Question

How do you set autocommit in an SQL Server session?

Answer 1

You can turn autocommit ON by setting implicit_transactions OFF:

SET IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS OFF

When the setting is ON, it returns to implicit transaction mode. In implicit transaction mode, every change you make starts a transactions which you have to commit manually.

Maybe an example is clearer. This will write a change to the database:

SET IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS ON
UPDATE MyTable SET MyField = 1 WHERE MyId = 1
COMMIT TRANSACTION

This will not write a change to the database:

SET IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS ON
UPDATE MyTable SET MyField = 1 WHERE MyId = 1
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

The following example will update a row, and then complain that there's no transaction to commit:

SET IMPLICIT_TRANSACTIONS OFF
UPDATE MyTable SET MyField = 1 WHERE MyId = 1
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

Like Mitch Wheat said, autocommit is the default for Sql Server 2000 and up.