START_TRANSACTION (7)

Leading comments

    Title: START TRANSACTION
   Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.79.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
     Date: 2017
   Manual: PostgreSQL 9.6.5 Documentation
   Source: PostgreSQL 9.6.5
 Language: English

NAME

SYNOPSIS

START TRANSACTION [ transaction_mode [, ...] ]

where transaction_mode is one of:

    ISOLATION LEVEL { SERIALIZABLE | REPEATABLE READ | READ COMMITTED | READ UNCOMMITTED }
    READ WRITE | READ ONLY
    [ NOT ] DEFERRABLE

DESCRIPTION

This command begins a new transaction block. If the isolation level, read/write mode, or deferrable mode is specified, the new transaction has those characteristics, as if SET TRANSACTION (SET_TRANSACTION(7)) was executed. This is the same as the BEGIN(7) command.

PARAMETERS

Refer to SET TRANSACTION (SET_TRANSACTION(7)) for information on the meaning of the parameters to this statement.

COMPATIBILITY

In the standard, it is not necessary to issue START TRANSACTION to start a transaction block: any SQL command implicitly begins a block. PostgreSQL's behavior can be seen as implicitly issuing a COMMIT after each command that does not follow START TRANSACTION (or BEGIN), and it is therefore often called lqautocommitrq. Other relational database systems might offer an autocommit feature as a convenience.

The DEFERRABLE transaction_mode is a PostgreSQL language extension.

The SQL standard requires commas between successive transaction_modes, but for historical reasons PostgreSQL allows the commas to be omitted.

See also the compatibility section of SET TRANSACTION (SET_TRANSACTION(7)).

SEE ALSO