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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>41.2. Views and the Rule System</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="querytree.html" title="41.1. The Query Tree" /><link rel="next" href="rules-materializedviews.html" title="41.3. Materialized Views" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">41.2. Views and the Rule System</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="querytree.html" title="41.1. The Query Tree">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="rules.html" title="Chapter 41. The Rule System">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 41. The Rule System</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="rules-materializedviews.html" title="41.3. Materialized Views">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="RULES-VIEWS"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">41.2. Views and the Rule System</h2></div></div></div><div class="toc"><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="rules-views.html#RULES-SELECT">41.2.1. How <code class="command">SELECT</code> Rules Work</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="rules-views.html#id-1.8.6.7.6">41.2.2. View Rules in Non-<code class="command">SELECT</code> Statements</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="rules-views.html#id-1.8.6.7.7">41.2.3. The Power of Views in <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span></a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="rules-views.html#RULES-VIEWS-UPDATE">41.2.4. Updating a View</a></span></dt></dl></div><a id="id-1.8.6.7.2" class="indexterm"></a><a id="id-1.8.6.7.3" class="indexterm"></a><p>
+ Views in <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> are implemented
+ using the rule system. In fact, there is essentially no difference
+ between:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE VIEW myview AS SELECT * FROM mytab;
+</pre><p>
+
+ compared against the two commands:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE TABLE myview (<em class="replaceable"><code>same column list as mytab</code></em>);
+CREATE RULE "_RETURN" AS ON SELECT TO myview DO INSTEAD
+ SELECT * FROM mytab;
+</pre><p>
+
+ because this is exactly what the <code class="command">CREATE VIEW</code>
+ command does internally. This has some side effects. One of them
+ is that the information about a view in the
+ <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> system catalogs is exactly
+ the same as it is for a table. So for the parser, there is
+ absolutely no difference between a table and a view. They are the
+ same thing: relations.
+</p><div class="sect2" id="RULES-SELECT"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">41.2.1. How <code class="command">SELECT</code> Rules Work</h3></div></div></div><a id="id-1.8.6.7.5.2" class="indexterm"></a><p>
+ Rules <code class="literal">ON SELECT</code> are applied to all queries as the last step, even
+ if the command given is an <code class="command">INSERT</code>,
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code> or <code class="command">DELETE</code>. And they
+ have different semantics from rules on the other command types in that they modify the
+ query tree in place instead of creating a new one. So
+ <code class="command">SELECT</code> rules are described first.
+</p><p>
+ Currently, there can be only one action in an <code class="literal">ON SELECT</code> rule, and it must
+ be an unconditional <code class="command">SELECT</code> action that is <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code>. This restriction was
+ required to make rules safe enough to open them for ordinary users, and
+ it restricts <code class="literal">ON SELECT</code> rules to act like views.
+</p><p>
+ The examples for this chapter are two join views that do some
+ calculations and some more views using them in turn. One of the
+ two first views is customized later by adding rules for
+ <code class="command">INSERT</code>, <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, and
+ <code class="command">DELETE</code> operations so that the final result will
+ be a view that behaves like a real table with some magic
+ functionality. This is not such a simple example to start from and
+ this makes things harder to get into. But it's better to have one
+ example that covers all the points discussed step by step rather
+ than having many different ones that might mix up in mind.
+</p><p>
+ The real tables we need in the first two rule system descriptions
+ are these:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE TABLE shoe_data (
+ shoename text, -- primary key
+ sh_avail integer, -- available number of pairs
+ slcolor text, -- preferred shoelace color
+ slminlen real, -- minimum shoelace length
+ slmaxlen real, -- maximum shoelace length
+ slunit text -- length unit
+);
+
+CREATE TABLE shoelace_data (
+ sl_name text, -- primary key
+ sl_avail integer, -- available number of pairs
+ sl_color text, -- shoelace color
+ sl_len real, -- shoelace length
+ sl_unit text -- length unit
+);
+
+CREATE TABLE unit (
+ un_name text, -- primary key
+ un_fact real -- factor to transform to cm
+);
+</pre><p>
+
+ As you can see, they represent shoe-store data.
