title: SQL Server atomic increment
body: <p>I need to update several rows of one of my tables as an atomic operation.</p>
  
  <p>The update concerns incrementing some values in int columns of certain rows. I need to increment values in several rows as a single action.</p>
  
  <p>What would be the best way to do this?</p>
  
  <p>Answering this question for me comes down to answering the following two:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>If I use LINQ to SQL, how do I achieve the atomicity of the increment
  operation (do I use transaction, or is there a better way)?</li>
  <li>Are stored procedures executed atomically (in case I invoke the procedure on the DB)?</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>I am working in C# with SQL Server.</p>