BEGIN

BEGIN starts a transaction block.

Syntax

Supported transaction_mode option values:

Value	Description
ISOLATION LEVEL <level>	Sets the transaction isolation level.
READ ONLY	Limits the transaction to read-only operations.

Details

BEGIN starts a transaction block. All statements in a transaction block will be executed in a single transaction until an explicit COMMIT or ROLLBACK is given.

Transactions in Materialize do not support interleaving arbitrary kinds of statements, but instead are either read only or write only, determined by the first statement after the BEGIN.

Read-only transactions

A read-only transaction starts with a SELECT statement and allows only SELECT statements. Because Materialize does not know which objects (sources, tables, or views) will be queried during the transaction, the objects in the first SELECT and any other object in the same schemas are assumed to be possible query targets. Other queries can only reference these same-schema objects. During the first query, a timestamp is chosen that is valid for all of those objects. This timestamp will be used for all other queries. The transaction will additionally hold back normal compaction of the objects, potentially increasing memory usage for very long running transactions.

A second kind of read-only transaction can contain an initial SUBSCRIBE, which can appear in a transaction block along with DECLARE and FETCH.

Write-only transactions

A write-only transaction starts with an INSERT and allows only INSERT statements. Different statements can not reference different tables. On COMMIT, all statements from the transaction are committed at the same timestamp.

Same timedomain error

A read-only transaction can produce an error with the text:

Transactions can only reference objects in the same timedomain.

The first SELECT in a transaction assumes that any object in that SELECT, any other object in the same schemas, and all pg_catalog objects are assumed to be possible query targets. If an object in the timedomain is a view, it will be replaced with the objects in the view definition. If a later SELECT references another object, the transaction will fail. This can happen if the object is in a schema not referenced by the first SELECT. It can also happen if a new object (table, view, source, or index) was created after the transaction started, even if the new object is in the same schemas as the first SELECT.