Oracle8 Application Developer's Guide
Release 8.0

A58241-01

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13
Using Database Triggers

This chapter discusses database triggers-procedures that are stored in the database and implicitly executed ("fired") when a table is modified. Topics include:


Note:

If you are using Trusted Oracle, see the Trusted Oracle documentation for more information about defining and using database triggers.

 

Designing Triggers

Use the following guidelines when designing triggers:

Creating Triggers

Triggers are created using the CREATE TRIGGER command. This command can be used with any interactive tool, such as SQL*Plus or Enterprise Manager. When using an interactive tool, a solitary slash ( / ) on the last line is used to activate the CREATE TRIGGER statement.

The following statement creates a trigger for the EMP table:

CREATE TRIGGER print_salary_changes
BEFORE DELETE OR INSERT OR UPDATE ON emp
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (new.empno > 0)
DECLARE
    sal_diff number;
BEGIN
    sal_diff := new.sal - old.sal;
    dbms_output.put('Old salary: ' || :old.sal);
    dbms_output.put('  New salary: ' || :new.sal);
    dbms_output.put_line('  Difference ' || sal_diff);
END;
/

If you enter a SQL statement such as

UPDATE emp SET sal = sal + 500.00 WHERE deptno = 10

the trigger will fire once for each row that is updated, and it prints the new and old salaries, and the difference.

The CREATE (or CREATE OR REPLACE) statement fails if any errors exist in the PL/SQL block.

The following sections use this example to illustrate the way that parts of a trigger are specified. For more realistic examples of CREATE TRIGGER statements, see "Examples of Trigger Applications" on page 13-22.

Prerequisites for Creating Triggers

Before creating any triggers, while connected as SYS, submit the CATPROC.SQL script. This script automatically runs all of the scripts required for, or used within, the procedural extensions to the Oracle Server.


Note:

The location of this file is operating system dependent; see your platform-specific Oracle documentation.

 

Naming Triggers

Trigger names must be unique with respect to other triggers in the same schema. Trigger names do not have to be unique with respect to other schema objects such as tables, views, and procedures. For example, a table and a trigger can have the same name (although, to avoid confusion, this is not recommended).

The BEFORE and AFTER Options

The BEFORE or AFTER option in the CREATE TRIGGER statement specifies exactly when to file the trigger body in relation to the triggering statement that is being executed. In a CREATE TRIGGER statement, the BEFORE or AFTER option is specified just before the triggering statement. For example, the PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES trigger in the previous example is a BEFORE trigger.


Note:

AFTER row triggers are slightly more efficient than BEFORE row triggers. With BEFORE row triggers, affected data blocks must be read (logical read, not physical read) once for the trigger and then again for the triggering statement. Alternatively, with AFTER row triggers, the data blocks need only be read once for both the triggering statement and the trigger.

 

The INSTEAD OF Option

The INSTEAD OF option in the CREATE TRIGGER statement is an alternative to the BEFORE and AFTER options. INSTEAD OF triggers provide a transparent way of modifying views that cannot be modified directly through UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE statements. These triggers are called INSTEAD OF triggers because, unlike other types of triggers, Oracle fires the trigger instead of executing the triggering statement. The trigger performs update, insert, or delete operations directly on the underlying tables.

Users write normal UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE statements against the view, and the INSTEAD OF trigger works invisibly in the background to make the right actions take place.

By default, INSTEAD OF triggers are activated for each row (see "FOR EACH ROW Option" on page 13-7).

Views That Are Not Modifiable

A view cannot be modified by UPDATE, INSERT, or DELETE statements if the view query contains any of the following constructs:

If a view contains pseudocolumns or expressions, you can only update the view with an UPDATE statement that does not refer to any of the pseudocolumns or expressions.

Example of an INSTEAD OF Trigger

The following example shows an INSTEAD OF trigger for inserting rows into the MANAGER_INFO view.

CREATE VIEW manager_info AS
    SELECT e.name, e.empno, d.dept_type, d.deptno, p.level,
           p.projno
        FROM   emp e, dept d, project p
        WHERE  e.empno =  d.mgr_no
        AND    d.deptno = p.resp_dept;
 
CREATE TRIGGER manager_info_insert
INSTEAD OF INSERT ON manager_info
REFERENCING NEW AS n                 -- new manager information
 
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
  IF NOT EXISTS SELECT * FROM emp
        WHERE emp.empno = :n.empno
  THEN
        INSERT INTO emp
            VALUES(:n.empno, :n.name);
  ELSE
        UPDATE emp SET emp.name = :n.name
                          WHERE emp.empno = :n.empno;
    END IF;
 
