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Triggers

Triggers are stored PL/SQL blocks that are automatically executed in response to certain events on the database tables, such as insert, update or delete. There are different types of triggers depending on when they are executed, including before or after the triggering statement, as well as row-level or statement-level triggers. Triggers allow developers to customize the behavior of data modifications and enforce business rules and referential integrity.

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92 views4 pages

Triggers

Triggers are stored PL/SQL blocks that are automatically executed in response to certain events on the database tables, such as insert, update or delete. There are different types of triggers depending on when they are executed, including before or after the triggering statement, as well as row-level or statement-level triggers. Triggers allow developers to customize the behavior of data modifications and enforce business rules and referential integrity.

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supriya028
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Triggers

A trigger is a pl/sql block structure which is fired when a DML statements like Insert, Delete, Update is
executed on a database table. A trigger is triggered automatically when an associated DML statement is
executed.

Syntax:
CREATE [OR REPLACE ] TRIGGER trigger_name
{BEFORE | AFTER | INSTEAD OF }
{INSERT [OR] | UPDATE [OR] | DELETE}
[OF col_name]  
ON table_name 
[REFERENCING OLD AS o NEW AS n] 
[FOR EACH ROW]  
WHEN (condition)  
 BEGIN  
 --- sql statements 
 END;

Each statements are described below :

Statement Description

CREATE [OR REPLACE This clause creates a trigger with the given name or overwrites an existing trigger with the same
] TRIGGER name.
trigger_name

{BEFORE | AFTER | This clause indicates at what time the trigger should get fired. i.e for example: before or after
INSTEAD OF } updating a table. INSTEAD OF is used to create a trigger on a view. before and after cannot be
used to create a trigger on a view.

{INSERT [OR] | This clause determines the triggering event. More than one triggering events can be used
UPDATE [OR] | together separated by OR keyword. The trigger gets fired at all the specified triggering event.
DELETE}

[OF col_name] This clause is used with update triggers. This clause is used when you want to trigger an event
only when a specific column is updated.
CREATE [OR REPLACE This clause creates a trigger with the given name or overwrites an existing trigger with the same
] TRIGGER name.
trigger_name

[ON table_name] This clause identifies the name of the table or view to which the trigger is associated.

[REFERENCING OLD This clause is used to reference the old and new values of the data being changed. By default,
AS o NEW AS n] you reference the values as :old.column_name or :new.column_name. The reference names
can also be changed from old (or new) to any other user-defined name. You cannot reference
old values when inserting a record, or new values when deleting a record, because they do not
exist.

[FOR EACH ROW] This clause is used to determine whether a trigger must fire when each row gets affected ( i.e. a
Row Level Trigger) or just once when the entire sql statement is executed(i.e.statement level
Trigger).

WHEN (condition) This clause is valid only for row level triggers. The trigger is fired only for rows that satisfy the
condition specified.

Example:
Create or replace Trigger np before insert on account for each row
Begin
IF :NEW.bal < 0 THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('BALANCE IS NAGATIVE..');
END IF;
End;
/

Output:
Run SQL Command Line
SQL>start D://t.sql
Trigger created.

SQL>insert into account values(1,-100);


BALANCE IS NAGATIVE..
1 row created.

Types of Triggers
A trigger's type is defined by the type of triggering transaction and by the level at which the trigger is
executed. Oracle has the following types of triggers depending on the different applications.
 Row Level Triggers
 Statement Level Triggers
 Before Triggers
 After Triggers

Row Level Triggers :


Row level triggers execute once for each row in a transaction.
The commands of row level triggers are executed on all rows that are affected by the command that enables
the trigger.
For example, if an UPDATE statement updates multiple rows of a table, a row trigger is fired once for each
row affected by the UPDATE statement.
If the triggering statement affects no rows, the trigger is not executed at all.
 Row level triggers are created using the FOR EACH ROW clause in the CREATE TRIGGER command.  

 Application:
                      Consider   a   case   where   our   requirement   is   to   prevent   updation   of empno   100 record
cannot be updated, then whenever UPDATE statement update records, there must be PL/SQL block that will 
be fired automatically by UPDATE statement  to check  that  it must not be 100, so we have to use Row level
Triggers for that type of applications. 

 Statement Level Triggers :


Statement level triggers are triggered only once for each transaction. 
For example when an UPDATE command update  15  rows, the commands contained in the trigger are
executed   only   once,   and   not   with   every processed   row.
Statement level trigger are the default types of trigger created via the CREATE TRIGGER command. 

Application:
                     Consider a case where our requirement is to prevent the DELETE operation during Sunday. For
this whenever DELETE statement deletes records, there must be PL/SQL block that will be fired only once by
DELETE statement to check that day must not be Sunday by referencing system date, so we have to use
Statement level Trigger for which fires only once for above application. 

Before Trigger :
Since triggers are executed by events, they may be set to occur immediately before or after those events.
When a trigger is defined, you can specify whether the trigger must occur before or after the triggering event
i.e. INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE commands. 
BEFORE trigger execute the trigger action before the triggering statement. 
These types of triggers are commonly used in the following situation:

1. BEFORE triggers are used when the trigger action should determine whether or not the triggering
statement should be allowed to complete.
2. By using a BEFORE trigger, you can eliminate unnecessary processing of the triggering statement. 
3. For example: To prevent deletion on Sunday, for this we have to use Statement level before trigger
on DELETE statement.
4. BEFORE triggers are used to derive specific column values before completing a triggering INSERT or
UPDATE statement. 

After Trigger :
AFTER trigger executes the trigger action after the triggering statement is executed. 
AFTER triggers are used when you want the triggering statement to complete before executing the trigger
action.
For example: To perform cascade delete operation, it means that user delete the record fro one table, but
the corresponding records in other tables are delete automatically by a trigger which fired after the execution
of delete statement issued by the user.
When combining the different types of triggering actions, there are mainly 4 possible Valid trigger types
available to us.

The possible configurations are:

 BEFORE statement Trigger


 BEFORE row Trigger
 AFTER statement Trigger  
 AFTER row Trigger

Dropping Triggers :
Triggers may be dropped via the drop trigger command. In order to drop a trigger, you must either own the
trigger or have the DROP ANY TRIGGER system privilege.

Syntax:
DROP TRIGGER trigger_name; 

Example:
Run SQL Command Line
SQL>DROP TRIGGER emp;

Trigger dropped.

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