Hacker News Reader

When you're incrementing by using UPDATE ... SET value = value + 1, the database holds the locks for the minimum time needed. Everything else is less efficient.

In more complex scenarios, FOR UPDATE is the solution.

View on HN

Not sure what you mean by "the database holds locks for the minimum time needed." Locks are always held until the transaction commits.

When there's a big chance of multiple tasks grabbing the same rows, processing them, then updating them, marking them for update since the beginning is better. E.g. a message queue like structure where messages should be processed only once.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com