    IF NOT EXISTS SELECT * FROM dept
                 WHERE dept.deptno = :n.deptno
    THEN
                 INSERT INTO dept
                          VALUES(:n.deptno, :n.dept_type);
     ELSE
                 UPDATE dept SET dept.dept_type = :n.dept_type
                          WHERE dept.deptno = :n.deptno;
    END IF;
 
    IF NOT EXISTS SELECT * FROM project
                 WHERE project.projno = :n.projno
    THEN
                 INSERT INTO project
                          VALUES(:n.projno, :n.project_level);
  ELSE
        UPDATE project SET project.level = :n.level
            WHERE project.projno = :n.projno;
  END IF;
END; 

The actions shown for rows being inserted into the MANAGER_INFO view first test to see if appropriate rows already exist in the base tables from which MANAGER_INFO is derived. The actions then insert new rows or update existing rows, as appropriate. Similar triggers can specify appropriate actions for UPDATE and DELETE.

Object Views and INSTEAD OF Triggers

INSTEAD OF triggers provide the means to modify object view instances on the client-side through OCI calls. (See Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide for more information.) To modify an object materialized by an object view in the client-side object cache and flush it back to the persistent store, the user must specify INSTEAD OF triggers, unless the object view is modifiable. If the object is read only, however, it is not necessary to define triggers to pin it.

Note Also:

For more examples of INSTEAD OF triggers, see "Updating the Object Views" on page 8-6.

 

Triggering Statement

The triggering statement specifies:

For example, the PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES trigger on page 13-2 fires after any DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE on the EMP table. Any of the following statements would trigger the PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES trigger given in the previous example:

DELETE FROM emp;
INSERT INTO emp VALUES ( . . . );
INSERT INTO emp SELECT . . . FROM . . . ;
UPDATE emp SET . . . ;

Column List for UPDATE

If a triggering statement specifies UPDATE, an optional list of columns can be included in the triggering statement. If you include a column list, the trigger is fired on an UPDATE statement only when one of the specified columns is updated. If you omit a column list, the trigger is fired when any column of the associated table is updated. A column list cannot be specified for INSERT or DELETE triggering statements.

The previous example of the PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES trigger might have included a column list in the triggering statement, as in

. . . BEFORE DELETE OR INSERT OR UPDATE OF ename ON emp . . .

FOR EACH ROW Option

The FOR EACH ROW option determines whether the trigger is a row trigger or a statement trigger. If you specify FOR EACH ROW, the trigger fires once for each row of the table that is affected by the triggering statement. The absence of the FOR EACH ROW option means that the trigger fires only once for each applicable statement, but not separately for each row affected by the statement.

For example, you define the following trigger:

CREATE TRIGGER log_salary_increase
AFTER UPDATE ON emp
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (new.sal > 1000)
BEGIN
    INSERT INTO emp_log (emp_id, log_date, new_salary, action)
       VALUES (:new.empno, SYSDATE, :new.sal, 'NEW SAL');
END;

and then issue the SQL statement:

UPDATE emp SET sal = sal + 1000.0
    WHERE deptno = 20;

If there are five employees in department 20, the trigger will fire five times when this statement is issued, since five rows are affected.

The following trigger fires only once for each UPDATE of the EMP table:

CREATE TRIGGER log_emp_update
AFTER UPDATE ON emp
BEGIN
    INSERT INTO emp_log (log_date, action)
        VALUES (SYSDATE, 'EMP COMMISSIONS CHANGED');
END;

See Also:

For the order of trigger firing, see Oracle8 Concepts manual.

 

The WHEN Clause

Optionally, a trigger restriction can be included in the definition of a row trigger by specifying a Boolean SQL expression in a WHEN clause (a WHEN clause cannot be included in the definition of a statement trigger). If included, the expression in the WHEN clause is evaluated for each row that the trigger affects. If the expression evaluates to TRUE for a row, the trigger body is fired on behalf of that row. However, if the expression evaluates to FALSE or NOT TRUE (that is, unknown, as with nulls) for a row, the trigger body is not fired for that row. The evaluation of the WHEN clause does not have an effect on the execution of the triggering SQL statement (that is, the triggering statement is not rolled back if the expression in a WHEN clause evaluates to FALSE).

For example, in the PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES trigger, the trigger body would not be executed if the new value of EMPNO is zero, NULL, or negative. In more realistic examples, you might test if one column value is less than another.

The expression in a WHEN clause of a row trigger can include correlation names, which are explained below. The expression in a WHEN clause must be a SQL expression and cannot include a subquery. You cannot use a PL/SQL expression (including user-defined functions) in the WHEN clause.

