SET (session variable)

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The SET statement can modify one of the session configuration variables. These can also be queried via SHOW.

Warning:

In some cases, client drivers can drop and restart the connection to the server. When this happens, any session configurations made with SET statements are lost. It is therefore more reliable to configure the session in the client's connection string. For examples in different languages, see the Build an App with CockroachDB tutorials.

Required Privileges

No privileges are required to modify the session settings.

Synopsis

Note:

The SET statement for session settings is unrelated to the other SET TRANSACTION and SET CLUSTER SETTING statements.

Parameters

The SET <session variable> statement accepts two parameters: the variable name and the value to use to modify the variable.

The variable name is case insensitive. The value can be a list of one or more items. For example, the variable search_path is multi-valued.

Supported Variables

Variable name	Description	Initial value	Can be viewed with `SHOW`?
`application_name`	The current application name for statistics collection.	Empty string	Yes
`database`	The default database for the current session.	Database in connection string, or empty if not specified	Yes
`default_transaction_isolation`	The default transaction isolation level for the current session. See Transaction parameters and `SET TRANSACTION` for more details.	Settings in connection string, or "`SERIALIZABLE`" if not specified	Yes
`sql_safe_updates`	If `false`, allow potentially unsafe SQL statements, including `DROP` of a non-empty database and all dependent objects, `DELETE` without a `WHERE` clause, `UPDATE` without a `WHERE` clause, and `ALTER TABLE .. DROP COLUMN`. See Allow Potentially Unsafe SQL Statements for more details.	`true` for interactive sessions from the built-in SQL client, `false` for sessions from other clients	Yes
`search_path`	A list of databases or namespaces that will be searched to resolve unqualified table or function names. For more details, see Name Resolution.	"`{pg_catalog}`" (for ORM compatibility)	Yes
`time zone`	The default time zone for the current session. This value can be a string representation of a local system-defined time zone (e.g., `'EST'`, `'America/New_York'`) or a positive or negative numeric offset from UTC (e.g., `-7`, `+7`). Also, `DEFAULT`, `LOCAL`, or `0` sets the session time zone to `UTC`. See `SET TIME ZONE` for more details.	`UTC`	Yes
`tracing`	The trace recording state. See `SET TRACING` for more details.	`off`	Yes
`client_encoding`	Ignored; recognized for compatibility with PostgreSQL clients. Only possible value is "`UTF8`".	N/A	No
`client_min_messages`	Ignored; recognized for compatibility with PostgreSQL clients. Only possible value is "`on`".	N/A	No
`extra_float_digits`	Ignored; recognized for compatibility with PostgreSQL clients.	N/A	No
`standard_conforming_strings`	Ignored; recognized for compatibility with PostgreSQL clients.	N/A	No

Special syntax cases:

Syntax	Equivalent to	Notes
`USE ...`	`SET database = ...`	This is provided as convenience for users with a MySQL/MSSQL background.
`SET NAMES ...`	`SET client_encoding = ...`	This is provided for compatibility with PostgreSQL clients.
`SET SESSION CHARACTERISTICS AS TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL ...`	`SET default_transaction_isolation = ...`	This is provided for compatibility with standard SQL.
`SET TIME ZONE ...`	`SET "time zone" = ...`	This is provided for compatibility with PostgreSQL clients.

Examples

Set Simple Variables

The following demonstrates how SET can be used to configure the default database for the current session:

> SET database = bank;
> SHOW database;

+----------+
| database |
+----------+
| bank     |
+----------+
(1 row)

Set Variables to Values Containing Spaces

The following demonstrates how to use quoting to use values containing spaces:

> SET database = "database name with spaces";
> SHOW database;

+---------------------------+
|         database          |
+---------------------------+
| database name with spaces |
+---------------------------+
(1 row)

Set Variables to a List of Values

The following demonstrates how to assign a list of values:

> SET search_path = mydb, otherdb;
> SHOW search_path;

+---------------------------+
|        search_path        |
+---------------------------+
| pg_catalog, mydb, otherdb |
+---------------------------+
(1 row)

Reset a Variable to Its Default Value

Tip:

You can use RESET to reset a session variable as well.

> SET default_transaction_isolation = SNAPSHOT;

> SHOW default_transaction_isolation;

+-------------------------------+
| default_transaction_isolation |
+-------------------------------+
| SNAPSHOT                      |
+-------------------------------+
(1 row)

> SET default_transaction_isolation = DEFAULT;

> SHOW default_transaction_isolation;

+-------------------------------+
| default_transaction_isolation |
+-------------------------------+
| SERIALIZABLE                  |
+-------------------------------+
(1 row)

`SET TIME ZONE`

Warning:

As a best practice, we recommend not using this setting and avoid setting a session time for your database. We instead recommend converting UTC values to the appropriate time zone on the client side.

You can control your client's default time zone for the current session with SET TIME ZONE. This will apply a session offset to all TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE values.

Note:

With setting SET TIME ZONE, CockroachDB uses UTC as the default time zone.

SET TIME ZONE uses a special syntax form used to configure the "time zone" session parameter because SET cannot assign to parameter names containing spaces.

Parameters

The time zone value indicates the time zone for the current session.

This value can be a string representation of a local system-defined time zone (e.g., 'EST', 'America/New_York') or a positive or negative numeric offset from UTC (e.g., -7, +7). Also, DEFAULT, LOCAL, or 0 sets the session time zone to UTC.

Example: Set the Default Time Zone via `SET TIME ZONE`

> SET TIME ZONE 'EST'; -- same as SET "time zone" = 'EST'
> SHOW TIME ZONE;

+-----------+
| time zone |
+-----------+
| EST       |
+-----------+
(1 row)

> SET TIME ZONE DEFAULT; -- same as SET "time zone" = DEFAULT
> SHOW TIME ZONE;

+-----------+
| time zone |
+-----------+
| UTC       |
+-----------+
(1 row)

`SET TRACING`

SET TRACING changes the trace recording state of the current session. A trace recording can be inspected with the SHOW TRACE FOR SESSION statement.

Value	Description
`off`	Trace recording is disabled.
`cluster`	Trace recording is enabled; distributed traces are collected.
`on`	Same as `cluster`.
`kv`	Same as `cluster` except that "kv messages" are collected instead of regular trace messages. See `SHOW TRACE`.
`local`	Trace recording is enabled; only trace messages issued by the local node are collected.

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SET (session variable)

Required Privileges

Synopsis

Parameters

Supported Variables

Examples

Set Simple Variables

Set Variables to Values Containing Spaces

Set Variables to a List of Values

Reset a Variable to Its Default Value

`SET TIME ZONE`

Parameters

Example: Set the Default Time Zone via `SET TIME ZONE`

`SET TRACING`

See Also

SET (session variable)

Required Privileges

Synopsis

Parameters

Supported Variables

Examples

Set Simple Variables

Set Variables to Values Containing Spaces

Set Variables to a List of Values

Reset a Variable to Its Default Value

SET TIME ZONE

Parameters

Example: Set the Default Time Zone via SET TIME ZONE

SET TRACING

See Also

`SET TIME ZONE`

Example: Set the Default Time Zone via `SET TIME ZONE`

`SET TRACING`