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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!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>CREATE RULE</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="sql-createrole.html" title="CREATE ROLE" /><link rel="next" href="sql-createschema.html" title="CREATE SCHEMA" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">CREATE RULE</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sql-createrole.html" title="CREATE ROLE">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="sql-commands.html" title="SQL Commands">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">SQL Commands</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.7 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sql-createschema.html" title="CREATE SCHEMA">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="refentry" id="SQL-CREATERULE"><div class="titlepage"></div><a id="id-1.9.3.79.1" class="indexterm"></a><div class="refnamediv"><h2><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE RULE</span></h2><p>CREATE RULE — define a new rewrite rule</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><pre class="synopsis">
CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] RULE <em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em> AS ON <em class="replaceable"><code>event</code></em>
    TO <em class="replaceable"><code>table_name</code></em> [ WHERE <em class="replaceable"><code>condition</code></em> ]
    DO [ ALSO | INSTEAD ] { NOTHING | <em class="replaceable"><code>command</code></em> | ( <em class="replaceable"><code>command</code></em> ; <em class="replaceable"><code>command</code></em> ... ) }

<span class="phrase">where <em class="replaceable"><code>event</code></em> can be one of:</span>

    SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE
</pre></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.79.5"><h2>Description</h2><p>
   <code class="command">CREATE RULE</code> defines a new rule applying to a specified
   table or view.
   <code class="command">CREATE OR REPLACE RULE</code> will either create a
   new rule, or replace an existing rule of the same name for the same
   table.
  </p><p>
   The <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> rule system allows one to
   define an alternative action to be performed on insertions, updates,
   or deletions in database tables.  Roughly speaking, a rule causes
   additional commands to be executed when a given command on a given
   table is executed.  Alternatively, an <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code>
   rule can replace a given command by another, or cause a command
   not to be executed at all.  Rules are used to implement SQL
   views as well.  It is important to realize that a rule is really
   a command transformation mechanism, or command macro.  The
   transformation happens before the execution of the command starts.
   If you actually want an operation that fires independently for each
   physical row, you probably want to use a trigger, not a rule.
   More information about the rules system is in <a class="xref" href="rules.html" title="Chapter 41. The Rule System">Chapter 41</a>.
  </p><p>
   Presently, <code class="literal">ON SELECT</code> rules can only be attached
   to views.  (Attaching one to a table converts the table into a view.)
   Such a rule must be named <code class="literal">"_RETURN"</code>,
   must be an unconditional <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code> rule, and must have
   an action that consists of a single <code class="command">SELECT</code> command.
   This command defines the visible contents of the view.  (The view
   itself is basically a dummy table with no storage.)  It's best to
   regard such a rule as an implementation detail.  While a view can be
   redefined via <code class="literal">CREATE OR REPLACE RULE "_RETURN" AS
   ...</code>, it's better style to use <code class="literal">CREATE OR REPLACE
   VIEW</code>.
  </p><p>
   You can create the illusion of an updatable view by defining
   <code class="literal">ON INSERT</code>, <code class="literal">ON UPDATE</code>, and
   <code class="literal">ON DELETE</code> rules (or any subset of those that's
   sufficient for your purposes) to replace update actions on the view
   with appropriate updates on other tables.  If you want to support
   <code class="command">INSERT RETURNING</code> and so on, then be sure to put a suitable
   <code class="literal">RETURNING</code> clause into each of these rules.
  </p><p>
   There is a catch if you try to use conditional rules for complex view
   updates: there <span class="emphasis"><em>must</em></span> be an unconditional
   <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code> rule for each action you wish to allow
   on the view.  If the rule is conditional, or is not
   <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code>, then the system will still reject
   attempts to perform the update action, because it thinks it might
   end up trying to perform the action on the dummy table of the view
   in some cases.  If you want to handle all the useful cases in
   conditional rules, add an unconditional <code class="literal">DO
   INSTEAD NOTHING</code> rule to ensure that the system
   understands it will never be called on to update the dummy table.
   Then make the conditional rules non-<code class="literal">INSTEAD</code>; in
   the cases where they are applied, they add to the default
   <code class="literal">INSTEAD NOTHING</code> action.  (This method does not
   currently work to support <code class="literal">RETURNING</code> queries, however.)
  </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>
    A view that is simple enough to be automatically updatable (see <a class="xref" href="sql-createview.html" title="CREATE VIEW"><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE VIEW</span></a>) does not require a user-created rule in
    order to be updatable.  While you can create an explicit rule anyway,
    the automatic update transformation will generally outperform an
    explicit rule.
   </p><p>
    Another alternative worth considering is to use <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code>
    triggers (see <a class="xref" href="sql-createtrigger.html" title="CREATE TRIGGER"><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE TRIGGER</span></a>) in place of rules.
   </p></div></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.79.6"><h2>Parameters</h2><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
      The name of a rule to create.  This must be distinct from the
      name of any other rule for the same table.  Multiple rules on
      the same table and same event type are applied in alphabetical
      name order.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>event</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
      The event is one of <code class="literal">SELECT</code>,
      <code class="literal">INSERT</code>, <code class="literal">UPDATE</code>, or
      <code class="literal">DELETE</code>.  Note that an
      <code class="command">INSERT</code> containing an <code class="literal">ON
      CONFLICT</code> clause cannot be used on tables that have
      either <code class="literal">INSERT</code> or <code class="literal">UPDATE</code>
      rules.  Consider using an updatable view instead.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>table_name</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
      The name (optionally schema-qualified) of the table or view the
      rule applies to.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>condition</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
      Any <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> conditional expression (returning
      <code class="type">boolean</code>).  The condition expression cannot refer
      to any tables except <code class="literal">NEW</code> and <code class="literal">OLD</code>, and
      cannot contain aggregate functions.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">INSTEAD</code></span></dt><dd><p><code class="literal">INSTEAD</code> indicates that the commands should be
      executed <span class="emphasis"><em>instead of</em></span> the original command.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="option">ALSO</code></span></dt><dd><p><code class="literal">ALSO</code> indicates that the commands should be
      executed <span class="emphasis"><em>in addition to</em></span> the original
      command.
     </p><p>
      If neither <code class="literal">ALSO</code> nor
      <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code> is specified, <code class="literal">ALSO</code>
      is the default.
     </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>command</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
      The command or commands that make up the rule action.  Valid
      commands are <code class="command">SELECT</code>,
      <code class="command">INSERT</code>, <code class="command">UPDATE</code>,
      <code class="command">DELETE</code>, or <code class="command">NOTIFY</code>.
     </p></dd></dl></div><p>
   Within <em class="replaceable"><code>condition</code></em> and
   <em class="replaceable"><code>command</code></em>, the special
   table names <code class="literal">NEW</code> and <code class="literal">OLD</code> can
   be used to refer to values in the referenced table.
   <code class="literal">NEW</code> is valid in <code class="literal">ON INSERT</code> and
   <code class="literal">ON UPDATE</code> rules to refer to the new row being
   inserted or updated.  <code class="literal">OLD</code> is valid in
   <code class="literal">ON UPDATE</code> and <code class="literal">ON DELETE</code> rules
   to refer to the existing row being updated or deleted.
  </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.79.7"><h2>Notes</h2><p>
   You must be the owner of a table to create or change rules for it.
  </p><p>
   In a rule for <code class="literal">INSERT</code>, <code class="literal">UPDATE</code>, or
   <code class="literal">DELETE</code> on a view, you can add a <code class="literal">RETURNING</code>
   clause that emits the view's columns.  This clause will be used to compute
   the outputs if the rule is triggered by an <code class="command">INSERT RETURNING</code>,
   <code class="command">UPDATE RETURNING</code>, or <code class="command">DELETE RETURNING</code> command
   respectively.  When the rule is triggered by a command without
   <code class="literal">RETURNING</code>, the rule's <code class="literal">RETURNING</code> clause will be
   ignored.  The current implementation allows only unconditional
   <code class="literal">INSTEAD</code> rules to contain <code class="literal">RETURNING</code>; furthermore
   there can be at most one <code class="literal">RETURNING</code> clause among all the rules
   for the same event.  (This ensures that there is only one candidate
   <code class="literal">RETURNING</code> clause to be used to compute the results.)
   <code class="literal">RETURNING</code> queries on the view will be rejected if
   there is no <code class="literal">RETURNING</code> clause in any available rule.
  </p><p>
   It is very important to take care to avoid circular rules.  For
   example, though each of the following two rule definitions are
   accepted by <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>, the
   <code class="command">SELECT</code> command would cause
   <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> to report an error because
   of recursive expansion of a rule:

