Suggest an editImprove this articleRefine the answer for “What does atomicity mean?”. Your changes go to moderation before they’re published.Approval requiredContentWhat you’re changing🇺🇸EN🇺🇦UAPreviewTitle (EN)Short answer (EN)Atomicity is a transaction property meaning: every operation inside it runs as a single whole - either all of them succeed, or none get saved; the result is always binary - success (commit) or cancellation (rollback). **Key point:** if a transaction breaks off halfway through, the system rolls back the steps already taken, so it's impossible to end up with "half a result" or a "dirty" intermediate state.Shown above the full answer for quick recall.Answer (EN)ImageAtomicity is a transaction property meaning that **every operation inside it runs as a single whole**: either **all of them succeed**, or **none of them get saved**. You can never end up with "half a result". ### What this guarantees - **no partial changes**, if a transaction breaks off halfway through, the system rolls back the steps already taken - **no "dirty" state**, the data stays exactly as it was before the transaction started - **the outcome is always binary**: *success (commit)* or *cancellation (rollback)* ### A everyday-level example Imagine transferring money: 1. debit 100₴ from one account 2. credit 100₴ to another account Without atomicity you could end up in an absurd situation, the money got debited but never arrived. With atomicity, both steps run as a single operation: if one fails, the other gets undone too. ### The short definition **Atomicity = "all or nothing" within a single transaction.** This protects the system from partial, unfinished, data-damaging changes.For the reviewerNote to the moderator (optional)Visible only to the moderator. Helps review go faster.