# Using savepoints

The Savepoint interface contains methods to set, release, or roll back a transaction to designated savepoints. Once a savepoint has been set, the transaction can be rolled back to that savepoint without affecting preceding work. Savepoints provide finer-grained control of transactions by marking intermediate points within a transaction.

## Setting and rolling back to a savepoint

The Connection.setSavepoint method sets a savepoint within the current transaction. The Connection.rollback method is overloaded to take a savepoint argument.

The code example below inserts a row into a table, sets the savepoint `svpt1`, and then inserts a second row. When the transaction is later rolled back to `svpt1`, the second insertion is undone, but the first insertion remains intact. In other words, when the transaction is committed, only the row containing '1' will be added to TABLE1.

    conn.setAutoCommit(false); // Autocommit must be off to use savepoints.
    Statement stmt = conn.createStatement();
    int rows = stmt.executeUpdate("INSERT INTO TABLE1 (COL1) VALUES(1)");
    // set savepoint
    Savepoint svpt1 = conn.setSavepoint("S1");
    rows = stmt.executeUpdate("INSERT INTO TABLE1 (COL1) VALUES (2)");
    ...
    conn.rollback(svpt1);
    ...
    conn.commit();

## Releasing a savepoint

The method Connection.releaseSavepoint takes a Savepoint object as a parameter and removes it from the current transaction. Once a savepoint has been released, attempting to reference it in a rollback operation will cause an SQLException to be thrown.

Any savepoints that have been created in a transaction are automatically released and become invalid when the transaction is committed or when the entire transaction is rolled back.

Rolling a transaction back to a savepoint automatically releases and makes invalid any other savepoints created after the savepoint in question.

## Rules for savepoints

The savepoint cannot be set within a batch of statements to enable partial recovery. If a savepoint is set any time before the method executeBatch is called, it is set before any of the statements that have been added to the batch are executed.

A savepoint can be reused after it has been released explicitly (by issuing a release of the savepoint) or implicitly (by issuing a connection commit/rollback to that savepoint or to a savepoint declared earlier than that savepoint).

It is possible to nest savepoints, but only in an embedded environment.

Parent topic: Transactions
Related concepts
Transactions when auto-commit is disabled
Using auto-commit
Explicitly closing Statements, ResultSets, and Connections
Statement versus transaction runtime rollback
Related tasks
Turning off auto-commit