SET(7) - man - phpMan

SET(7)                             PostgreSQL 14.23 Documentation                             SET(7)



NAME
       SET - change a run-time parameter

SYNOPSIS
       SET [ SESSION | LOCAL ] configuration_parameter { TO | = } { value | 'value' | DEFAULT }
       SET [ SESSION | LOCAL ] TIME ZONE { value | 'value' | LOCAL | DEFAULT }

DESCRIPTION
       The SET command changes run-time configuration parameters. Many of the run-time parameters
       listed in Chapter 20 can be changed on-the-fly with SET. (But some require superuser
       privileges to change, and others cannot be changed after server or session start.)  SET only
       affects the value used by the current session.

       If SET (or equivalently SET SESSION) is issued within a transaction that is later aborted,
       the effects of the SET command disappear when the transaction is rolled back. Once the
       surrounding transaction is committed, the effects will persist until the end of the session,
       unless overridden by another SET.

       The effects of SET LOCAL last only till the end of the current transaction, whether committed
       or not. A special case is SET followed by SET LOCAL within a single transaction: the SET
       LOCAL value will be seen until the end of the transaction, but afterwards (if the transaction
       is committed) the SET value will take effect.

       The effects of SET or SET LOCAL are also canceled by rolling back to a savepoint that is
       earlier than the command.

       If SET LOCAL is used within a function that has a SET option for the same variable (see
       CREATE FUNCTION (CREATE_FUNCTION(7))), the effects of the SET LOCAL command disappear at
       function exit; that is, the value in effect when the function was called is restored anyway.
       This allows SET LOCAL to be used for dynamic or repeated changes of a parameter within a
       function, while still having the convenience of using the SET option to save and restore the
       caller's value. However, a regular SET command overrides any surrounding function's SET
       option; its effects will persist unless rolled back.

           Note
           In PostgreSQL versions 8.0 through 8.2, the effects of a SET LOCAL would be canceled by
           releasing an earlier savepoint, or by successful exit from a PL/pgSQL exception block.
           This behavior has been changed because it was deemed unintuitive.

PARAMETERS
       SESSION
           Specifies that the command takes effect for the current session. (This is the default if
           neither SESSION nor LOCAL appears.)

       LOCAL
           Specifies that the command takes effect for only the current transaction. After COMMIT or
           ROLLBACK, the session-level setting takes effect again. Issuing this outside of a
           transaction block emits a warning and otherwise has no effect.

       configuration_parameter
           Name of a settable run-time parameter. Available parameters are documented in Chapter 20
           and below.

       value
           New value of parameter. Values can be specified as string constants, identifiers,
           numbers, or comma-separated lists of these, as appropriate for the particular parameter.
           DEFAULT can be written to specify resetting the parameter to its default value (that is,
           whatever value it would have had if no SET had been executed in the current session).

       Besides the configuration parameters documented in Chapter 20, there are a few that can only
       be adjusted using the SET command or that have a special syntax:

       SCHEMA
           SET SCHEMA 'value' is an alias for SET search_path TO value. Only one schema can be
           specified using this syntax.

       NAMES
           SET NAMES value is an alias for SET client_encoding TO value.

       SEED
           Sets the internal seed for the random number generator (the function random). Allowed
           values are floating-point numbers between -1 and 1 inclusive.

           The seed can also be set by invoking the function setseed:

               SELECT setseed(value);

       TIME ZONE
           SET TIME ZONE 'value' is an alias for SET timezone TO 'value'. The syntax SET TIME ZONE
           allows special syntax for the time zone specification. Here are examples of valid values:

           'America/Los_Angeles'
               The time zone for Berkeley, California.

           'Europe/Rome'
               The time zone for Italy.

           -7
               The time zone 7 hours west from UTC (equivalent to PDT). Positive values are east
               from UTC.

           INTERVAL '-08:00' HOUR TO MINUTE
               The time zone 8 hours west from UTC (equivalent to PST).

           LOCAL
           DEFAULT
               Set the time zone to your local time zone (that is, the server's default value of
               timezone).

           Timezone settings given as numbers or intervals are internally translated to POSIX
           timezone syntax. For example, after SET TIME ZONE -7, SHOW TIME ZONE would report
           <-07>+07.

           Time zone abbreviations are not supported by SET; see Section 8.5.3 for more information
           about time zones.

NOTES
       The function set_config provides equivalent functionality; see Section 9.27.1. Also, it is
       possible to UPDATE the pg_settings system view to perform the equivalent of SET.

EXAMPLES
       Set the schema search path:

           SET search_path TO my_schema, public;

       Set the style of date to traditional POSTGRES with “day before month” input convention:

           SET datestyle TO postgres, dmy;

       Set the time zone for Berkeley, California:

           SET TIME ZONE 'America/Los_Angeles';

       Set the time zone for Italy:

           SET TIME ZONE 'Europe/Rome';

COMPATIBILITY
       SET TIME ZONE extends syntax defined in the SQL standard. The standard allows only numeric
       time zone offsets while PostgreSQL allows more flexible time-zone specifications. All other
       SET features are PostgreSQL extensions.

SEE ALSO
       RESET(7), SHOW(7)



PostgreSQL 14.23                                2026                                          SET(7)