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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>39.1. Overview of Trigger Behavior</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="triggers.html" title="Chapter 39. Triggers" /><link rel="next" href="trigger-datachanges.html" title="39.2. Visibility of Data Changes" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">39.1. Overview of Trigger Behavior</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="triggers.html" title="Chapter 39. Triggers">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="triggers.html" title="Chapter 39. Triggers">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 39. Triggers</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="trigger-datachanges.html" title="39.2. Visibility of Data Changes">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="TRIGGER-DEFINITION"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">39.1. Overview of Trigger Behavior</h2></div></div></div><p>
    A trigger is a specification that the database should automatically
    execute a particular function whenever a certain type of operation is
    performed.  Triggers can be attached to tables (partitioned or not),
    views, and foreign tables.
  </p><p>
    On tables and foreign tables, triggers can be defined to execute either
    before or after any <code class="command">INSERT</code>, <code class="command">UPDATE</code>,
    or <code class="command">DELETE</code> operation, either once per modified row,
    or once per <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> statement.
    <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers can moreover be set to fire only if
    certain columns are mentioned in the <code class="literal">SET</code> clause of
    the <code class="command">UPDATE</code> statement.  Triggers can also fire
    for <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> statements.  If a trigger event occurs,
    the trigger's function is called at the appropriate time to handle the
    event.
   </p><p>
    On views, triggers can be defined to execute instead of
    <code class="command">INSERT</code>, <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, or
    <code class="command">DELETE</code> operations.
    Such <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> triggers
    are fired once for each row that needs to be modified in the view.
    It is the responsibility of the
    trigger's function to perform the necessary modifications to the view's
    underlying base table(s) and, where appropriate, return the modified
    row as it will appear in the view.  Triggers on views can also be defined
    to execute once per <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> statement, before or after
    <code class="command">INSERT</code>, <code class="command">UPDATE</code>, or
    <code class="command">DELETE</code> operations.
    However, such triggers are fired only if there is also
    an <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> trigger on the view.  Otherwise,
    any statement targeting the view must be rewritten into a statement
    affecting its underlying base table(s), and then the triggers
    that will be fired are the ones attached to the base table(s).
   </p><p>
    The trigger function must be defined before the trigger itself can be
    created.  The trigger function must be declared as a
    function taking no arguments and returning type <code class="literal">trigger</code>.
    (The trigger function receives its input through a specially-passed
    <code class="structname">TriggerData</code> structure, not in the form of ordinary function
    arguments.)
   </p><p>
    Once a suitable trigger function has been created, the trigger is
    established with
    <a class="xref" href="sql-createtrigger.html" title="CREATE TRIGGER"><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE TRIGGER</span></a>.
    The same trigger function can be used for multiple triggers.
   </p><p>
    <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> offers both <em class="firstterm">per-row</em>
    triggers and <em class="firstterm">per-statement</em> triggers.  With a per-row
    trigger, the trigger function
    is invoked once for each row that is affected by the statement
    that fired the trigger. In contrast, a per-statement trigger is
    invoked only once when an appropriate statement is executed,
    regardless of the number of rows affected by that statement. In
    particular, a statement that affects zero rows will still result
    in the execution of any applicable per-statement triggers. These
    two types of triggers are sometimes called <em class="firstterm">row-level</em>
    triggers and <em class="firstterm">statement-level</em> triggers,
    respectively. Triggers on <code class="command">TRUNCATE</code> may only be
    defined at statement level, not per-row.
   </p><p>
    Triggers are also classified according to whether they fire
    <em class="firstterm">before</em>, <em class="firstterm">after</em>, or
    <em class="firstterm">instead of</em> the operation. These are referred to
    as <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers, <code class="literal">AFTER</code> triggers, and
    <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> triggers respectively.
    Statement-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers naturally fire before the
    statement starts to do anything, while statement-level <code class="literal">AFTER</code>
    triggers fire at the very end of the statement.  These types of
    triggers may be defined on tables, views, or foreign tables.  Row-level
    <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers fire immediately before a particular row is
    operated on, while row-level <code class="literal">AFTER</code> triggers fire at the end of
    the statement (but before any statement-level <code class="literal">AFTER</code> triggers).
    These types of triggers may only be defined on tables and
    foreign tables, not views.