The Trigger Body

The trigger body is a PL/SQL block that can include SQL and PL/SQL statements. These statements are executed if the triggering statement is issued and the trigger restriction (if included) evaluates to TRUE. The trigger body for row triggers has some special constructs that can be included in the code of the PL/SQL block: correlation names and the REFERENCEING option, and the conditional predicates INSERTING, DELETING, and UPDATING.

Accessing Column Values in Row Triggers

Within a trigger body of a row trigger, the PL/SQL code and SQL statements have access to the old and new column values of the current row affected by the triggering statement. Two correlation names exist for every column of the table being modified: one for the old column value and one for the new column value. Depending on the type of triggering statement, certain correlation names might not have any meaning.

The new column values are referenced using the NEW qualifier before the column name, while the old column values are referenced using the OLD qualifier before the column name. For example, if the triggering statement is associated with the EMP table (with the columns SAL, COMM, etc.), you can include statements in the trigger body similar to

IF :new.sal > 10000 . . .
IF :new.sal < :old.sal . . .

Old and new values are available in both BEFORE and AFTER row triggers. A NEW column value can be assigned in a BEFORE row trigger, but not in an AFTER row trigger (because the triggering statement takes effect before an AFTER row trigger is fired). If a BEFORE row trigger changes the value of NEW.COLUMN, an AFTER row trigger fired by the same statement sees the change assigned by the BEFORE row trigger.

Correlation names can also be used in the Boolean expression of a WHEN clause. A colon must precede the OLD and NEW qualifiers when they are used in a trigger's body, but a colon is not allowed when using the qualifiers in the WHEN clause or the REFERENCING option.

The REFERENCING Option

The REFERENCING option can be specified in a trigger body of a row trigger to avoid name conflicts among the correlation names and tables that might be named "OLD" or "NEW". Since this is rare, this option is infrequently used.

For example, assume you have a table named NEW with columns FIELD1 (number) and FIELD2 (character). The following CREATE TRIGGER example shows a trigger associated with the NEW table that can use correlation names and avoid naming conflicts between the correlation names and the table name:

CREATE TRIGGER PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES
BEFORE UPDATE ON new
REFERENCING new AS newest
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
   :newest.field2 := TO_CHAR (:newest.field1);
END;

Notice that the NEW qualifier is renamed to NEWEST using the REFERENCING option, and is then used in the trigger body.

Conditional Predicates

If more than one type of DML operation can fire a trigger (for example, "ON INSERT OR DELETE OR UPDATE OF emp"), the trigger body can use the conditional predicates INSERTING, DELETING, and UPDATING to execute specific blocks of code, depending on the type of statement that fires the trigger. Assume this is the triggering statement:

INSERT OR UPDATE ON emp

Within the code of the trigger body, you can include the following conditions:

IF INSERTING THEN . . . END IF;
IF UPDATING THEN . . . END IF;

The first condition evaluates to TRUE only if the statement that fired the trigger is an INSERT statement; the second condition evaluates to TRUE only if the statement that fired the trigger is an UPDATE statement.

In an UPDATE trigger, a column name can be specified with an UPDATING conditional predicate to determine if the named column is being updated. For example, assume a trigger is defined as

CREATE TRIGGER . . .
. . . UPDATE OF sal, comm ON emp . . .
BEGIN
. . . IF UPDATING ('SAL') THEN . . . END IF;
END;

The code in the THEN clause executes only if the triggering UPDATE statement updates the SAL column. The following statement would fire the above trigger and cause the UPDATING (sal) conditional predicate to evaluate to TRUE:

UPDATE emp SET sal = sal + 100;

Error Conditions and Exceptions in the Trigger Body

If a predefined or user-defined error condition or exception is raised during the execution of a trigger body, all effects of the trigger body, as well as the triggering statement, are rolled back (unless the error is trapped by an exception handler). Therefore, a trigger body can prevent the execution of the triggering statement by raising an exception. User-defined exceptions are commonly used in triggers that enforce complex security authorizations or integrity constraints.

See Also:

For more information about error processing in PL/SQL program units, see "Error Handling" on page 10-30 and "Declaring Exceptions and Exception Handling Routines" on page 10-32.

 

Triggers and Handling Remote Exceptions

A trigger that accesses a remote site cannot do remote exception handling if the network link is unavailable. For example:

CREATE TRIGGER example
AFTER INSERT ON emp
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
  INSERT INTO emp@remote         -- <- compilation fails here
  VALUES ('x');                  --    when dblink is inaccessible
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    INSERT INTO emp_log
    VALUES ('x');
END;

A trigger is compiled when it is created. Thus, if a remote site is unavailable when the trigger must compile, Oracle cannot validate the statement accessing the remote database, and the compilation fails. The previous example exception statement cannot execute because the trigger does not complete compilation.

