phantom
A row that appears in the result set of a query, but not in the result set of an earlier query. For example, if a query is run twice within a transaction, and in the meantime, another transaction commits after inserting a new row or updating a row so that it matches the WHERE clause of the query.
This occurrence is known as a phantom read. It is harder to guard against than a non-repeatable read, because locking all the rows from the first query result set does not prevent the changes that cause the phantom to appear.
Among different isolation levels, phantom reads are prevented by the serializable read level, and allowed by the repeatable read, consistent read, and read uncommitted levels.
See also consistent read.
See also isolation level.
See also non-repeatable read.
See also READ UNCOMMITTED.
See also REPEATABLE READ.
See also SERIALIZABLE.
See also transaction.