    <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> triggers may only be
    defined on views, and only at row level; they fire immediately as each
    row in the view is identified as needing to be operated on.
   </p><p>
    The execution of an <code class="literal">AFTER</code> trigger can be deferred
    to the end of the transaction, rather than the end of the statement,
    if it was defined as a <em class="firstterm">constraint trigger</em>.
    In all cases, a trigger is executed as part of the same transaction as
    the statement that triggered it, so if either the statement or the
    trigger causes an error, the effects of both will be rolled back.
   </p><p>
    A statement that targets a parent table in an inheritance or partitioning
    hierarchy does not cause the statement-level triggers of affected child
    tables to be fired; only the parent table's statement-level triggers are
    fired.  However, row-level triggers of any affected child tables will be
    fired.
   </p><p>
    If an <code class="command">INSERT</code> contains an <code class="literal">ON CONFLICT
    DO UPDATE</code> clause, it is possible that the effects of
    row-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> <code class="command">INSERT</code> triggers and
    row-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers can
    both be applied in a way that is apparent from the final state of
    the updated row, if an <code class="varname">EXCLUDED</code> column is referenced.
    There need not be an <code class="varname">EXCLUDED</code> column reference for
    both sets of row-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers to execute,
    though.  The
    possibility of surprising outcomes should be considered when there
    are both <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> <code class="command">INSERT</code> and
    <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> <code class="command">UPDATE</code> row-level triggers
    that change a row being inserted/updated (this can be
    problematic even if the modifications are more or less equivalent, if
    they're not also idempotent).  Note that statement-level
    <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers are executed when <code class="literal">ON
    CONFLICT DO UPDATE</code> is specified, regardless of whether or not
    any rows were affected by the <code class="command">UPDATE</code> (and
    regardless of whether the alternative <code class="command">UPDATE</code>
    path was ever taken).  An <code class="command">INSERT</code> with an
    <code class="literal">ON CONFLICT DO UPDATE</code> clause will execute
    statement-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> <code class="command">INSERT</code>
    triggers first, then statement-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code>
    <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers, followed by statement-level
    <code class="literal">AFTER</code> <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers and finally
    statement-level <code class="literal">AFTER</code> <code class="command">INSERT</code>
    triggers.
   </p><p>
    If an <code class="command">UPDATE</code> on a partitioned table causes a row to move
    to another partition, it will be performed as a <code class="command">DELETE</code>
    from the original partition followed by an <code class="command">INSERT</code> into
    the new partition. In this case, all row-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code>
    <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers and all row-level
    <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> <code class="command">DELETE</code> triggers are fired on
    the original partition. Then all row-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code>
    <code class="command">INSERT</code> triggers are fired on the destination partition.
    The possibility of surprising outcomes should be considered when all these
    triggers affect the row being moved. As far as <code class="literal">AFTER ROW</code>
    triggers are concerned, <code class="literal">AFTER</code> <code class="command">DELETE</code>
    and <code class="literal">AFTER</code> <code class="command">INSERT</code> triggers are
    applied; but <code class="literal">AFTER</code> <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers
    are not applied because the <code class="command">UPDATE</code> has been converted to
    a <code class="command">DELETE</code> and an <code class="command">INSERT</code>. As far as
    statement-level triggers are concerned, none of the
    <code class="command">DELETE</code> or <code class="command">INSERT</code> triggers are fired,
    even if row movement occurs; only the <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers
    defined on the target table used in the <code class="command">UPDATE</code> statement
    will be fired.
   </p><p>
    No separate triggers are defined for <code class="command">MERGE</code>. Instead,
    statement-level or row-level <code class="command">UPDATE</code>,
    <code class="command">DELETE</code>, and <code class="command">INSERT</code> triggers are fired
    depending on (for statement-level triggers) what actions are specified in
    the <code class="command">MERGE</code> query and (for row-level triggers) what
    actions are performed.
   </p><p>
    While running a <code class="command">MERGE</code> command, statement-level
    <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> and <code class="literal">AFTER</code> triggers are
    fired for events specified in the actions of the <code class="command">MERGE</code>
    command, irrespective of whether or not the action is ultimately performed.
    This is the same as an <code class="command">UPDATE</code> statement that updates
    no rows, yet statement-level triggers are fired.