+</p><p>
+ The views are created as:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE VIEW shoe AS
+ SELECT sh.shoename,
+ sh.sh_avail,
+ sh.slcolor,
+ sh.slminlen,
+ sh.slminlen * un.un_fact AS slminlen_cm,
+ sh.slmaxlen,
+ sh.slmaxlen * un.un_fact AS slmaxlen_cm,
+ sh.slunit
+ FROM shoe_data sh, unit un
+ WHERE sh.slunit = un.un_name;
+
+CREATE VIEW shoelace AS
+ SELECT s.sl_name,
+ s.sl_avail,
+ s.sl_color,
+ s.sl_len,
+ s.sl_unit,
+ s.sl_len * u.un_fact AS sl_len_cm
+ FROM shoelace_data s, unit u
+ WHERE s.sl_unit = u.un_name;
+
+CREATE VIEW shoe_ready AS
+ SELECT rsh.shoename,
+ rsh.sh_avail,
+ rsl.sl_name,
+ rsl.sl_avail,
+ least(rsh.sh_avail, rsl.sl_avail) AS total_avail
+ FROM shoe rsh, shoelace rsl
+ WHERE rsl.sl_color = rsh.slcolor
+ AND rsl.sl_len_cm &gt;= rsh.slminlen_cm
+ AND rsl.sl_len_cm &lt;= rsh.slmaxlen_cm;
+</pre><p>
+
+ The <code class="command">CREATE VIEW</code> command for the
+ <code class="literal">shoelace</code> view (which is the simplest one we
+ have) will create a relation <code class="literal">shoelace</code> and an entry in
+ <code class="structname">pg_rewrite</code> that tells that there is a
+ rewrite rule that must be applied whenever the relation <code class="literal">shoelace</code>
+ is referenced in a query's range table. The rule has no rule
+ qualification (discussed later, with the non-<code class="command">SELECT</code> rules, since
+ <code class="command">SELECT</code> rules currently cannot have them) and it is <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code>. Note
+ that rule qualifications are not the same as query qualifications.
+ The action of our rule has a query qualification.
+ The action of the rule is one query tree that is a copy of the
+ <code class="command">SELECT</code> statement in the view creation command.
+</p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>
+ The two extra range
+ table entries for <code class="literal">NEW</code> and <code class="literal">OLD</code> that you can see in
+ the <code class="structname">pg_rewrite</code> entry aren't of interest
+ for <code class="command">SELECT</code> rules.
+ </p></div><p>
+ Now we populate <code class="literal">unit</code>, <code class="literal">shoe_data</code>
+ and <code class="literal">shoelace_data</code> and run a simple query on a view:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+INSERT INTO unit VALUES ('cm', 1.0);
+INSERT INTO unit VALUES ('m', 100.0);
+INSERT INTO unit VALUES ('inch', 2.54);
+
+INSERT INTO shoe_data VALUES ('sh1', 2, 'black', 70.0, 90.0, 'cm');
+INSERT INTO shoe_data VALUES ('sh2', 0, 'black', 30.0, 40.0, 'inch');
+INSERT INTO shoe_data VALUES ('sh3', 4, 'brown', 50.0, 65.0, 'cm');
+INSERT INTO shoe_data VALUES ('sh4', 3, 'brown', 40.0, 50.0, 'inch');
+
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl1', 5, 'black', 80.0, 'cm');
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl2', 6, 'black', 100.0, 'cm');
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl3', 0, 'black', 35.0 , 'inch');
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl4', 8, 'black', 40.0 , 'inch');
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl5', 4, 'brown', 1.0 , 'm');
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl6', 0, 'brown', 0.9 , 'm');
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl7', 7, 'brown', 60 , 'cm');
+INSERT INTO shoelace_data VALUES ('sl8', 1, 'brown', 40 , 'inch');
+
+SELECT * FROM shoelace;
+
+ sl_name | sl_avail | sl_color | sl_len | sl_unit | sl_len_cm
+-----------+----------+----------+--------+---------+-----------
