SET TRANSACTION

The SET TRANSACTION statement can be used to change the current isolation level on a GLOBAL or SESSION basis. This syntax is an alternative to SET transaction_isolation='new-value' and is included for compatibility with both MySQL, and the SQL standards.

Synopsis

SetStmt ::=
    'SET' ( VariableAssignmentList |
    'PASSWORD' ('FOR' Username)? '=' PasswordOpt |
    ( 'GLOBAL'| 'SESSION' )? 'TRANSACTION' TransactionChars |
    'CONFIG' ( Identifier | stringLit) ConfigItemName EqOrAssignmentEq SetExpr )

TransactionChars ::=
    ( 'ISOLATION' 'LEVEL' IsolationLevel | 'READ' 'WRITE' | 'READ' 'ONLY' AsOfClause? )

IsolationLevel ::=
    ( 'REPEATABLE' 'READ' | 'READ' ( 'COMMITTED' | 'UNCOMMITTED' ) | 'SERIALIZABLE' )

AsOfClause ::=
    ( 'AS' 'OF' 'TIMESTAMP' Expression)

Examples

mysql> SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'transaction_isolation';
+-----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name         | Value           |
+-----------------------+-----------------+
| transaction_isolation | REPEATABLE-READ |
+-----------------------+-----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> SET SESSION TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ COMMITTED;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'transaction_isolation';
+-----------------------+----------------+
| Variable_name         | Value          |
+-----------------------+----------------+
| transaction_isolation | READ-COMMITTED |
+-----------------------+----------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

mysql> SET SESSION transaction_isolation = 'REPEATABLE-READ';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'transaction_isolation';
+-----------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name         | Value           |
+-----------------------+-----------------+
| transaction_isolation | REPEATABLE-READ |
+-----------------------+-----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

MySQL compatibility

• TiDB supports the ability to set a transaction as read-only in syntax only.
• The isolation levels READ-UNCOMMITTED and SERIALIZABLE are not supported.
• The REPEATABLE-READ isolation level is achieved through using the snapshot isolation technology, which is partly compatible with MySQL.
• In pessimistic transactions, TiDB supports two isolation levels compatible with MySQL: REPEATABLE-READ and READ-COMMITTED. For a detailed description, see Isolation Levels.

See also

• SET [GLOBAL|SESSION] <variable>
• Isolation Levels