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Accessing the Current Transaction

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Applies to: SQL Server

If a transaction is active at the point at which common language runtime (CLR) code running on SQL Server is entered, the transaction is exposed through the System.Transactions.Transaction class. The Transaction.Current property is used to access the current transaction. In most cases it is not necessary to access the transaction explicitly. For database connections, ADO.NET checks Transaction.Current automatically when the Connection.Open method is called, and transparently enlists the connection in that transaction (unless the Enlist keyword is set to false in the connection string).

You might want to use the Transaction object directly in the following scenarios:

  • If you want to enlist a resource that does not do automatic enlistment, or that for some reason was not enlisted during initialization.

  • If you want to explicitly enlist a resource in the transaction.

  • If you want to terminate the external transaction from within your stored procedure or function. In this case, you use TransactionScope. For example, the following code will rollback the current transaction:

    using(TransactionScope transactionScope = new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOptions.Required)) { }

The rest of this topic describes other ways to cancel an external transaction.

Canceling an External Transaction

You can cancel external transactions from a managed procedure or function in the following ways:

  • The managed procedure or function can return a value by using an output parameter. The calling Transact-SQL procedure can check the returned value and, if appropriate, execute ROLLBACK TRANSACTION.

  • The managed procedure or function can throw a custom exception. The calling Transact-SQL procedure can catch the exception thrown by the managed procedure or function in a try/catch block and execute ROLLBACK TRANSACTION.

  • The managed procedure or function can cancel the current transaction by calling the Transaction.Rollback method if a certain condition is met.

When it is called within a managed procedure or function, the Transaction.Rollback method throws an exception with an ambiguous error message and can be wrapped in a try/catch block. The error message is similar to the following:

Msg 3994, Level 16, State 1, Procedure uspRollbackFromProc, Line 0  
Transaction is not allowed to roll back inside a user defined routine, trigger or aggregate because the transaction is not started in that CLR level. Change application logic to enforce strict transaction nesting.

This exception is expected and the try/catch block is necessary for code execution to continue. Without the try/catch block, the exception will be immediately thrown to the calling Transact-SQL procedure and managed code execution will finish. When the managed code finishes execution, another exception is raised:

Msg 3991, Level 16, State 1, Procedure uspRollbackFromProc, Line 1   
The context transaction which was active before entering user defined routine, trigger or aggregate " uspRollbackFromProc " has been ended inside of it, which is not allowed. Change application logic to enforce strict transaction nesting. The statement has been terminated.

This exception is also expected, and for execution to continue, you must have a try/catch block around the Transact-SQL statement that performs the action that fires the trigger. Despite the two exceptions thrown, the transaction is rolled back and the changes are not committed.

Example

The following is an example of a transaction being rolled back from a managed procedure by using the Transaction.Rollback method. Notice the try/catch block around the Transaction.Rollback method in the managed code. The Transact-SQL script creates an assembly and managed stored procedure. Be aware that the EXEC uspRollbackFromProc statement is wrapped in a try/catch block, so that the exception thrown when the managed procedure completes execution is caught.

using System;  
using System.Data;  
using System.Data.SqlClient;  
using System.Data.SqlTypes;  
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;  
using System.Transactions;  
  
public partial class StoredProcedures  
{  
[Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlProcedure]  
public static void uspRollbackFromProc()  
{  
   using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(@"context connection=true"))  
   {  
      // Open the connection.  
      connection.Open();  
  
      bool successCondition = true;  
  
      // Success condition is met.  
      if (successCondition)  
      {  
         SqlContext.Pipe.Send("Success condition met in procedure.");   
         // Perform other actions here.  
      }  
  
      //  Success condition is not met, the transaction will be rolled back.  
      else  
      {  
         SqlContext.Pipe.Send("Success condition not met in managed procedure. Transaction rolling back...");  
         try  
         {  
               // Get the current transaction and roll it back.  
               Transaction trans = Transaction.Current;  
               trans.Rollback();  
         }  
         catch (SqlException ex)  
         {  
            // Catch the expected exception.   
            // This allows the connection to close correctly.                      
         }    
      }  
  
      // Close the connection.  
      connection.Close();  
   }  
}  
};  

Imports System  
Imports System.Data  
Imports System.Data.SqlClient  
Imports System.Data.SqlTypes  
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Server  
Imports System.Transactions  
  
Partial Public Class StoredProcedures  
<Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlProcedure()> _  
Public Shared Sub  uspRollbackFromProc ()  
   Using connection As New SqlConnection("context connection=true")  
  
   ' Open the connection.  
   connection.Open()  
  
   Dim successCondition As Boolean  
   successCondition = False  
  
   ' Success condition is met.  
   If successCondition Then  
  
      SqlContext.Pipe.Send("Success condition met in procedure.")  
  
      ' Success condition is not met, the transaction will be rolled back.  
  
   Else  
      SqlContext.Pipe.Send("Success condition not met in managed procedure. Transaction rolling back...")  
      Try  
         ' Get the current transaction and roll it back.  
         Dim trans As Transaction  
         trans = Transaction.Current  
         trans.Rollback()  
  
      Catch ex As SqlException  
         ' Catch the exception instead of throwing it.    
         ' This allows the connection to close correctly.                      
      End Try  
  
   End If  
  
   ' Close the connection.  
   connection.Close()  
  
End Using  
End Sub  
End Class

Transact-SQL

--Register assembly.  
CREATE ASSEMBLY TestProcs FROM 'C:\Programming\TestProcs.dll'   
Go  
CREATE PROCEDURE uspRollbackFromProc AS EXTERNAL NAME TestProcs.StoredProcedures.uspRollbackFromProc  
Go  
  
-- Execute procedure.  
BEGIN TRY  
BEGIN TRANSACTION   
-- Perform other actions.  
Exec uspRollbackFromProc  
-- Perform other actions.  
PRINT N'Commiting transaction...'  
COMMIT TRANSACTION  
END TRY  
  
BEGIN CATCH  
SELECT ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNum, ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage  
PRINT N'Exception thrown, rolling back transaction.'  
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION  
PRINT N'Transaction rolled back.'   
END CATCH  
Go  
  
-- Clean up.  
DROP Procedure uspRollbackFromProc;  
Go  
DROP ASSEMBLY TestProcs;  
Go

See Also

CLR Integration and Transactions