+ sl1 | 5 | black | 80 | cm | 80
+ sl2 | 6 | black | 100 | cm | 100
+ sl7 | 7 | brown | 60 | cm | 60
+ sl3 | 0 | black | 35 | inch | 88.9
+ sl4 | 8 | black | 40 | inch | 101.6
+ sl8 | 1 | brown | 40 | inch | 101.6
+ sl5 | 4 | brown | 1 | m | 100
+ sl6 | 0 | brown | 0.9 | m | 90
+(8 rows)
+</pre><p>
+ </p><p>
+ This is the simplest <code class="command">SELECT</code> you can do on our
+ views, so we take this opportunity to explain the basics of view
+ rules. The <code class="literal">SELECT * FROM shoelace</code> was
+ interpreted by the parser and produced the query tree:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT shoelace.sl_name, shoelace.sl_avail,
+ shoelace.sl_color, shoelace.sl_len,
+ shoelace.sl_unit, shoelace.sl_len_cm
+ FROM shoelace shoelace;
+</pre><p>
+
+ and this is given to the rule system. The rule system walks through the
+ range table and checks if there are rules
+ for any relation. When processing the range table entry for
+ <code class="literal">shoelace</code> (the only one up to now) it finds the
+ <code class="literal">_RETURN</code> rule with the query tree:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT s.sl_name, s.sl_avail,
+ s.sl_color, s.sl_len, s.sl_unit,
+ s.sl_len * u.un_fact AS sl_len_cm
+ FROM shoelace old, shoelace new,
+ shoelace_data s, unit u
+ WHERE s.sl_unit = u.un_name;
+</pre><p>
+</p><p>
+ To expand the view, the rewriter simply creates a subquery range-table
+ entry containing the rule's action query tree, and substitutes this
+ range table entry for the original one that referenced the view. The
+ resulting rewritten query tree is almost the same as if you had typed:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT shoelace.sl_name, shoelace.sl_avail,
+ shoelace.sl_color, shoelace.sl_len,
+ shoelace.sl_unit, shoelace.sl_len_cm
+ FROM (SELECT s.sl_name,
+ s.sl_avail,
+ s.sl_color,
+ s.sl_len,
+ s.sl_unit,
+ s.sl_len * u.un_fact AS sl_len_cm
+ FROM shoelace_data s, unit u
+ WHERE s.sl_unit = u.un_name) shoelace;
+</pre><p>
+
+ There is one difference however: the subquery's range table has two
+ extra entries <code class="literal">shoelace old</code> and <code class="literal">shoelace new</code>. These entries don't
+ participate directly in the query, since they aren't referenced by
+ the subquery's join tree or target list. The rewriter uses them
+ to store the access privilege check information that was originally present
+ in the range-table entry that referenced the view. In this way, the
+ executor will still check that the user has proper privileges to access
+ the view, even though there's no direct use of the view in the rewritten
+ query.
+</p><p>
+ That was the first rule applied. The rule system will continue checking
+ the remaining range-table entries in the top query (in this example there
+ are no more), and it will recursively check the range-table entries in
+ the added subquery to see if any of them reference views. (But it
+ won't expand <code class="literal">old</code> or <code class="literal">new</code> — otherwise we'd have infinite recursion!)
+ In this example, there are no rewrite rules for <code class="literal">shoelace_data</code> or <code class="literal">unit</code>,
+ so rewriting is complete and the above is the final result given to
+ the planner.
+</p><p>
+ Now we want to write a query that finds out for which shoes currently in the store
+ we have the matching shoelaces (color and length) and where the
+ total number of exactly matching pairs is greater than or equal to two.
