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Version: 2.3.0

Isolation levels

In database systems, isolation determines how transaction integrity is visible to other users and systems.

A lower isolation level increases the ability of many users to access the same data at the same time but increases the number of concurrency effects (such as dirty reads or lost updates) users might encounter. Conversely, a higher isolation level reduces the types of concurrency effects that users may encounter but requires more system resources and increases the chances that one transaction will block another.

Isolation is typically defined at the database level as a property that defines how or when the changes made by one operation become visible to others.

Supported isolation levels​

Memgraph currently supports three isolation levels:

  • SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION (default)
  • READ_COMMITTED
  • READ_UNCOMMITTED

Setting the isolation level​

The default isolation level, SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION, can be changed using the config or running a query.

Configuration​

Changing the --isolation-level configuration flag to any of the supported values will change the initial global isolation level for every query being run on that instance.

Query​

The initially set isolation level can be changed during runtime using a query of the following format:

SET <scope> TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL <isolation_level>

<scope> defines the scope to which the isolation level change should apply. It can take any of the following values:

  • GLOBAL - apply the new isolation level globally
  • SESSION - apply the new isolation level only for the current session
  • NEXT - apply the new isolation level only for the next transaction in the current session

<isolation_level defines the isolation level which we want to use. It can take any of the following values:

  • SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION
  • READ_COMMITTED
  • READ_UNCOMMITTED