Unit – 5: Database Triggers

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Topics
1. What is Trigger ?
2. Difference between Trigger and Procedure
3. Syntax for Trigger
4. HOW TO APPLY THE DATABASE TRIGGERS?
5. :OLD and :NEW Values
6. Types of Triggers
7. GUIDELINES FOR CREATING A TRIGGER
8. WHEN Clause
9. HOW TO EXECUTE A TRIGGER ?
10.How to Remove / Drop a Trigger ?
11.Trigger Examples
12.Application of Triggers
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What is Trigger ?
 Trigger is a series of PL/SQL statements attached
to a database table that execute whenever a
triggering event (select, update, insert, delete)
occurs.
 The triggers are standalone procedures that are
fired implicitly (internally) by the oracle.
 Unlike stored procedures and functions, they not
explicitly called, but they are activated (triggered)
when a triggering event occurs.
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Difference between Trigger and Procedure
 The triggers don’t accept the
parameters whereas procedure can
accept.
 The oracle engine executes a trigger
implicitly (automatically fired) whereas
to execute a procedure it must explicitly
called by the users.
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Syntax for Trigger
Syntax to create a trigger:
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER <TRIGGER_NAME>
{BEFORE/AFTER}
{INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE} [OF COLUMN] ON <TABLE_NAME>
[FOR EACH ROW]
[WHEN CONDITION]
[PL/SQL BLOCK]

Syntax to drop a trigger:

DROP TRIGGER <TRIGGER_NAME>;
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HOW TO APPLY THE DATABASE TRIGGERS?
A trigger has three basic parts. The following are the three basic parts:
1. Triggering Event or Statement:
It is a SQL statement that causes a trigger to be fired. It can be INSERT,
UPDATE or DELETE statement for a specific table.

2. Trigger Restriction:
A trigger restriction specifies a Boolean Expression that must be TRUE for
the trigger to fire. It is an option available for the triggers that are fired for
each row. A trigger restriction is specified using a WHEN clause.

3. Trigger Action:
A trigger action is the PL/SQL code to be executed when triggering
statement is encountered and the value of trigger restriction is TRUE. The
PL/SQL block contains SQL and PL/SQL statements.
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:OLD and :NEW Values

 When a DML statement changes a

column the old and new values are visible
to the executing code.
 This is done by prefixing the table column
with :old or :new
 :new is useful for INSERT and UPDATE
 :old is useful for DELETE and UPDATE
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Types of Triggers
1. Row Trigger
2. Statement Trigger
3. Before Trigger and After Trigger

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Types of Triggers
1. Row Trigger
 A Row Trigger is fired each time a row in the table
is affected by the triggering statement.
 For example, if the 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.

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Types of Triggers
1. Row Trigger

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER trig_test

AFTER UPDATE OF SNUM ON PERSONNEL
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
null; -- write operations here
END;

A Row trigger fires once for every row affected by the

DML operation.

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Types of Triggers
2. Statement Trigger
 A Statement Trigger is fired once on behalf
of the triggering statements, independent of
the number of rows the triggering statement
affects (even if no rows are affected).

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Types of Triggers
Inserting, Deleting
2. Statement Trigger and Updating can be
used to find out
which event is
occurring

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER trig_testTable

AFTER INSERT or UPDATE ON Personnel
BEGIN
If Inserting
Then INSERT into testTable values ('insert done', SYSDATE) ;
Else
INSERT into testTable values ('update done', SYSDATE) ;
End If;
END;
Test_trigger_1 tests this trigger
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Types of Triggers
3. Before and After Trigger
 While defining a trigger it is necessary to specify the
trigger timing that we must have to specify when the
triggering action is to be executed in relation to the
triggering statement. BEFORE and AFTER apply to
both row and the statement triggers.
• The BEFORE triggers execute the trigger action
before the triggering statement is executed.
• The AFTER trigger executes the triggering action
after the execution of triggering statement.
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GUIDELINES FOR CREATING A TRIGGER:
1. There can be only one trigger of a particular type
that is for UPDATE, for INSERT, or for DELETE.
2. Only one table can be specified in the triggering
statement.
3. The triggers cannot include COMMIT, ROLLBACK and
SAVEPOINT statements.
4. Inside the trigger the correlation name :NEW
and :OLD can be made use of to refer to data on the
command line and data in the table respectively.

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WHEN Clause

 WHEN is optional additional statement to

control the trigger.
 Takes a BOOLEAN SQL expression
• Trigger fires if TRUE and not if FALSE
 Operates on a ROW level trigger
 To prevent the trigger from firing in specific
row cases we uses WHEN (expression)

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WHEN Example

create or replace trigger only_nulls

after update on BOOK
for each row
when (old.price is null) -- notice the colon with OLD is not used here
begin
insert into PriceChange values(:old.isbn,:new.price);
end;

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HOW TO EXECUTE A TRIGGER ?
SQL> START TR_EMPDELETE.SQL; OR
@TR_EMPDELETE.SQL;
Trigger is created………..
SQL> DELETE FROM EMP WHERE EMPNO = 100;
SQL> SELECT * FROM NEWEMP;
If trigger is created with compilation error then execute the
following command:
SQL> SHOW ERRORS;
To view the list of triggers created by user follow following
steps:
SQL> DESCRIBE USER_TRIGGERS;
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How to Remove / Drop a Trigger ?
 SYNTAX FOR DROPPING A TRIGGER:

