How to start and end transaction in mysqli?

Question

As far as I understood transaction starts once we call $mysqli->autocommit(FALSE); statement and ends after calling $mysqli->commit(); command like in the example below.

<?php
//Start transaction 
$mysqli->autocommit(FALSE);
$mysqli->query('UPDATE `table` SET `col`=2');
$mysqli->query('UPDATE `table1` SET `col1`=3;');
$mysqli->commit();
//End transaction

//Executing other queries without transaction control
$mysqli->query("Select * from table1");
$mysqli->query("Update table1 set col1=2");
//End of executing other queries without transaction control

//Start transaction 
$mysqli->autocommit(FALSE);
$mysqli->query('UPDATE `table` SET `col`=2');
$mysqli->query('UPDATE `table1` SET `col1`=3;');
$mysqli->commit();
//End transaction
?>

Have I understood correctly? If not could you please correct me, because it is actually my first time using transactions in real life.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Update Novembre 2020: @Dharman gave a better answer with more details about transactions in mysqli, just check it instead: https://stackoverflow.com/a/63764001/569101 👇

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Well according to the php doc, you're right.

<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "my_user", "my_password", "world");

/* check connection */
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
    printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
    exit();
}

$mysqli->query("CREATE TABLE Language LIKE CountryLanguage");

/* set autocommit to off */
$mysqli->autocommit(FALSE);

/* Insert some values */
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO Language VALUES ('DEU', 'Bavarian', 'F', 11.2)");
$mysqli->query("INSERT INTO Language VALUES ('DEU', 'Swabian', 'F', 9.4)");

/* commit transaction */
$mysqli->commit();

/* drop table */
$mysqli->query("DROP TABLE Language");

/* close connection */
$mysqli->close();
?>

In the example above:

• the CREATE TABLE is auto committed because it's the default behaviour.
• the INSERT INTO aren't auto committed because of the autocommit(FALSE).
• the DROP TABLE is auto committed because the autocommit(FALSE) was reset by the ->commit();.