Does dropping a database have to be done not in any transaction? - postgresql

Question

From https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Psycopg2_Tutorial
PostgreSQL can not drop databases within a transaction, it is an all
or nothing command. If you want to drop the database you would need to
change the isolation level of the database this is done using the
following.
conn.set_isolation_level(0)
You would place the above immediately preceding the DROP DATABASE
cursor execution.
Why "If you want to drop the database you would need to change the isolation level of the database"?
In particular, why do we need to change the isolation level to 0? (If I am correct, 0 means psycopg2.extensions.ISOLATION_LEVEL_READ_COMMITTED)
From https://stackoverflow.com/a/51859484/156458
The operation of destroying a database is implemented in a way which
prevents undoing it - therefore you can not run it from inside a
transaction because transactions are always undoable. Also keep in
mind that unlike most other databases PostgreSQL allows almost all DDL
statements (obviously not the DROP DATABASE one) to be executed inside
a transaction.
Actually you can not drop a database if anyone (including you) is
currently connected to this database - so it does not matter what is
your isolation level, you still have to connect to another database
(e.g. postgres)
"you can not run it from inside a transaction because transactions are always undoable". Then how can I drop a database not from inside a transaction?
I found my answer at https://stackoverflow.com/a/51880577/156458

Answer 1

I'm unfamiliar with psycopg2 so I can only provide steps to be performed.
Steps to be taken to perform DROP DATABASE from Python:
Connect to a different database, which you don't want to drop
Store current isolation level in a variable
Set isolation level to 0
Execute DROP DATABASE query
Set isolation level back to original (from #2)
Steps to be taken to perform DROP DATABASE from PSQL:
Connect to a different database, which you don't want to drop
Execute DROP DATABASE query
Code in psql
\c second_db
DROP DATABASE first_db;
Remember, that there can be no live connections to the database you are trying to drop.