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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 2626–2632Cite as

Serializability

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Synonyms

Correctness criterion for concurrent executions

Definition

A database is a collection of data items operated on concurrently by several programs. A set of values for the data items is called a database state. It is consistent if the values satisfy the integrity constraints specified for the database. Arbitrary interleaving of the executions of the programs may affect the consistency of the database. The executions that preserve the consistency are called correct executions. The notion of serializability helps to identify correct executions. It is based on the transaction concept: a transactionis a partially ordered set of atomic steps that constitute an execution of a program, with the property that, when executed alone, it transforms a consistent database state into another consistent one. Examples of atomic steps are read and write of a data item, increment and decrement on a counter object, enqueue and dequeue on a queue object, etc. The sequence of steps in an execution...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada

    K. Vidyasankar

Authors
  1. K. Vidyasankar
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Vidyasankar, K. (2009). Serializability. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_344

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