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ROLLBACK TRANSACTION (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW) Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

This statement rolls back an explicit or implicit transaction to the beginning of the transaction, or to a savepoint inside the transaction. You use ROLLBACK TRANSACTION to erase all data modifications made from the start of the transaction or from a savepoint. ROLLBACK TRANSACTION also frees the resources held by the transaction.

Changes made to local variables or table variables aren't erased by this statement.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

Syntax for SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, SQL database in Microsoft Fabric.

ROLLBACK { TRAN | TRANSACTION }
    [ transaction_name | @tran_name_variable
    | savepoint_name | @savepoint_variable ]
[ ; ]

Syntax for Fabric Data Warehouse, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Parallel Data Warehouse Database.

ROLLBACK { TRAN | TRANSACTION }
[ ; ]

Arguments

transaction_name

Applies to: SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) and later versions, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, SQL database in Microsoft Fabric.

The name assigned to the transaction with BEGIN TRANSACTION. transaction_name must conform to the rules for identifiers, but only the first 32 characters of the transaction name are used. When there are inner transactions, transaction_name must be the name from the outermost BEGIN TRANSACTION statement. transaction_name is always case sensitive, even when the Database Engine instance isn't case sensitive.

@tran_name_variable

Applies to: SQL Server 2008 (10.0.x) and later versions, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, SQL database in Microsoft Fabric.

The name of a user-defined variable containing a valid transaction name. The variable must be declared with a char, varchar, nchar, or nvarchar data type.

savepoint_name

savepoint_name from a SAVE TRANSACTION statement. savepoint_name must conform to the rules for identifiers. Use savepoint_name when a rollback should affect only the part of the transaction after the savepoint.

@savepoint_variable

The name of a user-defined variable containing a valid savepoint name. The variable must be declared with a char, varchar, nchar, or nvarchar data type.

Error handling

A ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement doesn't produce any messages to the user. If warnings are needed in stored procedures or triggers, use the RAISERROR or PRINT statements.

Remarks

ROLLBACK TRANSACTION without a savepoint_name or transaction_name rolls back to the beginning of the transaction. When there are inner transactions, this same statement rolls back all inner transactions to the outermost BEGIN TRANSACTION statement. In both cases, ROLLBACK TRANSACTION decrements the @@TRANCOUNT system function to 0. ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepoint_name doesn't decrement @@TRANCOUNT.

ROLLBACK TRANSACTION can't reference a savepoint_name in distributed transactions started either explicitly with BEGIN DISTRIBUTED TRANSACTION or promoted from a local transaction.

A transaction can't be rolled back after a COMMIT TRANSACTION statement is executed, except when the COMMIT TRANSACTION is associated with an inner transaction that is contained within the transaction being rolled back. In this instance, the inner transaction is rolled back, even if you issued a COMMIT TRANSACTION for it.

Within a transaction, duplicate savepoint names are allowed, but a ROLLBACK TRANSACTION using the duplicate savepoint name rolls back only to the most recent SAVE TRANSACTION using that savepoint name.

Note

The Database Engine doesn't support independently manageable nested transactions. A commit of an inner transaction decrements @@TRANCOUNT but has no other effects. A rollback of an inner transaction always rolls back the outer transaction, unless a savepoint exists and is specified in the ROLLBACK statement.

Interoperability

In stored procedures, a ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement without a savepoint_name or transaction_name rolls back all statements to the outermost BEGIN TRANSACTION. A ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement in a stored procedure that causes @@TRANCOUNT to have a different value at procedure completion than the value at procedure start produces an informational message. This message doesn't affect subsequent processing.

If a ROLLBACK TRANSACTION is issued in a trigger:

  • All data modifications made to that point in the current transaction are rolled back, including any made by the trigger.

  • The trigger continues executing any remaining statements after the ROLLBACK statement. If any of these statements modify data, the modifications aren't rolled back. No nested triggers are fired by the execution of these remaining statements.

  • The statements in the batch after the statement that fired the trigger aren't executed.

@@TRANCOUNT is incremented by one when entering a trigger, even when in autocommit mode. The system treats a trigger as an implied inner transaction.

A ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement in a stored procedure doesn't affect subsequent statements in the batch that called the procedure. Subsequent statements in the batch are executed.

A ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement in a trigger terminates the batch containing the statement that fired the trigger. Subsequent statements in the batch aren't executed.

The effect of a ROLLBACK on cursors is defined by the following rules:

  • With CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT set to ON, ROLLBACK closes but doesn't deallocate all open cursors.

  • With CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT set to OFF, ROLLBACK doesn't affect any open synchronous STATIC or INSENSITIVE cursors or asynchronous STATIC cursors that are fully populated. Open cursors of any other type are closed but not deallocated.

  • An error that terminates a batch and rolls back the transaction deallocates all cursors that were declared in the batch containing the statement producing the error. All cursors are deallocated regardless of their type or the setting of CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT. This includes cursors declared in stored procedures called by the batch producing the error. Cursors declared in a batch before the batch producing the error are subject to the previous two rules.

    A deadlock is an example of this type of error. A ROLLBACK statement issued in a trigger also results in this behavior.

Locking behavior

A ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement specifying a savepoint_name releases any locks that are acquired beyond the savepoint, except for escalated and converted locks. These locks aren't released, and they aren't converted back to their previous lock mode.

Permissions

Requires membership in the public role.

Examples

The following example shows the effect of rolling back a named transaction. After you create a table, the following statements start a named transaction, insert two rows, and then roll back the transaction named in the variable @TransactionName. Another statement outside of the named transaction inserts two rows. The query returns the results of the previous statements.

USE tempdb;
CREATE TABLE ValueTable
(
    value INT
);

DECLARE @TransactionName AS VARCHAR (20) = 'Transaction1';

BEGIN TRANSACTION @TransactionName;

INSERT INTO ValueTable
VALUES (1), (2);

ROLLBACK TRANSACTION @TransactionName;

INSERT INTO ValueTable
VALUES (3), (4);

SELECT [value]
FROM ValueTable;

DROP TABLE ValueTable;

Here's the result set.

value
-----
3
4

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