databaseoracletransactionsisolation-leveltransaction-isolation

Non-Repeatable Read vs Phantom Read?


What is the difference between non-repeatable read and phantom read?

I have read the Isolation (database systems) article from Wikipedia, but I have a few doubts. In the below example, what will happen: the non-repeatable read and phantom read?

####Transaction A

SELECT ID, USERNAME, accountno, amount FROM USERS WHERE ID=1

####OUTPUT:

1----MIKE------29019892---------5000

####Transaction B

UPDATE USERS SET amount=amount+5000 where ID=1 AND accountno=29019892;
COMMIT;

####Transaction A

SELECT ID, USERNAME, accountno, amount FROM USERS WHERE ID=1

Another doubt is, in the above example, which isolation level should be used? And why?


Solution

  • From Wikipedia (which has great and detailed examples for this):

    A non-repeatable read occurs, when during the course of a transaction, a row is retrieved twice and the values within the row differ between reads.

    and

    A phantom read occurs when, in the course of a transaction, two identical queries are executed, and the collection of rows returned by the second query is different from the first.

    Simple examples:

    In the above example,which isolation level to be used?

    What isolation level you need depends on your application. There is a high cost to a "better" isolation level (such as reduced concurrency).

    In your example, you won't have a phantom read, because you select only from a single row (identified by primary key). You can have non-repeatable reads, so if that is a problem, you may want to have an isolation level that prevents that. In Oracle, transaction A could also issue a SELECT FOR UPDATE, then transaction B cannot change the row until A is done.