ASP.Net SQLServer Session State Versus Direct Database Access

On the 开发者_如何学JAVAwebsite I am developing, I have a number of "user preferences" that I keep stored for my returning, registered users (for example, the number of product summaries per page to display). I am curious if there is any performance benefit to storing/retrieving this data in an ASP.Net SQLServer Session State versus retrieving it as-needed directly from my database. Many thanks in advance!

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Its always better to store Data in Session State (performance point of view), as long as the data isn't too Huge. This way, you Production Data Database (where you persist your UserData) Hits would reduced. Just make sure that User Wouln't change his preferences which are cached in session.

Only potential problem with session is that Session is maintained per User. so, if there are too many users on your website, session state grows but since you are using SQL Server as you Session Store, you are good on that. Had you been using InProc SessionMode, your Session would have been in memory (a critical resource on production servers!)

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You are taking the hit going to sql server anyways. So you shouldn't have a noticeable performance impact and also if using sql server for session state - you don't have to worry much about the implementation details - hence could be a 'bit' easier to use. But no - there is no main benefit. one could argue it depends on how you store/lookup your information but for most apps the difference here is absolutely negligible - it's up to you how you want to implement. Now if you ever move away from sql server session state then you have another set of issues to be concerned over (app resets, etc) but thats not in the scope of what you asked : )