[oracle] How to find locked rows in Oracle

The below PL/SQL block finds all locked rows in a table. The other answers only find the blocking session, finding the actual locked rows requires reading and testing each row.

(However, you probably do not need to run this code. If you're having a locking problem, it's usually easier to find the culprit using GV$SESSION.BLOCKING_SESSION and other related data dictionary views. Please try another approach before you run this abysmally slow code.)

First, let's create a sample table and some data. Run this in session #1.

--Sample schema.
create table test_locking(a number);
insert into test_locking values(1);
insert into test_locking values(2);
commit;
update test_locking set a = a+1 where a = 1;

In session #2, create a table to hold the locked ROWIDs.

--Create table to hold locked ROWIDs.
create table locked_rowids(the_rowid rowid);
--Remove old rows if table is already created:
--delete from locked_rowids;
--commit;

In session #2, run this PL/SQL block to read the entire table, probe each row, and store the locked ROWIDs. Be warned, this may be ridiculously slow. In your real version of this query, change both references to TEST_LOCKING to your own table.

--Save all locked ROWIDs from a table.
--WARNING: This PL/SQL block will be slow and will temporarily lock rows.
--You probably don't need this information - it's usually good enough to know
--what other sessions are locking a statement, which you can find in
--GV$SESSION.BLOCKING_SESSION.
declare
    v_resource_busy exception;
    pragma exception_init(v_resource_busy, -00054);
    v_throwaway number;
    type rowid_nt is table of rowid;
    v_rowids rowid_nt := rowid_nt();
begin
    --Loop through all the rows in the table.
    for all_rows in
    (
        select rowid
        from test_locking
    ) loop
        --Try to look each row.
        begin
            select 1
            into v_throwaway
            from test_locking
            where rowid = all_rows.rowid
            for update nowait;
        --If it doesn't lock, then record the ROWID.
        exception when v_resource_busy then
            v_rowids.extend;
            v_rowids(v_rowids.count) := all_rows.rowid;
        end;

        rollback;
    end loop;

    --Display count:
    dbms_output.put_line('Rows locked: '||v_rowids.count);

    --Save all the ROWIDs.
    --(Row-by-row because ROWID type is weird and doesn't work in types.)
    for i in 1 .. v_rowids.count loop
        insert into locked_rowids values(v_rowids(i));
    end loop;
    commit;
end;
/

Finally, we can view the locked rows by joining to the LOCKED_ROWIDS table.

--Display locked rows.
select *
from test_locking
where rowid in (select the_rowid from locked_rowids);


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