DROP TRIGGER <TRIGGER_NAME>;

 SYNTAX FOR DROPPING A TRIGGER:

DROP TRIGGER TR_EMPUPDATE;

Note: If conflicting triggers are created on the same database
object then unwanted triggers need to be removed otherwise it
will cause other trigger not to execute in a desired manner.
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Examples
Example 1:
/* Write a trigger to insert the existing values of the EMP table into
NEWEMP table when the record is updated in EMP table. (t1.sql) */

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_EMPUPDATE

BEFORE UPDATE OF SAL ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
INSERT INTO NEWEMP (EMPNO, ENAME, SAL) VALUES
(:OLD.EMPNO, :OLD.ENAME, :OLD.SAL);
END;
/
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Examples
Example 2:
/* Write a trigger to insert the values into the NEWEMP table when the
records are inserted into the EMP table. (t2.sql) */

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_EMPINSERT

BEFORE INSERT ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
INSERT INTO NEWEMP (EMPNO, ENAME, SAL) VALUES
(:NEW.EMPNO, :NEW.ENAME, :NEW.SAL);
END;
/
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Examples
Example 3:
/* Write a trigger to insert the existing values of the EMP table into
NEWEMP table when the record is deleted in EMP table. (t3.sql) */

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_EMPUPDATE

BEFORE DELETE OF SAL ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
INSERT INTO NEWEMP (EMPNO, ENAME, SAL) VALUES
(:OLD.EMPNO, :OLD.ENAME, :OLD.SAL);
END;
/
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Examples
Example 4:
-- Write a trigger for INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE operation in one program (t7.sql).
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_ALL
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF INSERTING THEN
INSERT INTO NEWEMP VALUES (:NEW.EMPNO, :NEW.ENAME,:NEW.SAL);
ELSIF UPDATING THEN
INSERT INTO NEWEMP VALUES (:OLD.EMPNO, :OLD.ENAME, :OLD.SAL);
ELSE
INSERT INTO NEWEMP VALUES (:OLD.EMPNO, :OLD.ENAME, :OLD.SAL);
END IF;
END;
/

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Examples
Example 5:
-- Write a trigger to restrict user form using the table on Sunday.
(t10.sql)
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_HOLIDAY
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF TRIM (TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, 'Day')) = 'Sunday' THEN
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20420, 'You cannot modify
data on Sunday');
END IF;
END;
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Examples
Example 6:
/* Write a trigger to restrict user form using the table on before 09:00
am and after 05:00 pm. ( between 09 am onwards and till 5 pm )
(t11.sql) */
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_HOLIDAY
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF TRIM(TO_CHAR (SYSDATE, 'HH')) < 9 OR TRIM(TO_CHAR (SYSDATE,
'HH')) >17 THEN
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20420, 'You cannot access the
table before 9 am and after 5 pm');
END IF;
END;
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Examples
Example 7:
-- Write a trigger to insert employee name in UPPERCASE
whenever record is inserted in EMP table. (t12.sql)
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER trigger_upper

BEFORE INSERT ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
:NEW.ENAME:=UPPER(:NEW.ENAME);
END;
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Examples
Example 8:
-- Write a trigger to insert employee name in UPPERCASE
whenever record is inserted in EMP table. (t12.sql)
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER trigger_upper

BEFORE INSERT ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
:NEW.ENAME:=UPPER(:NEW.ENAME);
END;
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Examples
Example 9:
-- Write a trigger that identifies the gender of the employee and according to the
gender sets MR. in front of MALE employees and MS. in front of FEMALE employee.
(t13.sql)
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_GENDER
BEFORE INSERT ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
IF :NEW.GENDER= 'M' THEN
:NEW.ENAME:='MR.'||:NEW.ENAME;
ELSE
:NEW.ENAME:= 'MS.'||:NEW.ENAME;
END IF;
END;
/
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Examples
Example 10:
-- Write a trigger that restricts the entry of record if salary is greater then
8000 Rs. (t14.sql)

SET SERVEROUTPUT ON

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_TESTSAL

BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OF SAL ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
IF :NEW.SAL > 8000 THEN
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR (-20200,'INCORRECT SALARY VALUE');
END IF;
END;
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Examples
Example 11:
-- Write a trigger that shows the use of WHEN condition. (t4.sql)
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER display_salary_changes
BEFORE UPDATE ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (NEW.SAL > OLD.SAL)
DECLARE
sal_diff number;
BEGIN
sal_diff := :NEW.sal - :OLD.sal;
dbms_output.put_line('Old salary: ' || :OLD.sal);
dbms_output.put_line('New salary: ' || :NEW.sal);
dbms_output.put_line('Salary difference: ' || sal_diff);
END;
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Examples
Example 12:
/* Write a trigger which restrict the user from withdrawal
operation if the balance amount after withdrawal operation is
less then Rs. 1000. Use WHEN clause (t15.sql)*/
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER TR_BAL
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OF BAL ON ACC
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (NEW.BAL<1000)
BEGIN
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20650, 'Minimum balance
for account is Rs. 1000');
END;
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Application of Triggers
 Triggers can be written for the following purposes:
1. Generating some derived column values automatically
2. Enforcing referential integrity
3. Event logging and storing information on table access
4. Auditing
5. Synchronous replication of tables
6. Imposing security authorizations
7. Preventing invalid transactions

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