Re: Transaction Questions

Hi Tom!

Thanks for the clarification. Maybe I am trying to use the wrong mechanism
for what I need to do. Let me explain.

Our application will try to insert a record into a table, and if the row
already exists, then that row will be updated instead. The application will
do this for more than one record at a time. Here is some pseudo-code to show
you what I mean:

BEGIN
INSERT
OR UPDATE
INSERT
OR UPDATE
COMMIT

Suppose the second INSERT fails with a duplicate key, we cannot do the
update (or get the previous INSERT) because the ROLLBACK is mandatory.With
our previous database server (Sybase), the rollback is not mandatory but the
choice is left to the application programmer. We have considered using an
existence test before the INSERT but that gives different semantics, as would
some sort of UPSERT (insert/update combo statement)

So,
- Is this mandatory rollback behavior configurable?
- If not, what other programming paradigm is recommended instead?

On Friday 24 February 2006 11:54, Tom Lane wrote:
> Richard Kut <rkut(at)intelerad(dot)com> writes:
> > Thanks for the quick response. However, the ROLLBACK that you see
> > occurred because I ended the transaction using END; and not because I
> > explicitly asked for a ROLLBACK.
>
> That is a ROLLBACK. END means "COMMIT if transaction is OK, else
> ROLLBACK".
>
> regards, tom lane

--
Regards,

Richard Kut
Database Administrator
Research & Development
Intelerad Medical Systems Inc.
460 Ste-Catherine West, Suite 210
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3B 1A7
Tel: 514.931.6222 x7733
Fax: 514.931.4653
rkut(at)intelerad(dot)com
www.intelerad.com

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