Use repeatable read isolation

This page describes how to use repeatable read isolation in Spanner.

Repeatable read is an isolation level that ensures that all read operations within a transaction see a consistent snapshot of the database as it existed at the start of the transaction. In Spanner, this isolation level is implemented using a technique that is also commonly called snapshot isolation. This approach is beneficial in high read-write concurrency scenarios where numerous transactions read data that other transactions might be modifying. By using a fixed snapshot, repeatable read avoids the performance impacts of the more rigorous serializable isolation level. Reads can execute without acquiring locks and without blocking concurrent writes, which results in potentially fewer aborted transactions that might need to be retried due to serialization conflicts. For more information, see Isolation level overview.

Set the isolation level

You can set the isolation level on read-write transactions at the transaction-level using the following methods:

Client libraries

Go


import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	"cloud.google.com/go/spanner"
	pb "cloud.google.com/go/spanner/apiv1/spannerpb"
)

func writeWithTransactionUsingIsolationLevel(w io.Writer, db string) error {
	ctx := context.Background()

	// The isolation level specified at the client-level will be applied
	// to all RW transactions.
	cfg := spanner.ClientConfig{
		TransactionOptions: spanner.TransactionOptions{
			IsolationLevel: pb.TransactionOptions_SERIALIZABLE,
		},
	}
	client, err := spanner.NewClientWithConfig(ctx, db, cfg)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to create client: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// The isolation level specified at the transaction-level takes
	// precedence over the isolation level configured at the client-level.
	// REPEATABLE_READ is used here to demonstrate overriding the client-level setting.
	txnOpts := spanner.TransactionOptions{
		IsolationLevel: pb.TransactionOptions_REPEATABLE_READ,
	}

	_, err = client.ReadWriteTransactionWithOptions(ctx, func(ctx context.Context, txn *spanner.ReadWriteTransaction) error {
		// Read the current album title
		key := spanner.Key{1, 1}
		row, err := txn.ReadRow(ctx, "Albums", key, []string{"AlbumTitle"})
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to read album: %v", err)
		}
		var title string
		if err := row.Column(0, &title); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to get album title: %v", err)
		}
		fmt.Fprintf(w, "Current album title: %s\n", title)

		// Update the album title
		stmt := spanner.Statement{
			SQL: `UPDATE Albums
				SET AlbumTitle = @AlbumTitle
				WHERE SingerId = @SingerId AND AlbumId = @AlbumId`,
			Params: map[string]interface{}{
				"SingerId":   1,
				"AlbumId":    1,
				"AlbumTitle": "New Album Title",
			},
		}
		count, err := txn.Update(ctx, stmt)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to update album: %v", err)
		}
		fmt.Fprintf(w, "Updated %d record(s).\n", count)
		return nil
	}, txnOpts)

	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("transaction failed: %v", err)
	}
	return nil
}

Java

static void isolationLevelSetting(DatabaseId db) {
  // The isolation level specified at the client-level will be applied to all
  // RW transactions.
  DefaultReadWriteTransactionOptions transactionOptions =
      DefaultReadWriteTransactionOptions.newBuilder()
          .setIsolationLevel(IsolationLevel.SERIALIZABLE)
          .build();
  SpannerOptions options =
      SpannerOptions.newBuilder()
          .setDefaultTransactionOptions(transactionOptions)
          .build();
  Spanner spanner = options.getService();
  DatabaseClient dbClient = spanner.getDatabaseClient(db);
  dbClient
      // The isolation level specified at the transaction-level takes precedence
      // over the isolation level configured at the client-level.
      .readWriteTransaction(Options.isolationLevel(IsolationLevel.REPEATABLE_READ))
      .run(transaction -> {
        // Read an AlbumTitle.
        String selectSql =
            "SELECT AlbumTitle from Albums WHERE SingerId = 1 and AlbumId = 1";
        ResultSet resultSet = transaction.executeQuery(Statement.of(selectSql));
        String title = null;
        while (resultSet.next()) {
          title = resultSet.getString("AlbumTitle");
        }
        System.out.printf("Current album title: %s\n", title);

