MySQL in a Nutshell

Name

SAVEPOINT

Synopsis

SAVEPOINT identifier

Use this statement in conjunction with the ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT statement to identify a point in a transaction to which SQL statements may potentially be undone later. You can use any unreserved word to identify a save point and create several save points during a transaction. If an additional SAVEPOINT statement is issued with the same name, the previous point will be replaced with the new point for the name given.

START TRANSACTION;
LOCK TABLES orders WRITE;
INSERT DATA INFILE '/tmp/customer_info.sql'
  INTO TABLE orders;
SAVEPOINT orders_import;
INSERT DATA INFILE '/tmp/customer_orders.sql'
  INTO TABLE orders;

At this point in this example, the administrator can check the results of the orders imported before committing the transactions. If the administrator decides that the orders imported have problems, but not the client information that was first imported, the following statement could be entered:

ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT orders_import;

If the administrator also decides that the customer information that was imported also has problems, the ROLLBACK statement can be issued to undo the entire transaction.