---
title: Transactions
---

import { Alert } from '/components/alert.tsx'

To execute a transaction with node-postgres you simply execute `BEGIN / COMMIT / ROLLBACK` queries yourself through a client. Because node-postgres strives to be low level and un-opinionated, it doesn't provide any higher level abstractions specifically around transactions.

<Alert>
  You <strong>must</strong> use the <em>same</em> client instance for all statements within a transaction. PostgreSQL
  isolates a transaction to individual clients. This means if you initialize or use transactions with the{' '}
  <span className="code">pool.query</span> method you <strong>will</strong> have problems. Do not use transactions with
  the <span className="code">pool.query</span> method.
</Alert>

## Examples

### async/await

Things are considerably more straightforward if you're using async/await:

```js
const { Pool } = require('pg')
const pool = new Pool()

// note: we don't try/catch this because if connecting throws an exception
// we don't need to dispose of the client (it will be undefined)
const client = await pool.connect()

try {
  await client.query('BEGIN')
  const queryText = 'INSERT INTO users(name) VALUES($1) RETURNING id'
  const res = await client.query(queryText, ['brianc'])

  const insertPhotoText = 'INSERT INTO photos(user_id, photo_url) VALUES ($1, $2)'
  const insertPhotoValues = [res.rows[0].id, 's3.bucket.foo']
  await client.query(insertPhotoText, insertPhotoValues)
  await client.query('COMMIT')
} catch (e) {
  await client.query('ROLLBACK')
  throw e
} finally {
  client.release()
}
```

### callbacks

node-postgres is a very old library, and still has an optional callback API. Here's an example of doing the same code above, but with callbacks:

```js
const { Pool } = require('pg')
const pool = new Pool()

pool.connect((err, client, done) => {
  const shouldAbort = (err) => {
    if (err) {
      console.error('Error in transaction', err.stack)
      client.query('ROLLBACK', (err) => {
        if (err) {
          console.error('Error rolling back client', err.stack)
        }
        // release the client back to the pool
        done()
      })
    }
    return !!err
  }

  client.query('BEGIN', (err) => {
    if (shouldAbort(err)) return
    const queryText = 'INSERT INTO users(name) VALUES($1) RETURNING id'
    client.query(queryText, ['brianc'], (err, res) => {
      if (shouldAbort(err)) return

      const insertPhotoText = 'INSERT INTO photos(user_id, photo_url) VALUES ($1, $2)'
      const insertPhotoValues = [res.rows[0].id, 's3.bucket.foo']
      client.query(insertPhotoText, insertPhotoValues, (err, res) => {
        if (shouldAbort(err)) return

        client.query('COMMIT', (err) => {
          if (err) {
            console.error('Error committing transaction', err.stack)
          }
          done()
        })
      })
    })
  })
})
```

..thank goodness for `async/await` yeah?