You can change the isolation level of your connection via ODBC using the function SQLSetConnectOption in the library ODBC32.dll.

The SQLSetConnectOption function takes three parameters: the value of the ODBC connection handle, the fact that you want to set the isolation level, and the value corresponding to the isolation level. These values appear in the table below.

Do not use the SET OPTION statement to change an isolation level from within an ODBC application. Since the ODBC driver does not parse the statements, execution of any statement in ODBC is not recognized by the ODBC driver. This could lead to unexpected locking behavior.

The following function call sets the isolation level of the connection MyConnection to isolation level 2:

SQLSetConnectOption( MyConnection.hDbc, 
                     SQL_TXN_ISOLATION, 
                     SQL_TXN_REPEATABLE_READ )

ODBC uses the isolation feature to support assorted database lock options. For example, in PowerBuilder you can use the Lock attribute of the transaction object to set the isolation level when you connect to the database. The Lock attribute is a string, and is set as follows:

SQLCA.lock = "RU"

The Lock option is honored only at the moment the CONNECT occurs. Changes to the Lock attribute after the CONNECT have no effect on the connection.