BEGIN statement

Each statement within SurrealDB is run within its own transaction by default. The BEGIN statement can be used to modify this behaviour by running a group of statements inside a single transaction, either succeeding as a whole, or failing. Once all of the statements within a transaction succeed, then all of the data modifications can be made permanent by finalizing the transaction with a COMMIT statement at the end. If any statement within a transaction encounters an error or the transaction is manually cancelled (CANCEL), then any data modification made within the transaction is rolled back, and will not become a permanent part of the database.

Statement syntax

SurrealQL Syntax
BEGIN [ TRANSACTION ];

Example usage

The following query shows example usage of this statement.

-- Start a new database transaction. Transactions are a way to ensure multiple operations
-- either all succeed or all fail, maintaining data integrity.
BEGIN TRANSACTION;

-- Create a new account with the ID 'one' and set its initial balance to 135605.16
CREATE account:one SET balance = 135605.16;

-- Create another new account with the ID 'two' and set its initial balance to 91031.31
CREATE account:two SET balance = 91031.31;

-- Update the balance of account 'one' by adding 300.00 to the current balance.
-- This could represent a deposit or other form of credit on the balance property.
UPDATE account:one SET balance += 300.00;

-- Update the balance of account 'two' by subtracting 300.00 from the current balance.
-- This could represent a withdrawal or other form of debit on the balance property.
UPDATE account:two SET balance -= 300.00;

-- Finalize the transaction. This will apply the changes to the database. If there was an error
-- during any of the previous steps within the transaction, all changes would be rolled back and
-- the database would remain in its initial state.
COMMIT TRANSACTION;

Returning early from a transaction

While all transactions require a final COMMIT or CANCEL statement in order to run, an early return can take place via the following:

• An error inside one of the statements inside the transaction,
• A THROW statement to return early with an error,
• A RETURN statement to return early. This is often used to customize the output of a transaction.

An example of the above:

BEGIN;

CREATE account:one SET balance = 135605.16;
CREATE account:two SET balance = 91031.31, wants_to_send_money = true;

IF !account:two.wants_to_send_money {
    THROW "Customer doesn't want to send any money!";
};

LET $first = UPDATE ONLY account:one SET balance += 300.00;
LET $second = UPDATE ONLY account:two SET balance -= 300.00;

RETURN "Money sent! Status:\n" + <string>$first + '\n' + <string>$second;

COMMIT;

Output
'Money sent! Status:
{ balance: 135905.16f, id: account:one }
{ balance: 90731.31f, id: account:two, wants_to_send_money: true }'