        // Update the title.
        String updateSql =
            "UPDATE Albums "
                + "SET AlbumTitle = 'New Album Title' "
                + "WHERE SingerId = 1 and AlbumId = 1";
        long rowCount = transaction.executeUpdate(Statement.of(updateSql));
        System.out.printf("%d record updated.\n", rowCount);
        return null;
      });
}

Node.js

// Imports the Google Cloud Spanner client library
const {Spanner, protos} = require('@google-cloud/spanner');
// The isolation level specified at the client-level will be applied
// to all RW transactions.
const isolationOptionsForClient = {
  defaultTransactionOptions: {
    isolationLevel:
      protos.google.spanner.v1.TransactionOptions.IsolationLevel.SERIALIZABLE,
  },
};

// Instantiates a client with defaultTransactionOptions
const spanner = new Spanner({
  projectId: projectId,
  defaultTransactionOptions: isolationOptionsForClient,
});

function runTransactionWithIsolationLevel() {
  // Gets a reference to a Cloud Spanner instance and database
  const instance = spanner.instance(instanceId);
  const database = instance.database(databaseId);
  // The isolation level specified at the request level takes precedence over the isolation level configured at the client level.
  const isolationOptionsForTransaction = {
    isolationLevel:
      protos.google.spanner.v1.TransactionOptions.IsolationLevel
        .REPEATABLE_READ,
  };

  database.runTransaction(
    isolationOptionsForTransaction,
    async (err, transaction) => {
      if (err) {
        console.error(err);
        return;
      }
      try {
        const query =
          'SELECT AlbumTitle FROM Albums WHERE SingerId = 1 AND AlbumId = 1';
        const results = await transaction.run(query);
        // Gets first album's title
        const rows = results[0].map(row => row.toJSON());
        const albumTitle = rows[0].AlbumTitle;
        console.log(`previous album title ${albumTitle}`);

        const update =
          "UPDATE Albums SET AlbumTitle = 'New Album Title' WHERE SingerId = 1 AND AlbumId = 1";
        const [rowCount] = await transaction.runUpdate(update);
        console.log(
          `Successfully updated ${rowCount} record in Albums table.`,
        );
        await transaction.commit();
        console.log(
          'Successfully executed read-write transaction with isolationLevel option.',
        );
      } catch (err) {
        console.error('ERROR:', err);
      } finally {
        transaction.end();
        // Close the database when finished.
        await database.close();
      }
    },
  );
}
runTransactionWithIsolationLevel();

Python

# instance_id = "your-spanner-instance"
# database_id = "your-spanner-db-id"

# The isolation level specified at the client-level will be applied to all RW transactions.
isolation_options_for_client = TransactionOptions.IsolationLevel.SERIALIZABLE

spanner_client = spanner.Client(
    default_transaction_options=DefaultTransactionOptions(
        isolation_level=isolation_options_for_client
    )
)
instance = spanner_client.instance(instance_id)
database = instance.database(database_id)

# The isolation level specified at the request level takes precedence over the isolation level configured at the client level.
isolation_options_for_transaction = (
    TransactionOptions.IsolationLevel.REPEATABLE_READ
)

def update_albums_with_isolation(transaction):
    # Read an AlbumTitle.
    results = transaction.execute_sql(
        "SELECT AlbumTitle from Albums WHERE SingerId = 1 and AlbumId = 1"
    )
    for result in results:
        print("Current Album Title: {}".format(*result))

    # Update the AlbumTitle.
    row_ct = transaction.execute_update(
        "UPDATE Albums SET AlbumTitle = 'A New Title' WHERE SingerId = 1 and AlbumId = 1"
    )

    print("{} record(s) updated.".format(row_ct))

database.run_in_transaction(
    update_albums_with_isolation, isolation_level=isolation_options_for_transaction
)

REST

You can use the TransactionOptions.isolation_level REST API to set the isolation level on read-write transactions at the transaction-level. The valid options are TransactionOptions.SERIALIZABLE and TransactionOptions.REPEATABLE_READ. By default, Spanner sets the isolation level to serializable isolation.

RPC

Unsupported use cases

  • You can only use repeatable read isolation in read-write transactions. Spanner returns an error if you set this isolation level on a read-only transaction. All read-only transactions operate at a fixed snapshot and don't require locks.
  • You can't use repeatable read isolation to modify tables that has full-text search indexes defined on its columns.

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