    The row-level triggers are fired only when a row is actually updated,
    inserted or deleted. So it's perfectly legal that while statement-level
    triggers are fired for certain types of action, no row-level triggers
    are fired for the same kind of action.
   </p><p>
    Trigger functions invoked by per-statement triggers should always
    return <code class="symbol">NULL</code>. Trigger functions invoked by per-row
    triggers can return a table row (a value of
    type <code class="structname">HeapTuple</code>) to the calling executor,
    if they choose.  A row-level trigger fired before an operation has
    the following choices:

    </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
       It can return <code class="symbol">NULL</code> to skip the operation for the
       current row. This instructs the executor to not perform the
       row-level operation that invoked the trigger (the insertion,
       modification, or deletion of a particular table row).
      </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
       For row-level <code class="command">INSERT</code>
       and <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers only, the returned row
       becomes the row that will be inserted or will replace the row
       being updated.  This allows the trigger function to modify the
       row being inserted or updated.
      </p></li></ul></div><p>

    A row-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> trigger that does not intend to cause
    either of these behaviors must be careful to return as its result the same
    row that was passed in (that is, the <code class="varname">NEW</code> row
    for <code class="command">INSERT</code> and <code class="command">UPDATE</code>
    triggers, the <code class="varname">OLD</code> row for
    <code class="command">DELETE</code> triggers).
   </p><p>
    A row-level <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> trigger should either return
    <code class="symbol">NULL</code> to indicate that it did not modify any data from
    the view's underlying base tables, or it should return the view
    row that was passed in (the <code class="varname">NEW</code> row
    for <code class="command">INSERT</code> and <code class="command">UPDATE</code>
    operations, or the <code class="varname">OLD</code> row for
    <code class="command">DELETE</code> operations). A nonnull return value is
    used to signal that the trigger performed the necessary data
    modifications in the view.  This will cause the count of the number
    of rows affected by the command to be incremented. For
    <code class="command">INSERT</code> and <code class="command">UPDATE</code> operations only, the trigger
    may modify the <code class="varname">NEW</code> row before returning it.  This will
    change the data returned by
    <code class="command">INSERT RETURNING</code> or <code class="command">UPDATE RETURNING</code>,
    and is useful when the view will not show exactly the same data
    that was provided.
   </p><p>
    The return value is ignored for row-level triggers fired after an
    operation, and so they can return <code class="symbol">NULL</code>.
   </p><p>
    Some considerations apply for generated
    columns.<a id="id-1.8.4.5.18.1" class="indexterm"></a>  Stored generated columns are computed after
    <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers and before <code class="literal">AFTER</code>
    triggers.  Therefore, the generated value can be inspected in
    <code class="literal">AFTER</code> triggers.  In <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers,
    the <code class="literal">OLD</code> row contains the old generated value, as one
    would expect, but the <code class="literal">NEW</code> row does not yet contain the
    new generated value and should not be accessed.  In the C language
    interface, the content of the column is undefined at this point; a
    higher-level programming language should prevent access to a stored
    generated column in the <code class="literal">NEW</code> row in a
    <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> trigger.  Changes to the value of a generated
    column in a <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> trigger are ignored and will be
    overwritten.
   </p><p>
    If more than one trigger is defined for the same event on the same
    relation, the triggers will be fired in alphabetical order by
    trigger name.  In the case of <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> and
    <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> triggers, the possibly-modified row returned by
    each trigger becomes the input to the next trigger.  If any
    <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> or <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> trigger returns
    <code class="symbol">NULL</code>, the operation is abandoned for that row and subsequent
    triggers are not fired (for that row).
   </p><p>
    A trigger definition can also specify a Boolean <code class="literal">WHEN</code>
    condition, which will be tested to see whether the trigger should
    be fired.  In row-level triggers the <code class="literal">WHEN</code> condition can
    examine the old and/or new values of columns of the row.  (Statement-level
    triggers can also have <code class="literal">WHEN</code> conditions, although the feature
    is not so useful for them.)  In a <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> trigger, the
    <code class="literal">WHEN</code>
    condition is evaluated just before the function is or would be executed,
    so using <code class="literal">WHEN</code> is not materially different from testing the
    same condition at the beginning of the trigger function.  However, in
    an <code class="literal">AFTER</code> trigger, the <code class="literal">WHEN</code> condition is evaluated
    just after the row update occurs, and it determines whether an event is
    queued to fire the trigger at the end of statement.  So when an
    <code class="literal">AFTER</code> trigger's
    <code class="literal">WHEN</code> condition does not return true, it is not necessary
    to queue an event nor to re-fetch the row at end of statement.  This
    can result in significant speedups in statements that modify many
    rows, if the trigger only needs to be fired for a few of the rows.