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT * FROM shoe_ready WHERE total_avail &gt;= 2;
+
+ shoename | sh_avail | sl_name | sl_avail | total_avail
+----------+----------+---------+----------+-------------
+ sh1 | 2 | sl1 | 5 | 2
+ sh3 | 4 | sl7 | 7 | 4
+(2 rows)
+</pre><p>
+</p><p>
+ The output of the parser this time is the query tree:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT shoe_ready.shoename, shoe_ready.sh_avail,
+ shoe_ready.sl_name, shoe_ready.sl_avail,
+ shoe_ready.total_avail
+ FROM shoe_ready shoe_ready
+ WHERE shoe_ready.total_avail &gt;= 2;
+</pre><p>
+
+ The first rule applied will be the one for the
+ <code class="literal">shoe_ready</code> view and it results in the
+ query tree:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT shoe_ready.shoename, shoe_ready.sh_avail,
+ shoe_ready.sl_name, shoe_ready.sl_avail,
+ shoe_ready.total_avail
+ FROM (SELECT rsh.shoename,
+ rsh.sh_avail,
+ rsl.sl_name,
+ rsl.sl_avail,
+ least(rsh.sh_avail, rsl.sl_avail) AS total_avail
+ FROM shoe rsh, shoelace rsl
+ WHERE rsl.sl_color = rsh.slcolor
+ AND rsl.sl_len_cm &gt;= rsh.slminlen_cm
+ AND rsl.sl_len_cm &lt;= rsh.slmaxlen_cm) shoe_ready
+ WHERE shoe_ready.total_avail &gt;= 2;
+</pre><p>
+
+ Similarly, the rules for <code class="literal">shoe</code> and
+ <code class="literal">shoelace</code> are substituted into the range table of
+ the subquery, leading to a three-level final query tree:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT shoe_ready.shoename, shoe_ready.sh_avail,
+ shoe_ready.sl_name, shoe_ready.sl_avail,
+ shoe_ready.total_avail
+ FROM (SELECT rsh.shoename,
+ rsh.sh_avail,
+ rsl.sl_name,
+ rsl.sl_avail,
+ least(rsh.sh_avail, rsl.sl_avail) AS total_avail
+ FROM (SELECT sh.shoename,
+ sh.sh_avail,
+ sh.slcolor,
+ sh.slminlen,
+ sh.slminlen * un.un_fact AS slminlen_cm,
+ sh.slmaxlen,
+ sh.slmaxlen * un.un_fact AS slmaxlen_cm,
+ sh.slunit
+ FROM shoe_data sh, unit un
+ WHERE sh.slunit = un.un_name) rsh,
+ (SELECT s.sl_name,
+ s.sl_avail,
+ s.sl_color,
+ s.sl_len,
+ s.sl_unit,
+ s.sl_len * u.un_fact AS sl_len_cm
+ FROM shoelace_data s, unit u
+ WHERE s.sl_unit = u.un_name) rsl
+ WHERE rsl.sl_color = rsh.slcolor
+ AND rsl.sl_len_cm &gt;= rsh.slminlen_cm
+ AND rsl.sl_len_cm &lt;= rsh.slmaxlen_cm) shoe_ready
+ WHERE shoe_ready.total_avail &gt; 2;
+</pre><p>
+ </p><p>
+ This might look inefficient, but the planner will collapse this into a
+ single-level query tree by <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">pulling up</span>”</span> the subqueries,
+ and then it will plan the joins just as if we'd written them out
+ manually. So collapsing the query tree is an optimization that the
+ rewrite system doesn't have to concern itself with.
+ </p></div><div class="sect2" id="id-1.8.6.7.6"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">41.2.2. View Rules in Non-<code class="command">SELECT</code> Statements</h3></div></div></div><p>
+ Two details of the query tree aren't touched in the description of
+ view rules above. These are the command type and the result relation.
+ In fact, the command type is not needed by view rules, but the result
+ relation may affect the way in which the query rewriter works, because
+ special care needs to be taken if the result relation is a view.
+</p><p>
+ There are only a few differences between a query tree for a
+ <code class="command">SELECT</code> and one for any other
+ command. Obviously, they have a different command type and for a
+ command other than a <code class="command">SELECT</code>, the result
+ relation points to the range-table entry where the result should
+ go. Everything else is absolutely the same. So having two tables
+ <code class="literal">t1</code> and <code class="literal">t2</code> with columns <code class="literal">a</code> and
+ <code class="literal">b</code>, the query trees for the two statements:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t2.b FROM t1, t2 WHERE t1.a = t2.a;
+
+UPDATE t1 SET b = t2.b FROM t2 WHERE t1.a = t2.a;
+</pre><p>
+
+ are nearly identical. In particular:
+
+ </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
+ The range tables contain entries for the tables <code class="literal">t1</code> and <code class="literal">t2</code>.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ The target lists contain one variable that points to column
+ <code class="literal">b</code> of the range table entry for table <code class="literal">t2</code>.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ The qualification expressions compare the columns <code class="literal">a</code> of both
+ range-table entries for equality.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ The join trees show a simple join between <code class="literal">t1</code> and <code class="literal">t2</code>.
