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.

Required Privileges

No privileges are required to modify the session settings.

Synopsis

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

Special syntax cases:

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

> 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

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.

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.

See Also

• RESET
• SET TRANSACTION
• SET CLUSTER SETTING
• SHOW (session variable)
• The TIMESTAMP and TIMESTAMPTZ data types.
• SHOW TRACE

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