Atomicità

Atomicità refers to a property in computing, particularly in database systems and concurrent programming, that ensures an operation or a series of operations is treated as a single, indivisible unit. This means that either all parts of the operation are completed successfully, or none of them are. If any part of the operation fails, the entire operation is rolled back, leaving the system in its original state, as if the operation never occurred.

This concept is often associated with the acronym ACID, where 'A' stands for Atomicity. Databases rely on atomicity to maintain data integrity. For example, when transferring money between two bank accounts, the debit from one account and the credit to the other must be atomic. If the debit succeeds but the credit fails, atomicity ensures that the debit is also undone, preventing data inconsistencies.

In concurrent programming, atomicity is crucial for preventing race conditions. Operations that are atomic can be executed by multiple threads or processes without interfering with each other. This is often achieved through mechanisms like locks or atomic instructions provided by the hardware. Ensuring atomicity helps in building reliable and predictable software systems, especially in scenarios involving shared resources and parallel execution.