SQL Server - transactions roll back on error?

We have client app that is running some SQL on a SQL Server 2005 such as the following:

BEGIN TRAN;
INSERT INTO myTable (myColumns ...) VALUES (myValues ...);
INSERT INTO myTable (myColumns ...) VALUES (myValues ...);
INSERT INTO myTable (myColumns ...) VALUES (myValues ...);
COMMIT TRAN;

It is sent by one long string command.

If one of the inserts fail, or any part of the command fails, does SQL Server roll back the transaction? If it does not rollback, do I have to send a second command to roll it back?

I can give specifics about the api and language I'm using, but I would think SQL Server should respond the same for any language.

Solution 1:

You can put set xact_abort on before your transaction to make sure sql rolls back automatically in case of error.

Solution 2:

You are correct in that the entire transaction will be rolled back. You should issue the command to roll it back.

You can wrap this in a TRY CATCH block as follows

BEGIN TRY
    BEGIN TRANSACTION

        INSERT INTO myTable (myColumns ...) VALUES (myValues ...);
        INSERT INTO myTable (myColumns ...) VALUES (myValues ...);
        INSERT INTO myTable (myColumns ...) VALUES (myValues ...);

    COMMIT TRAN -- Transaction Success!
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0
        ROLLBACK TRAN --RollBack in case of Error

    -- <EDIT>: From SQL2008 on, you must raise error messages as follows:
    DECLARE @ErrorMessage NVARCHAR(4000);  
    DECLARE @ErrorSeverity INT;  
    DECLARE @ErrorState INT;  

    SELECT   
       @ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE(),  
       @ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY(),  
       @ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();  

    RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage, @ErrorSeverity, @ErrorState);  
    -- </EDIT>
END CATCH

Solution 3:

Here the code with getting the error message working with MSSQL Server 2016:

BEGIN TRY
    BEGIN TRANSACTION 
        -- Do your stuff that might fail here
    COMMIT
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    IF @@TRANCOUNT > 0
        ROLLBACK TRAN

        DECLARE @ErrorMessage NVARCHAR(4000) = ERROR_MESSAGE()
        DECLARE @ErrorSeverity INT = ERROR_SEVERITY()
        DECLARE @ErrorState INT = ERROR_STATE()

    -- Use RAISERROR inside the CATCH block to return error  
    -- information about the original error that caused  
    -- execution to jump to the CATCH block.  
    RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage, @ErrorSeverity, @ErrorState);
END CATCH