+ </p></li></ul></div><p>
+ </p><p>
+ The consequence is, that both query trees result in similar
+ execution plans: They are both joins over the two tables. For the
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code> the missing columns from <code class="literal">t1</code> are added to
+ the target list by the planner and the final query tree will read
+ as:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+UPDATE t1 SET a = t1.a, b = t2.b FROM t2 WHERE t1.a = t2.a;
+</pre><p>
+
+ and thus the executor run over the join will produce exactly the
+ same result set as:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t1.a, t2.b FROM t1, t2 WHERE t1.a = t2.a;
+</pre><p>
+
+ But there is a little problem in
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code>: the part of the executor plan that does
+ the join does not care what the results from the join are
+ meant for. It just produces a result set of rows. The fact that
+ one is a <code class="command">SELECT</code> command and the other is an
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code> is handled higher up in the executor, where
+ it knows that this is an <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, and it knows that
+ this result should go into table <code class="literal">t1</code>. But which of the rows
+ that are there has to be replaced by the new row?
+</p><p>
+ To resolve this problem, another entry is added to the target list
+ in <code class="command">UPDATE</code> (and also in
+ <code class="command">DELETE</code>) statements: the current tuple ID
+ (<acronym class="acronym">CTID</acronym>).<a id="id-1.8.6.7.6.5.4" class="indexterm"></a>
+ This is a system column containing the
+ file block number and position in the block for the row. Knowing
+ the table, the <acronym class="acronym">CTID</acronym> can be used to retrieve the
+ original row of <code class="literal">t1</code> to be updated. After adding the
+ <acronym class="acronym">CTID</acronym> to the target list, the query actually looks like:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t1.a, t2.b, t1.ctid FROM t1, t2 WHERE t1.a = t2.a;
+</pre><p>
+
+ Now another detail of <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> enters
+ the stage. Old table rows aren't overwritten, and this
+ is why <code class="command">ROLLBACK</code> is fast. In an <code class="command">UPDATE</code>,
+ the new result row is inserted into the table (after stripping the
+ <acronym class="acronym">CTID</acronym>) and in the row header of the old row, which the
+ <acronym class="acronym">CTID</acronym> pointed to, the <code class="literal">cmax</code> and
+ <code class="literal">xmax</code> entries are set to the current command counter
+ and current transaction ID. Thus the old row is hidden, and after
+ the transaction commits the vacuum cleaner can eventually remove
+ the dead row.
+</p><p>
+ Knowing all that, we can simply apply view rules in absolutely
+ the same way to any command. There is no difference.
+</p></div><div class="sect2" id="id-1.8.6.7.7"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">41.2.3. The Power of Views in <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span></h3></div></div></div><p>
+ The above demonstrates how the rule system incorporates view
+ definitions into the original query tree. In the second example, a
+ simple <code class="command">SELECT</code> from one view created a final
+ query tree that is a join of 4 tables (<code class="literal">unit</code> was used twice with
+ different names).
+</p><p>
+ The benefit of implementing views with the rule system is
+ that the planner has all
+ the information about which tables have to be scanned plus the
+ relationships between these tables plus the restrictive
+ qualifications from the views plus the qualifications from
+ the original query
+ in one single query tree. And this is still the situation
+ when the original query is already a join over views.
+ The planner has to decide which is
+ the best path to execute the query, and the more information
+ the planner has, the better this decision can be. And
+ the rule system as implemented in <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>
+ ensures that this is all information available about the query
+ up to that point.
