A distributed database system receives and executes a transaction including a first modification statement describing a first modification operation on a subset of records, a second modification statement describing a second modification operation on the subset of records, and a commit statement. Responsive to executing the first and second modification statements, the system receives a copy of the subset of records from data servers; performs the first modification operation to generate a first modified subset of records; and performs the second modification operation on the first modified subset of records. Responsive to executing the commit statement, the system stores the second modified subset of records in a commit table and causes the subset of records to be updated at the data servers.