SQL: Incorrect by Construction
Summary
This article exposes how SQL code that appears correct can harbor concurrency bugs, demonstrating atomicity, time-of-check-to-time-of-use ( TOCTOU ), and deadlock issues in a textbook money-transfer example. It walks through fixes using transactions and locking, and advocates for a deterministic, safer concurrency model for databases, including potential design ideas inspired by Rust’s fearless concurrency.