4 SET — change a run-time parameter
8 SET [ SESSION | LOCAL ] configuration_parameter { TO | = } { value | 'value' | D
10 SET [ SESSION | LOCAL ] TIME ZONE { value | 'value' | LOCAL | DEFAULT }
14 The SET command changes run-time configuration parameters. Many of the
15 run-time parameters listed in Chapter 19 can be changed on-the-fly with
16 SET. (Some parameters can only be changed by superusers and users who
17 have been granted SET privilege on that parameter. There are also
18 parameters that cannot be changed after server or session start.) SET
19 only affects the value used by the current session.
21 If SET (or equivalently SET SESSION) is issued within a transaction
22 that is later aborted, the effects of the SET command disappear when
23 the transaction is rolled back. Once the surrounding transaction is
24 committed, the effects will persist until the end of the session,
25 unless overridden by another SET.
27 The effects of SET LOCAL last only till the end of the current
28 transaction, whether committed or not. A special case is SET followed
29 by SET LOCAL within a single transaction: the SET LOCAL value will be
30 seen until the end of the transaction, but afterwards (if the
31 transaction is committed) the SET value will take effect.
33 The effects of SET or SET LOCAL are also canceled by rolling back to a
34 savepoint that is earlier than the command.
36 If SET LOCAL is used within a function that has a SET option for the
37 same variable (see CREATE FUNCTION), the effects of the SET LOCAL
38 command disappear at function exit; that is, the value in effect when
39 the function was called is restored anyway. This allows SET LOCAL to be
40 used for dynamic or repeated changes of a parameter within a function,
41 while still having the convenience of using the SET option to save and
42 restore the caller's value. However, a regular SET command overrides
43 any surrounding function's SET option; its effects will persist unless
48 In PostgreSQL versions 8.0 through 8.2, the effects of a SET LOCAL
49 would be canceled by releasing an earlier savepoint, or by successful
50 exit from a PL/pgSQL exception block. This behavior has been changed
51 because it was deemed unintuitive.
56 Specifies that the command takes effect for the current session.
57 (This is the default if neither SESSION nor LOCAL appears.)
60 Specifies that the command takes effect for only the current
61 transaction. After COMMIT or ROLLBACK, the session-level setting
62 takes effect again. Issuing this outside of a transaction block
63 emits a warning and otherwise has no effect.
65 configuration_parameter
66 Name of a settable run-time parameter. Available parameters are
67 documented in Chapter 19 and below.
70 New value of parameter. Values can be specified as string
71 constants, identifiers, numbers, or comma-separated lists of
72 these, as appropriate for the particular parameter. DEFAULT can
73 be written to specify resetting the parameter to its default
74 value (that is, whatever value it would have had if no SET had
75 been executed in the current session).
77 Besides the configuration parameters documented in Chapter 19, there
78 are a few that can only be adjusted using the SET command or that have
82 SET SCHEMA 'value' is an alias for SET search_path TO value.
83 Only one schema can be specified using this syntax.
86 SET NAMES 'value' is an alias for SET client_encoding TO value.
89 Sets the internal seed for the random number generator (the
90 function random). Allowed values are floating-point numbers
91 between -1 and 1 inclusive.
93 The seed can also be set by invoking the function setseed:
95 SELECT setseed(value);
98 SET TIME ZONE 'value' is an alias for SET timezone TO 'value'.
99 The syntax SET TIME ZONE allows special syntax for the time zone
100 specification. Here are examples of valid values:
102 'America/Los_Angeles'
103 The time zone for Berkeley, California.
106 The time zone for Italy.
109 The time zone 7 hours west from UTC (equivalent to PDT).
110 Positive values are east from UTC.
112 INTERVAL '-08:00' HOUR TO MINUTE
113 The time zone 8 hours west from UTC (equivalent to PST).
117 Set the time zone to your local time zone (that is, the
118 server's default value of timezone).
120 Timezone settings given as numbers or intervals are internally
121 translated to POSIX timezone syntax. For example, after SET TIME
122 ZONE -7, SHOW TIME ZONE would report <-07>+07.
124 Time zone abbreviations are not supported by SET; see
125 Section 8.5.3 for more information about time zones.
129 The function set_config provides equivalent functionality; see
130 Section 9.28.1. Also, it is possible to UPDATE the pg_settings system
131 view to perform the equivalent of SET.
135 Set the schema search path:
136 SET search_path TO my_schema, public;
138 Set the style of date to traditional POSTGRES with “day before month”
140 SET datestyle TO postgres, dmy;
142 Set the time zone for Berkeley, California:
143 SET TIME ZONE 'America/Los_Angeles';
145 Set the time zone for Italy:
146 SET TIME ZONE 'Europe/Rome';
150 SET TIME ZONE extends syntax defined in the SQL standard. The standard
151 allows only numeric time zone offsets while PostgreSQL allows more
152 flexible time-zone specifications. All other SET features are
153 PostgreSQL extensions.