ProcessingsTesting
drop procedure dbo.spSecuritiesImportBody
go
create table dbo.ProcessingsTesting
(
ProcessingID int,
EndDate datetime
)
insert into dbo.ProcessingsTesting
(
ProcessingID
)
select 1 union all
select 2 union all
select 3 union all
select 4 union all
select 5
-- stored procedure
go
create procedure dbo.spSecuritiesImportBody
(
#ProcessingID int
)
as
begin
exec dbo.UpdProcessing
#ProcessingID = #ProcessingID
WAITFOR DELAY '00:03:00'
-- return data
select 1, 2
end
-- stored procedure
go
create procedure dbo.UpdProcessing
(
#ProcessingID int
)
as
begin
update dbo.ProcessingsTesting
set EndDate = null
where ProcessingID = #ProcessingID
end
-- end of preparation
-- run the code
declare #ModifiedSecurities table
(
[SecurityID] [int] NOT NULL,
[AttributeTypeID] [smallint] NOT NULL
)
insert into #ModifiedSecurities (SecurityID, AttributeTypeID)
exec dbo.spSecuritiesImportBody
#ProcessingID = 1

Answer 1

Unless you begin and commit an explicit transaction, locks will be held on the modified rows until the outermost INSERT...EXEC statement completes. You can add an explicit transaction to the dbo.UpdProcessing proc (or surround the EXEC dbo.UpdProcessing with BEGIN TRAN and COMMIT) to release locks on the updated rows before the INSERT...EXEC completes:
ALTER PROCEDURE dbo.UpdProcessing
(
#ProcessingID int
)
AS
BEGIN TRAN;
UPDATE dbo.ProcessingsTesting
SET EndDate = null
WHERE ProcessingID = #ProcessingID
COMMIT;
GO
Although this will provide the desired results, it doesn't make much sense to me that one would update data unrelated to the SELECT results in the same stored procedure. It seems the procs should be called independently since they perform different functions.

Answer 2

On the procedure spSecuritiesImportBody you should change the execute update exec dbo.UpdProcessing
#ProcessingID = #ProcessingID to
Exec dbo.UpdProcessing #ProcessingID because is no sense using like this.
You can not avoid the lock because the MSSQL server use lock on row, table, pages to ensure that you are not changing the data when the server is executing statements regarding that record on database.