Transactions handling

Informix®

With the Informix native mode (non ANSI):

Transactions blocks start with BEGIN WORK and terminate with COMMIT WORK or ROLLBACK WORK.
Statements executed outside a transaction are automatically committed.
DDL statements can be executed (and canceled) in transactions.

UPDATE tab1 SET ...   -- auto-committed
BEGIN WORK            -- start of TX block
UPDATE tab1 SET ...
UPDATE tab2 SET ...
...
COMMIT WORK           -- end of TX block

Informix version 11.50 introduces savepoints:

SAVEPOINT name [UNIQUE]
ROLLBACK [WORK] TO SAVEPOINT [name] ]
RELEASE SAVEPOINT name

SQLite

With SQLite:

Individual SQL statements are auto-committed.
Transactions start with BEGIN TRANSACTION and end with COMMIT TRANSACTION or ROLLBACK TRANSACTION.
DDL statements can be executed (and canceled) in transaction blocks.

SQLite supports savepoints with some differences compared to Informix:

SAVEPOINT can be used instead of BEGIN TRANSACTION. In this case, RELEASE is like a COMMIT.
The syntax of a rollback to the savepoint is ROLLBACK [TRANSACTION] TO [SAVEPOINT] name.
The syntax of a release of the savepoint is RELEASE [SAVEPOINT] name.
Rollback must always specify the savepoint name.
You cannot rollback to a savepoint if cursors are opened.
In SQLite versions prior to 3.7, you cannot rollback are transaction if a cursor is open.

Solution

Regarding transaction control instructions, BDL applications do not have to be modified in order to work with SQLite. The BEGIN WORK, COMMIT WORK and ROLLBACK WORK commands are translated the native commands of SQLite.

Note:

If you want to use savepoints, always specify the savepoint name in ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT and do not open cursors during transactions using savepoints. If you are using an SQLite versions prior to 3.7, it is not possible to perform a ROLLBACK WORK if a cursor (with hold) is currently open.