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Options for RESERVING Clause

If one of the keywords SHARED or PROTECTED is omitted, SHARED is assumed.If the whole FOR clause is omitted, FOR SHARED READ is assumed.The names and compatibility of the four access options for reserving tables are not obvious.

Table 1. Compatibility of Access Options for RESERVING

 

SHARED READ

SHARED WRITE

PROTECTED READ

PROTECTED WRITE

SHARED READ

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SHARED WRITE

Yes

Yes

No

No

PROTECTED READ

Yes

No

Yes

No

PROTECTED WRITE

Yes

No

No

No

The combinations of these RESERVING clause flags for concurrent access depend on the isolation levels of the concurrent transactions:

  • SNAPSHOT isolation

    • Concurrent SNAPSHOT transactions with SHARED READ do not affect one other’s access

    • A concurrent mix of SNAPSHOT and READ COMMITTED transactions with SHARED WRITE do not affect one another’s access, but they block transactions with SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY isolation from either reading from or writing to the specified table(s)

    • Concurrent transactions with any isolation level and PROTECTED READ can only read data from the reserved tables.Any attempt to write to them will cause an exception

    • With PROTECTED WRITE, concurrent transactions with SNAPSHOT and READ COMMITTED isolation cannot write to the specified tables.Transactions with SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY isolation cannot read from or write to the reserved tables at all.

  • SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY isolation

    • All concurrent transactions with SHARED READ, regardless of their isolation levels, can read from or write (if in READ WRITE mode) to the reserved tables

    • Concurrent transactions with SNAPSHOT and READ COMMITTED isolation levels and SHARED WRITE can read data from and write (if in READ WRITE mode) to the specified tables but concurrent access to those tables from transactions with SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY is blocked whilst these transactions are active

    • Concurrent transactions with any isolation level and PROTECTED READ can only read from the reserved tables

    • With PROTECTED WRITE, concurrent SNAPSHOT and READ COMMITTED transactions can read from but not write to the reserved tables.Access by transactions with the SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY isolation level is blocked.

  • READ COMMITTED isolation

    • With SHARED READ, all concurrent transactions with any isolation level can both read from and write (if in READ WRITE mode) to the reserved tables

    • SHARED WRITE allows all transactions in SNAPSHOT and READ COMMITTED isolation to read from and write (if in READ WRITE mode) to the specified tables and blocks access from transactions with SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY isolation

    • With PROTECTED READ, concurrent transactions with any isolation level can only read from the reserved tables

    • With PROTECTED WRITE, concurrent transactions in SNAPSHOT and READ COMMITTED isolation can read from but not write to the specified tables.Access from transactions in SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY isolation is blocked.

Note

In Embedded SQL, the USING clause can be used to conserve system resources bylimiting the number of databases a transaction can access.USING is mutually exclusive with RESERVING.A USING clause in SET TRANSACTION syntax is not supported in DSQL.

COMMIT

Commits a transaction

Available in

DSQL, ESQL

Syntax
COMMIT [TRANSACTION tr_name] [WORK]
  [RETAIN [SNAPSHOT] | RELEASE];
Table 1. COMMIT Statement Parameter
Parameter Description

tr_name

Transaction name.Available only in ESQL

The COMMIT statement commits all work carried out in the context of this transaction (inserts, updates, deletes, selects, execution of procedures).New record versions become available to other transactions and, unless the RETAIN clause is employed, all server resources allocated to its work are released.

If any conflicts or other errors occur in the database during the process of committing the transaction, the transaction is not committed, and the reasons are passed back to the user application for handling, and the opportunity to attempt another commit or to roll the transaction back.

The TRANSACTION and RELEASE clauses are only valid in ESQL.

COMMIT Options

  • The optional TRANSACTION tr_name clause, available only in Embedded SQL, specifies the name of the transaction to be committed.With no TRANSACTION clause, COMMIT is applied to the default transaction.

    Note

    In ESQL applications, named transactions make it possible to have several transactions active simultaneously in one application.If named transactions are used, a host-language variable with the same name must be declared and initialized for each named transaction.This is a limitation that prevents dynamic specification of transaction names and thus, rules out transaction naming in DSQL.

  • The keyword RELEASE is available only in Embedded SQL and enables disconnection from all databases after the transaction is committed.RELEASE is retained in Firebird only for compatibility with legacy versions of InterBase.It has been superseded in ESQL by the DISCONNECT statement.

  • The RETAIN [SNAPSHOT] clause is used for the “soft” commit, variously referred to amongst host languages and their practitioners as COMMIT WITH RETAIN, “CommitRetaining”, “warm commit”, et al.The transaction is committed, but some server resources are retained and a new transaction is restarted transparently with the same Transaction ID.The state of row caches and cursors remains as it was before the soft commit.

    For soft-committed transactions whose isolation level is SNAPSHOT or SNAPSHOT TABLE STABILITY, the view of database state does not update to reflect changes by other transactions, and the user of the application instance continues to have the same view as when the original transaction started.Changes made during the life of the retained transaction are visible to that transaction, of course.

Note
Recommendation

Use of the COMMIT statement in preference to ROLLBACK is recommended for ending transactions that only read data from the database, because COMMIT consumes fewer server resources and helps to optimize the performance of subsequent transactions.

ROLLBACK

Rolls back a transaction or to a savepoint

Available in

DSQL, ESQL

Syntax
  ROLLBACK [TRANSACTION tr_name] [WORK]
    [RETAIN [SNAPSHOT] | RELEASE]
| ROLLBACK [WORK] TO [SAVEPOINT] sp_name
Table 1. ROLLBACK Statement Parameters
Parameter Description

tr_name

Transaction name.Available only in ESQL

sp_name

Savepoint name.Available only in DSQL

The ROLLBACK statement rolls back all work carried out in the context of this transaction (inserts, updates, deletes, selects, execution of procedures).ROLLBACK never fails and, thus, never causes exceptions.Unless the RETAIN clause is employed, all server resources allocated to the work of the transaction are released.

The TRANSACTION and RELEASE clauses are only valid in ESQL.The ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT statement is not available in ESQL.