    <code class="literal">INSTEAD OF</code> triggers do not support
    <code class="literal">WHEN</code> conditions.
   </p><p>
    Typically, row-level <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers are used for checking or
    modifying the data that will be inserted or updated.  For example,
    a <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> trigger might be used to insert the current time into a
    <code class="type">timestamp</code> column, or to check that two elements of the row are
    consistent. Row-level <code class="literal">AFTER</code> triggers are most sensibly
    used to propagate the updates to other tables, or make consistency
    checks against other tables.  The reason for this division of labor is
    that an <code class="literal">AFTER</code> trigger can be certain it is seeing the final
    value of the row, while a <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> trigger cannot; there might
    be other <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> triggers firing after it.  If you have no
    specific reason to make a trigger <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> or
    <code class="literal">AFTER</code>, the <code class="literal">BEFORE</code> case is more efficient, since
    the information about
    the operation doesn't have to be saved until end of statement.
   </p><p>
    If a trigger function executes SQL commands then these
    commands might fire triggers again. This is known as cascading
    triggers.  There is no direct limitation on the number of cascade
    levels.  It is possible for cascades to cause a recursive invocation
    of the same trigger; for example, an <code class="command">INSERT</code>
    trigger might execute a command that inserts an additional row
    into the same table, causing the <code class="command">INSERT</code> trigger
    to be fired again.  It is the trigger programmer's responsibility
    to avoid infinite recursion in such scenarios.
   </p><p>
    <a id="id-1.8.4.5.23.1" class="indexterm"></a>
    When a trigger is being defined, arguments can be specified for
    it. The purpose of including arguments in the
    trigger definition is to allow different triggers with similar
    requirements to call the same function.  As an example, there
    could be a generalized trigger function that takes as its
    arguments two column names and puts the current user in one and
    the current time stamp in the other.  Properly written, this
    trigger function would be independent of the specific table it is
    triggering on.  So the same function could be used for
    <code class="command">INSERT</code> events on any table with suitable
    columns, to automatically track creation of records in a
    transaction table for example. It could also be used to track
    last-update events if defined as an <code class="command">UPDATE</code>
    trigger.
   </p><p>
    Each programming language that supports triggers has its own method
    for making the trigger input data available to the trigger function.
    This input data includes the type of trigger event (e.g.,
    <code class="command">INSERT</code> or <code class="command">UPDATE</code>) as well as any
    arguments that were listed in <code class="command">CREATE TRIGGER</code>.
    For a row-level trigger, the input data also includes the
    <code class="varname">NEW</code> row for <code class="command">INSERT</code> and
    <code class="command">UPDATE</code> triggers, and/or the <code class="varname">OLD</code> row
    for <code class="command">UPDATE</code> and <code class="command">DELETE</code> triggers.
   </p><p>
    By default, statement-level triggers do not have any way to examine the
    individual row(s) modified by the statement.  But an <code class="literal">AFTER
    STATEMENT</code> trigger can request that <em class="firstterm">transition tables</em>
    be created to make the sets of affected rows available to the trigger.
    <code class="literal">AFTER ROW</code> triggers can also request transition tables, so
    that they can see the total changes in the table as well as the change in
    the individual row they are currently being fired for.  The method for
    examining the transition tables again depends on the programming language
    that is being used, but the typical approach is to make the transition
    tables act like read-only temporary tables that can be accessed by SQL
    commands issued within the trigger function.
   </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="triggers.html" title="Chapter 39. Triggers">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="triggers.html" title="Chapter 39. Triggers">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="trigger-datachanges.html" title="39.2. Visibility of Data Changes">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 39. Triggers </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"> 39.2. Visibility of Data Changes</td></tr></table></div></body></html>