Question

This is a significant edit from the original question, making it more concise and covering the points raised by existing answers…

Is it possible to have mulitple changes made to multiple tables, inside a single transaction, and rollback only some of the changes?

In the TSQL below, I would NOT want any of the changes made by ‘myLogSP’ to ever be rolled back. But all changes made by the various myBusinessSPs should rollback if necessary.

BEGIN TRANSACTION        EXEC myLogSP      EXEC @err = myBusinessSPa     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN ROLLBACK TRANSACTION RETURN -1 END      EXEC myLogSP      EXEC @err = myBusinessSPb     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN ROLLBACK TRANSACTION RETURN -1 END      EXEC myLogSP      EXEC @err = myBusinessSPc     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN ROLLBACK TRANSACTION RETURN -1 END      EXEC myLogSP  COMMIT TRANSACTION RETURN 0 

The order is important, the myLogSPs must happen between and after the myBusinessSPs (the myLogSPs pick up on the changes made by the myBusinessSPs)

It is also important that all the myBusinessSPs happen inside one transaction to maintain database integrity, and allow all their changes to rollback if necessary.

It’s as if I want the myLogSPs to behave as if they’re not part of the transaction. It is just an inconvenient fact that they happen to be inside one (by virtue of needing to be called between the myBusinessSPs.)

EDIT:

Final answer is ‘no’, the only option is to redesign the code. Either to using table variables for the logging (as variables don’t get rolled back) or redesign the business logic to Not require Transactions…

Answer 1

Use SAVEPOINTs, e.g.

BEGIN TRANSACTION        EXEC myLogSP      SAVE TRANSACTION savepointA     EXEC @err = myBusinessSPa     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN         ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepointA         COMMIT         RETURN -1     END      EXEC myLogSP      SAVE TRANSACTION savepointB     EXEC @err = myBusinessSPb     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN         ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepointB         COMMIT         RETURN -1     END      EXEC myLogSP      SAVE TRANSACTION savepointC     EXEC @err = myBusinessSPc     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN         ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepointC         COMMIT         RETURN -1     END      EXEC myLogSP  COMMIT TRANSACTION 

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EDIT

Based on the information provided so far (and my understanding of it) it appears that you will have to re-engineer you logging SPs, either to use variables, or to use files, or to allow them to run ‘after the fact’ as follows:

BEGIN TRANSACTION        SAVE TRANSACTION savepointA     EXEC @err = myBusinessSPa     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN         ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepointA         EXEC myLogSPA -- the call to myBusinessSPa was attempted/failed         COMMIT         RETURN -1     END      SAVE TRANSACTION savepointB     EXEC @err = myBusinessSPb     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN         ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepointB         EXEC myLogSPA -- the call to myBusinessSPa originally succeeded         EXEC myLogSPB -- the call to myBusinessSPb was attempted/failed         COMMIT         RETURN -1     END      SAVE TRANSACTION savepointC     EXEC @err = myBusinessSPc     IF (@err <> 0) BEGIN         ROLLBACK TRANSACTION savepointC         EXEC myLogSPA -- the call to myBusinessSPa originally succeeded         EXEC myLogSPB -- the call to myBusinessSPb originally succeeded         EXEC myLogSPC -- the call to myBusinessSPc was attempted/failed         COMMIT         RETURN -1     END      EXEC myLogSPA -- the call to myBusinessSPa succeeded     EXEC myLogSPB -- the call to myBusinessSPb succeeded     EXEC myLogSPC -- the call to myBusinessSPc succeeded  COMMIT TRANSACTION