What is a database transaction?

Question

Can someone provide a straightforward (but not simpler than possible) explanation of a transaction as applied to computing (even if copied from Wikipedia)?

Answer 1

I would suggest that a definition of 'transaction processing' would be more useful, as it covers transactions as a concept in computer science.

From wikipedia:

In computer science, transaction processing is information processing that is divided into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. Each transaction must succeed or fail as a complete unit; it cannot remain in an intermediate state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transaction_processing#Implementations