How to use transactions with a datacontext

Question

Can I use transactions with a datacontext, so that I can rollback the state of the context after an error? And if so, how does that work?

Answer 1

It's not as simple as the TransactionScope method but, as I understand it, this is the "correct" way to do it for LINQ-to-SQL. It doesn't require any reference to System.Transactions.

dataContext.Connection.Open();
using (dataContext.Transaction = dataContext.Connection.BeginTransaction())
{
    dataContext.SubmitChanges();

    if (allOK)
    {
        dataContext.Transaction.Commit();
    }
    else
    {
        dataContext.Transaction.RollBack();
    }
}

Of course, the RollBack is only required if you intend to do further data operations within the using, otherwise changes will be automatically discarded.