SQL Server Interview Question #144

What is ROLLBACK?

Transactions, Locking, Blocking & Deadlocks Senior Advanced

Detailed Explanation

ROLLBACK reverses changes made by an active transaction back to its beginning or to a specified savepoint, depending on the syntax and transaction state.

It is commonly used in error handling so a partially completed business operation does not leave inconsistent data.

Code Example

BEGIN TRANSACTION;

DELETE FROM dbo.OrderItems
WHERE OrderId = 100;

-- A validation fails:
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;