NAME

       START_TRANSACTION - start a transaction block

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 “autocommit”. 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

       BEGIN(7), COMMIT(7), ROLLBACK(7), SAVEPOINT(7), SET TRANSACTION (SET_TRANSACTION(7))