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Atomic Operation
An atomic operation in computing involves executing a sequence of actions as a single, indivisible unit. The system either completes all actions within the operation or rolls back the entire operation, ensuring consistency. Atomic operations are vital in relational databases, distributed systems, and concurrent programming, where multiple processes or threads access shared resources. They prevent data corruption and maintain consistency by ensuring no other operations interfere. This makes atomicity crucial for tasks that must remain intact to protect data integrity. Atomicity is a fundamental aspect of the ACID properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability), which define reliable transaction processing in database management systems.