diff --git a/spanner/spansql/parser.go b/spanner/spansql/parser.go
index afe7d210d6ef..ada1d23d73cd 100644
--- a/spanner/spansql/parser.go
+++ b/spanner/spansql/parser.go
@@ -1597,7 +1597,7 @@ func (p *parser) parseDatabaseOptions() (DatabaseOptions, *parseError) {
 				if err != nil {
 					return DatabaseOptions{}, p.errorf("invalid optimizer_version value: %v", tok.value)
 				}
-				optimizerVersion = &version
+				*optimizerVersion = version
 			}
 			opts.OptimizerVersion = optimizerVersion
 		} else if p.eat("version_retention_period", "=") {
@@ -1612,7 +1612,7 @@ func (p *parser) parseDatabaseOptions() (DatabaseOptions, *parseError) {
 				if tok.typ != stringToken {
 					return DatabaseOptions{}, p.errorf("invalid version_retention_period: %v", tok.value)
 				}
-				retentionPeriod = &tok.string
+				*retentionPeriod = tok.string
 			}
 			opts.VersionRetentionPeriod = retentionPeriod
 		} else {
diff --git a/spanner/spansql/parser_test.go b/spanner/spansql/parser_test.go
index fbc68c559706..e1a87622e972 100644
--- a/spanner/spansql/parser_test.go
+++ b/spanner/spansql/parser_test.go
@@ -641,6 +641,29 @@ func TestParseDDL(t *testing.T) {
 				},
 			},
 			}},
+		{`ALTER DATABASE dbname SET OPTIONS (optimizer_version=2, version_retention_period='7d', enable_key_visualizer=true); CREATE TABLE users (UserId STRING(MAX) NOT NULL,) PRIMARY KEY (UserId);`,
+			&DDL{Filename: "filename", List: []DDLStmt{
+				&AlterDatabase{
+					Name: "dbname",
+					Alteration: SetDatabaseOptions{
+						Options: DatabaseOptions{
+							OptimizerVersion:       func(i int) *int { return &i }(2),
+							VersionRetentionPeriod: func(s string) *string { return &s }("7d"),
+							EnableKeyVisualizer:    func(b bool) *bool { return &b }(true),
+						},
+					},
+					Position: line(1),
+				},
+				&CreateTable{Name: "users", Columns: []ColumnDef{
+					{Name: "UserId", Type: Type{Base: String, Len: MaxLen}, NotNull: true, Position: line(1)},
+				},
+					PrimaryKey: []KeyPart{
+						{Column: "UserId"},
+					},
+					Position: line(1),
+				},
+			},
+			}},
 	}
 	for _, test := range tests {
 		got, err := ParseDDL("filename", test.in)