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SharePoint 2010: Reading List Items of a Large List using Content Iterator

Reading all items from a Large List

In SharePoint 2010, when you execute SPQuery on Large List, you get exception "The attempted operation is prohibited because it exceeds the list view threshold enforced by the administrator". To avoid this exception and read list items by batch we can use Content Iterator.

To use ContentIterator include Microsoft.Office.Server.dll available in 14/ISAPI/ and include namespace Microsoft.Office.Server.Utilities.

Advantages

  • Fetches list items as a batch, load is reduced.
  • If indexed column condition return more value than List View Threshold, it handles by batch. Normal SPQuery fails in this condition.
  • We can stop batch processing any time.

Disadvantage

  • You cannot include Non-Indexed column in SPQuery condition.

 //Run as console application

 

 

My large list contains 74,006 items, as we can see from output, that it reads 74,006 items in batches of 2000 items.

Output

 

Reading items in Large List with SPQuery where condition

Ensure that the following conditions have been met.

  • Only Indexed fields can be used.
  • You should include ContentIterator.ItemEnumerationOrderByNVPField.
  • You cannot combine Non-Indexed column with Indexed column / use them directly.

//Run as Console Application

In SPQuery, if indexed field fetches more than List View Threshold limit, it will fail. The ContentIterator handles it by batch processing.
**Output:

**

 

Only 25157 Items had the digit ‘9’ in the SynchId field.

Note:  Avoid using CAML Builder for querying Large Lists, it might get hanged.

See Also An important place to find a huge amount of SharePoint related articles is the TechNet Wiki itself. The best entry point is SharePoint Resources on the TechNet Wiki