</p><pre class="programlisting">
CREATE RULE "_RETURN" AS
    ON SELECT TO t1
    DO INSTEAD
        SELECT * FROM t2;

CREATE RULE "_RETURN" AS
    ON SELECT TO t2
    DO INSTEAD
        SELECT * FROM t1;

SELECT * FROM t1;
</pre><p>
  </p><p>
   Presently, if a rule action contains a <code class="command">NOTIFY</code>
   command, the <code class="command">NOTIFY</code> command will be executed
   unconditionally, that is, the <code class="command">NOTIFY</code> will be
   issued even if there are not any rows that the rule should apply
   to.  For example, in:
</p><pre class="programlisting">
CREATE RULE notify_me AS ON UPDATE TO mytable DO ALSO NOTIFY mytable;

UPDATE mytable SET name = 'foo' WHERE id = 42;
</pre><p>
   one <code class="command">NOTIFY</code> event will be sent during the
   <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, whether or not there are any rows that
   match the condition <code class="literal">id = 42</code>.  This is an
   implementation restriction that might be fixed in future releases.
  </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.79.8"><h2>Compatibility</h2><p>
   <code class="command">CREATE RULE</code> is a
   <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> language extension, as is the
   entire query rewrite system.
  </p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.79.9"><h2>See Also</h2><span class="simplelist"><a class="xref" href="sql-alterrule.html" title="ALTER RULE"><span class="refentrytitle">ALTER RULE</span></a>, <a class="xref" href="sql-droprule.html" title="DROP RULE"><span class="refentrytitle">DROP RULE</span></a></span></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sql-createrole.html" title="CREATE ROLE">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="sql-commands.html" title="SQL Commands">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sql-createschema.html" title="CREATE SCHEMA">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">CREATE ROLE </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.7 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> CREATE SCHEMA</td></tr></table></div></body></html>