Introduction to Transaction

Processing Concepts and Theory

Copyright © 2007 Ramez Elmasri and Shamkant B. Navathe

Chapter Outline
1 Introduction to Transaction Processing
2 Transaction and System Concepts
3 Desirable Properties of Transactions
4 Characterizing Schedules based on
Recoverability
5 Characterizing Schedules based on Serializability
6 Transaction Support in SQL

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4 Characterizing Schedules based on
Recoverability (1)
 Transaction schedule or history:
 When transactions are executing concurrently in an interleaved
fashion, the order of execution of operations from the various
transactions forms what is known as a transaction schedule (or
history).
 A schedule (or history) S of n transactions T1, T2, …,
Tn:
 It is an ordering of the operations of the transactions subject to
the constraint that, for each transaction Ti that participates in
S, the operations of T1 in S must appear in the same order in
which they occur in T1.
 Note, however, that operations from other transactions Tj can
be interleaved with the operations of Ti in S.

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Schedules and Recoverability
 Two operations in a schedule are said to be in
conflict if
1. They belong to different transactions
2. They access the same data item X
3. At least one of the operations is write(X)
 Example

 Schedule Sa = r1(x) r2(x) w1(x) r1(y) w2(x) w1(y)

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Example of a Schedule

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 Schedules and Serializability

 Complete schedule
A schedule S of n transactions T1, T2, …, Tn is said to be a
complete schedule if
1. The operations in S are exactly those operations in T1, T2,
…, Tn
2. For any pair of operations from the same transaction Ti their
order of appearance in S is the same as their order of
appearance in Ti
3. For any two conflicting operations, one of the two must
occur before the other in the schedule S

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Characterizing Schedules based on
Recoverability (2)
Schedules classified on recoverability:
 Recoverable schedule:
 One where no transaction needs to be rolled back.

 A schedule S is recoverable if no transaction T in S

commits until all transactions T’ that have written an

item that T reads have committed.
 r1(x);r2(x);w1(x);r1(y);w2(x);c2;w1(y);c1;-recoverable

 r1(x);w1(x);r2(x);r1(y);w2(x);c2;a1;-Non recoverable;

 Cascadeless schedule:
 One where every transaction reads only the items that

are written by committed transactions.

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Characterizing Schedules based on
Recoverability (3)
Schedules classified on recoverability (contd.):
 Schedules requiring cascaded rollback:

 A schedule in which uncommitted transactions that

read an item from a failed transaction must be
rolled back.
 R1(x);w1(x);r2(x);r1(y);w2(x);w1(y);a1;a2;
 Strict Schedules:
 A schedule in which a transaction can neither read or write
an item X until the last transaction that wrote X has
committed.

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5 Characterizing Schedules based on
Serializability (1)
 Serial schedule:
 A schedule S is serial if, for every transaction T
participating in the schedule, all the operations of
T are executed consecutively in the schedule.
 Otherwise, the schedule is called nonserial
schedule.
 Serializable schedule:
 A schedule S is serializable if it is equivalent to
some serial schedule of the same n transactions.

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Serial Schedules

A B
T1: T2: T1: T2:
read_item(X); read_item(X);
X:= X - N; X:= X + M;
write_item(X); write_item(X);
read_item(Y); read_item(X);
Y:=Y + N; X:= X - N;
write_item(Y); write_item(X);
read_item(X); read_item(Y);
X:= X + M; Y:=Y + N;
write_item(X); write_item(Y);

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Non Serial Schedules
 C D
T1: T2: T1: T2:
read_item(X); read_item(X);
X:= X - N; X:= X - N;
read_item(X); write_item(X);
X:= X + M; read_item(X);
write_item(X); X:= X + M;
read_item(Y); write_item(X);
write_item(X); read_item(Y);
Y:=Y + N; Y:=Y + N;
write_item(Y); write_item(Y);

Serializable schedule:
A schedule S is serializable if it is equivalent to some
serial schedule of the same n transactions.
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 Strict schedule: A schedule is strict if it satisfies the
following conditions:
 1) Tj reads a data item X after Ti has written to X and Ti is
terminated (aborted or committed)
 2) Tj writes a data item X after Ti has written to X and Ti is
terminated (aborted or committed)
 Cascadeless schedule: A schedule is cascadeless if the
following condition is satisfied:
 Tj reads X only after Ti has written to X and terminated
(aborted or committed).
 Identify the Strict schedules And Cascadeless
Schedules ???
 S3: r1(x); r2(z); r1(z); r3(x); r3(y); w1(x); c1; w3(y); c3; r2(y);
w2(z); w2(y);c2
 S4: r1(x); r2(z); r1(z); r3(x); r3(y); w1(x); w3(y); r2(y); w2(z);
w2(y); c1; c2; c3;
 S5: r1(x); r2(z); r3(x); r1(z); r2(y); r3(y); w1(x); w2(z); w3(y);
w2(y); c3; c2;

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