+</p></div><div class="sect2" id="RULES-VIEWS-UPDATE"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">41.2.4. Updating a View</h3></div></div></div><p>
+ What happens if a view is named as the target relation for an
+ <code class="command">INSERT</code>, <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, or
+ <code class="command">DELETE</code>? Doing the substitutions
+ described above would give a query tree in which the result
+ relation points at a subquery range-table entry, which will not
+ work. There are several ways in which <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>
+ can support the appearance of updating a view, however.
+ In order of user-experienced complexity those are: automatically substitute
+ in the underlying table for the view, execute a user-defined trigger,
+ or rewrite the query per a user-defined rule.
+ These options are discussed below.
+</p><p>
+ If the subquery selects from a single base relation and is simple
+ enough, the rewriter can automatically replace the subquery with the
+ underlying base relation so that the <code class="command">INSERT</code>,
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, or <code class="command">DELETE</code> is applied to
+ the base relation in the appropriate way. Views that are
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">simple enough</span>”</span> for this are called <em class="firstterm">automatically
+ updatable</em>. For detailed information on the kinds of view that can
+ be automatically updated, see <a class="xref" href="sql-createview.html" title="CREATE VIEW"><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE VIEW</span></a>.
+</p><p>
+ Alternatively, the operation may be handled by a user-provided
+ <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> trigger on the view
+ (see <a class="xref" href="sql-createtrigger.html" title="CREATE TRIGGER"><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE TRIGGER</span></a>).
+ Rewriting works slightly differently
+ in this case. For <code class="command">INSERT</code>, the rewriter does
+ nothing at all with the view, leaving it as the result relation
+ for the query. For <code class="command">UPDATE</code> and
+ <code class="command">DELETE</code>, it's still necessary to expand the
+ view query to produce the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">old</span>”</span> rows that the command will
+ attempt to update or delete. So the view is expanded as normal,
+ but another unexpanded range-table entry is added to the query
+ to represent the view in its capacity as the result relation.
+</p><p>
+ The problem that now arises is how to identify the rows to be
+ updated in the view. Recall that when the result relation
+ is a table, a special <acronym class="acronym">CTID</acronym> entry is added to the target
+ list to identify the physical locations of the rows to be updated.
+ This does not work if the result relation is a view, because a view
+ does not have any <acronym class="acronym">CTID</acronym>, since its rows do not have
+ actual physical locations. Instead, for an <code class="command">UPDATE</code>
+ or <code class="command">DELETE</code> operation, a special <code class="literal">wholerow</code>
+ entry is added to the target list, which expands to include all
+ columns from the view. The executor uses this value to supply the
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">old</span>”</span> row to the <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> trigger. It is
+ up to the trigger to work out what to update based on the old and
+ new row values.
+</p><p>
+ Another possibility is for the user to define <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code>
+ rules that specify substitute actions for <code class="command">INSERT</code>,
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, and <code class="command">DELETE</code> commands on
+ a view. These rules will rewrite the command, typically into a command
+ that updates one or more tables, rather than views. That is the topic
+ of <a class="xref" href="rules-update.html" title="41.4. Rules on INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE">Section 41.4</a>.
+</p><p>
+ Note that rules are evaluated first, rewriting the original query
+ before it is planned and executed. Therefore, if a view has
+ <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> triggers as well as rules on <code class="command">INSERT</code>,
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, or <code class="command">DELETE</code>, then the rules will be
+ evaluated first, and depending on the result, the triggers may not be
+ used at all.
+</p><p>
+ Automatic rewriting of an <code class="command">INSERT</code>,
+ <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, or <code class="command">DELETE</code> query on a
+ simple view is always tried last. Therefore, if a view has rules or
+ triggers, they will override the default behavior of automatically
+ updatable views.
+</p><p>
+ If there are no <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code> rules or <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code>
+ triggers for the view, and the rewriter cannot automatically rewrite
+ the query as an update on the underlying base relation, an error will
+ be thrown because the executor cannot update a view as such.
+</p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="querytree.html" title="41.1. The Query Tree">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="rules.html" title="Chapter 41. The Rule System">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="rules-materializedviews.html" title="41.3. Materialized Views">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">41.1. The Query Tree </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 41.3. Materialized Views</td></tr></table></div></body></html> \ No newline at end of file