Question

Normally whenever I’ve needed to lock a row in a database, I’ve used a dedicated column of type bool that I’ve toggled on and off. I’ve recently learned that there are built in locking functions in various databases such as MySQL. What advantages are there over using these native locking features over using a column for locking and unlocking.

Answer 1

1. Readability. Nobody would be expecting your ‘locking boolean’.
2. Race conditions. Without a lock, how do you atomically update your ‘locking boolean’?
3. Performance. You’re probably doing three updates (lock, update, unlock), when only one is needed.

Ok, I’m tired now.