---
slug: transactions
title: Redis Transactions
---

This page provides examples on how to create atomic Redis transactions with [ServiceStackRedis Service Stack's C# Redis Client](https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack.Redis)

## How to create custom atomic operations in Redis

One of the main features of Redis is the ability to construct custom atomic operations. This is achieved by utilizing Redis's
[MULTI/EXEC/DISCARD](https://redis.io/commands/multi) operations.

[ServiceStack's C# Redis Client](https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack.Redis) makes it easy to utilize Redis transactions by providing a strongly-typed [IRedisTransaction](./transactions.md)
(for strings) and [IRedisTypedTransaction<T>](./typed-transactions.md) (for POCO types) APIs with convenience methods to allow you to combine any [IRedisClient](./client.md) operation within a single transaction.

Creating a transaction is done by calling `IRedisClient.CreateTransaction()`.
From there you 'Queue' up all operations you want to be a part of the transaction by using one of the `IRedisTransaction.QueueCommand()` overloads. After that you can execute all the operations by calling `IRedisTransaction.Commit()` which will send the 'EXEC' command to the Redis server executing all the Queued commands and processing their callbacks.

If you don't call the `Commit()` before the end of the using block, `Dispose()` method will automatically invokes `Rollback()` that will send the 'DISCARD' command disposing of the current transaction and resetting the Redis client connection back to its previous state.

## Redis Transaction Examples

Below is a simple example showing how to queue up Redis operations with and without a callback.

```csharp
int callbackResult;
using (var trans = redis.CreateTransaction())
{
  trans.QueueCommand(r => r.Increment("key"));  
  trans.QueueCommand(r => r.Increment("key"), i => callbackResult = i);  

  trans.Commit();
}
//The value of "key" is incremented twice. The latest value of which is also stored in 'callbackResult'.

```

## Other common examples
The full-source code and other common examples can be found on the
[common transaction tests page](https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack.Redis/blob/master/tests/ServiceStack.Redis.Tests/RedisTransactionCommonTests.cs).

```csharp
[Test]
public void Can_Set_and_Expire_key_in_atomic_transaction()
{
    var oneSec = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1);

    Assert.That(Redis.GetString("key"), Is.Null);
    using (var trans = Redis.CreateTransaction())                  //Calls 'MULTI'
    {
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.SetString("key", "a"));      //Queues 'SET key a'
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.ExpireKeyIn("key", oneSec)); //Queues 'EXPIRE key 1'

        trans.Commit();                                        //Calls 'EXEC'

    }                                                              //Calls 'DISCARD' if 'EXEC' wasn't called

    Assert.That(Redis.GetString("key"), Is.EqualTo("a"));
    Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2));
    Assert.That(Redis.GetString("key"), Is.Null);
}

[Test]
public void Can_Pop_priority_message_from_SortedSet_and_Add_to_workq_in_atomic_transaction()
{
    var messages = new List<string> { "message4", "message3", "message2" };

    Redis.AddToList("workq", "message1");

    var priority = 1;
    messages.ForEach(x => Redis.AddToSortedSet("prioritymsgs", x, priority++));

    var highestPriorityMessage = Redis.PopFromSortedSetItemWithHighestScore("prioritymsgs");

    using (var trans = Redis.CreateTransaction())
    {
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.RemoveFromSortedSet("prioritymsgs", highestPriorityMessage));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.AddToList("workq", highestPriorityMessage));	

        trans.Commit();											
    }

    Assert.That(Redis.GetAllFromList("workq"), 
        Is.EquivalentTo(new List<string> { "message1", "message2" }));
    Assert.That(Redis.GetAllFromSortedSet("prioritymsgs"), 
        Is.EquivalentTo(new List<string> { "message3", "message4" }));
}
```

## All-in-one example
This and other examples can be found by looking at the
[RedisTransactionTests.cs test suite](https://github.com/ServiceStack/ServiceStack.Redis/blob/master/tests/ServiceStack.Redis.Tests/RedisTransactionTests.cs).

Here is an all-in-one examples combining different Redis operations within a single transaction:

```csharp
[Test]
public void Supports_different_operation_types_in_same_transaction()
{
    var incrementResults = new List<int>();
    var collectionCounts = new List<int>();
    var containsItem = false;

    Assert.That(Redis.GetString(Key), Is.Null);
    using (var trans = Redis.CreateTransaction())
    {
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.Increment(Key), intResult => incrementResults.Add(intResult));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.AddToList(ListKey, "listitem1"));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.AddToList(ListKey, "listitem2"));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.AddToSet(SetKey, "setitem"));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.SetContainsValue(SetKey, "setitem"), b => containsItem = b);
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.AddToSortedSet(SortedSetKey, "sortedsetitem1"));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.AddToSortedSet(SortedSetKey, "sortedsetitem2"));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.AddToSortedSet(SortedSetKey, "sortedsetitem3"));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.GetListCount(ListKey), intResult => collectionCounts.Add(intResult));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.GetSetCount(SetKey), intResult => collectionCounts.Add(intResult));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.GetSortedSetCount(SortedSetKey), intResult => collectionCounts.Add(intResult));
        trans.QueueCommand(r => r.Increment(Key), intResult => incrementResults.Add(intResult));

        trans.Commit();
    }

    Assert.That(containsItem, Is.True);
    Assert.That(Redis.GetString(Key), Is.EqualTo("2"));
    Assert.That(incrementResults, Is.EquivalentTo(new List<int> { 1, 2 }));
    Assert.That(collectionCounts, Is.EquivalentTo(new List<int> { 2, 1, 3 }));
    Assert.That(Redis.GetAllFromList(ListKey), Is.EquivalentTo(new List<string> { "listitem1", "listitem2" }));
    Assert.That(Redis.GetAllFromSet(SetKey), Is.EquivalentTo(new List<string> { "setitem" }));
    Assert.That(Redis.GetAllFromSortedSet(SortedSetKey), Is.EquivalentTo(new List<string> { "sortedsetitem1", "sortedsetitem2", "sortedsetitem3" }));
}
```