SQL Server transaction handling

Question

I'm running the following stored procedure and I'm receiving the error

The COMMIT TRANSACTION request has no corresponding BEGIN TRANSACTION.

what am I missing here?

CREATE PROCEDURE spImportData
AS

BEGIN TRANSACTION

BEGIN TRY 
   SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType ON
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
   PRINT 'IDENTITY_INSERT IS ON'
END CATCH
GO

BEGIN TRY
   INSERT INTO PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType(ActionTypeID,ActionType,ActionTypeDescription)
      SELECT ActionTypeID,ActionType,ActionTypeDescription 
      FROM PINCDOCControlOld..tblActionType

   SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType OFF
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
   SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType OFF
   EXECUTE usp_GetErrorInfo
END CATCH

BEGIN TRY
    SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea ON
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    PRINT 'IDENTITY_INSERT IS ON'
END CATCH

GO

BEGIN TRY
    INSERT INTO PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea(AreaID,AreaDescription,AreaNo)
        SELECT AreaNo,AreaDescription,Area 
        FROM PINCDOCControlOld..tblArea

    SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea OFF
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
    SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea OFF
    EXECUTE usp_GetErrorInfo
END CATCH

IF @@ERROR <> 0
BEGIN
    -- Rollback the transaction
    ROLLBACK

    -- Raise an error and return
    RAISERROR ('Error in inserting.', 16, 1)
    RETURN
 END
 COMMIT

Answer 1

I would try to have just a single BEGIN TRY .... END TRY block, in which you have all your logic that you want to execute. If anything goes wrong - anywhere in your logic - you'll be thrown into the BEGIN CATCH.... END CATCH block.

Start your transaction before your BEGIN TRY, and have the only COMMIT as the last statement in your TRY block - and in your CATCH block, have a rollback.

Something like this:

CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.spImportData
AS
    BEGIN TRANSACTION
    BEGIN TRY 
        SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType ON

        INSERT INTO 
            PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType(ActionTypeID, ActionType, ActionTypeDescription)
            SELECT 
               ActionTypeID, ActionType, ActionTypeDescription 
            FROM 
              PINCDOCControlOld..tblActionType

        SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType OFF

        -- tblArea
        SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea ON

        INSERT INTO 
             PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea(AreaID, AreaDescription, AreaNo)
           SELECT 
               AreaNo, AreaDescription, Area 
           FROM 
               PINCDOCControlOld..tblArea

        SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea OFF

        COMMIT TRANSACTION
    END TRY
    BEGIN CATCH
       ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

       SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblActionType OFF
       SET IDENTITY_INSERT PINCDOCControlNew..tblArea OFF

       EXECUTE usp_GetErrorInfo

       RAISERROR ('Error in inserting.', 16, 1)
    END CATCH

With this approach, you have exactly ONE BEGIN TRANSACTION, and either one single corresponding COMMIT TRANSACTION, or a single corresponding ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

I typically also add this SELECT statement to my CATCH block to get the error message and error code of what went wrong:

SELECT 
    ERROR_NUMBER() AS ErrorNumber,
    ERROR_SEVERITY() AS ErrorSeverity,
    ERROR_STATE() AS ErrorState,
    ERROR_PROCEDURE() AS ErrorProcedure,
    ERROR_LINE() AS ErrorLine,
    ERROR_MESSAGE() AS ErrorMessage