ACID Transactions

ACID Transactions


The acronym ACID stands for atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability.

ACID Component Definition/Function Key Mechanism in Delta Lake
ACID - Atomicity Ensures a transaction is treated as a single, indivisible unit; it either completes entirely or fails entirely. Operations (like update/delete) are wrapped in a single ordered atomic commit in the transaction log file.
Consistency Ensures data remains in a valid state after any transaction. Rollback of changes upon process failure; Schema enforcement/evolution.
Isolation Guarantees that concurrent transactions do not interfere with one another. Multiversion Concurrency Control (MVCC); Snapshot isolation for reads.
Durability Guarantees that once a transaction is committed, the changes are permanent. The immutable transaction log permanently records all changes.