BEGIN SNAPSHOT statement

Use this statement to start a snapshot at a specified period in time for use with snapshot isolation transactions.

Syntax

BEGIN SNAPSHOT

Remarks

By default, when a transaction begins, the database server defers creating the snapshot until the application causes the first row of a table to be fetched. You can use the BEGIN SNAPSHOT statement to start the snapshot earlier within the transaction. The database server creates a snapshot when the BEGIN SNAPSHOT statement is executed by a snapshot transaction.

The statement fails and returns an error when either of the following conditions is met:

support for snapshots transactions has not been enabled for the database. See allow_snapshot_isolation option [database].
a snapshot has already been started for the current transaction.

This statement is also useful for non-snapshot transactions because it allows them to start a snapshot that can be used later in the transaction for a statement-level snapshot operation.

Permissions

None.

Side effects

None.

Standards and compatibility

SQL/2003 Vendor extension.

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