Description: Table locking is a critical mechanism in database management that prevents other transactions from modifying a table while it is being accessed. This process is essential for maintaining data integrity and consistency in environments where multiple users or processes may attempt to access the same information simultaneously. By applying a table lock, it ensures that a transaction can read or write data without interference, thus avoiding issues like race conditions or dirty reads. There are different levels of locking, which can be exclusive or shared, depending on whether other transactions are allowed to read the data while it is locked. In distributed database systems, table locking becomes even more relevant, as multiple nodes must coordinate to ensure that read and write operations are performed in an orderly and efficient manner. The implementation of table locks can influence the overall performance of the system, as excessive use of locks can lead to bottlenecks and affect the responsiveness of applications relying on the database.