How Do I...Use simple transactions in my application?

The easiest way to use transactions in your code is using TransactionScope. TransactionScope is used to transact a block of code. The follow code snippet uses TransactionScope in its simplest way. try { using (TransactionScope ts = new TransactionScope()) { //Do some transactional work //Call complete on the transaction scope ts.Complete() } } catch() { //Handle exception } Try Using scope As TransactionScope = New TransactionScope() 'Do some transactional work 'Call complete on the transaction scope scope.Complete() End Using Catch 'Handle exception End Try

There are a few important things to note about this code:

• The recommended way to use TranasctionScope is with the 'using' statement. Within the using block, all operations with transacted resources will automatically be part of the transaction.
• Calling complete() on the TransactionScope object tells the system the transaction is ready to be committed. Failing to call complete() on the TransactionScope will rollback the transaction.
• The transaction will automatically commit or abort at the end of the using block based on whether complete() was called or not.
• Wrap the entire block of code with a try..catch. Any exceptions thrown within the using block will cause the transaction to rollback. The exception will then get thrown for the application code to deal with.

Here is a full example: