import sqlite3 con = sqlite3.connect(":memory:") con.execute("create table person (id integer primary key, firstname varchar unique)") # Successful, con.commit() is called automatically afterwards with con: con.execute("insert into person(firstname) values (?)", ("Joe",)) # con.rollback() is called after the with block finishes with an exception, the # exception is still raised and must be caught try: with con: con.execute("insert into person(firstname) values (?)", ("Joe",)) except sqlite3.IntegrityError: print "couldn't add Joe twice"