START_TRANSACTION(7pg16)

💅 NAME 💅

START_TRANSACTION — start a transaction block. This is the PostgreSQL 16.15 Documentation page for START TRANSACTION(7), and it's lowkey iconic: it opens a new transaction block for you. Slay.

✨ 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

No cap, that's the whole shape of it.

🦋 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 was executed. This is the same as the BEGIN command. Literally twins. 👯‍♀️

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

Refer to SET TRANSACTION (SET_TRANSACTION(7)) for information on the meaning of the parameters to this statement. That's where the parameter lore lives, bestie.

🌈 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))

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xoxo, this page is from PostgreSQL 16.15, dated 2026, and it's the START TRANSACTION(7) page 🫶✨💖