Because stored procedures are stored in a compiled form, the work-around for the above example is as follows:

CREATE TRIGGER example
AFTER INSERT ON emp
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
   insert_row_proc;
END;


CREATE PROCEDURE insert_row_proc
BEGIN
  INSERT INTO emp@remote
    VALUES ('x');
EXCEPTION
   WHEN OTHERS THEN
       INSERT INTO emp_log
       VALUES ('x');
END;

The trigger in this example compiles successfully and calls the stored procedure, which already has a validated statement for accessing the remote database; thus, when the remote INSERT statement fails because the link is down, the exception is caught.

Restrictions on Creating Triggers

Coding a trigger requires some restrictions that are not required for standard PL/SQL blocks. The following sections discuss these restrictions.

Valid SQL Statements in Trigger Bodies

The body of a trigger can contain DML SQL statements. It can also contain SELECT statements, but they must be SELECT... INTO... statements or the SELECT statement in the definition of a cursor).

DDL statements are not allowed in the body of a trigger. Also, no transaction control statements are allowed in a trigger. The commands ROLLBACK, COMMIT, and SAVEPOINT cannot be used.


Note:

A procedure called by a trigger cannot execute the above transaction control statements because the procedure executes within the context of the trigger body.

 

Statements inside a trigger can reference remote schema objects. However, pay special attention when calling remote procedures from within a local trigger; since if a timestamp or signature mismatch is found during execution of the trigger, the remote procedure is not executed and the trigger is invalidated.

LONG and LONG RAW Datatypes

LONG and LONG RAW datatypes in triggers are subject to the following restrictions:

References to Package Variables

If an UPDATE or DELETE statement detects a conflict with a concurrent UPDATE, Oracle performs a transparent rollback to savepoint and restarts the update. This can occur many times before the statement completes successfully. Each time the statement is restarted, the BEFORE STATEMENT trigger is fired again. The rollback to savepoint does not undo changes to any package variables referenced in the trigger. The package should include a counter variable to detect this situation.

Row Evaluation Order

A relational database does not guarantee the order of rows processed by a SQL statement. Therefore, do not create triggers that depend on the order in which rows will be processed. For example, do not assign a value to a global package variable in a row trigger if the current value of the global variable is dependent on the row being processed by the row trigger. Also, if global package variables are updated within a trigger, it is best to initialize those variables in a BEFORE statement trigger.

When a statement in a trigger body causes another trigger to be fired, the triggers are said to be cascading. Oracle allows up to 32 triggers to cascade at any one time. However, you can effectively limit the number of trigger cascades using the initialization parameter OPEN_CURSORS, because a cursor must be opened for every execution of a trigger.

Trigger Evaluation Order

Although any trigger can execute a sequence of operations either in-line or by calling procedures, using multiple triggers of the same type enhances database administration by permitting the modular installation of applications that have triggers on the same tables.

Oracle executes all triggers of the same type before executing triggers of a different type. If you have multiple triggers of the same type on a single table, Oracle chooses an arbitrary order to execute these triggers.

See Also:

Oracle8 Concepts manual for more information on the firing order of triggers.

 

Each subsequent trigger sees the changes made by the previously fired triggers. Each trigger can see the old and new values. The old values are the original values and the new values are the current values as set by the most recently fired UPDATE or INSERT trigger.

To ensure that multiple triggered actions occur in a specific order, you must consolidate these actions into a single trigger (for example, by having the trigger call a series of procedures).

You cannot open a database that contains multiple triggers of the same type if you are using any version of Oracle before release 7.1, nor can you open such a database if your COMPATIBLE initialization parameter is set to a version earlier than 7.1.0.

Mutating and Constraining Tables

A mutating table is a table that is currently being modified by an UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERT statement, or a table that might need to be updated by the effects of a declarative DELETE CASCADE referential integrity constraint. A constraining table is a table that a triggering statement might need to read either directly, for a SQL statement, or indirectly, for a declarative referential integrity constraint. A table is mutating or constraining only to the session that issued the statement in progress.

Tables are never considered mutating or constraining for statement triggers unless the trigger is fired as the result of a DELETE CASCADE.

For all row triggers, or for statement triggers that were fired as the result of a DELETE CASCADE, there are two important restrictions regarding mutating and constraining tables. These restrictions prevent a trigger from seeing an inconsistent set of data.

Figure 13-1 illustrates the restriction placed on mutating tables.

Figure 13-1 Mutating Tables

Notice that the SQL statement is executed for the first row of the table and then an AFTER ROW trigger is fired. In turn, a statement in the AFTER ROW trigger body attempts to query the original table. However, because the EMP table is mutating, this query is not allowed by Oracle. If attempted, a runtime error occurs, the effects of the trigger body and triggering statement are rolled back, and control is returned to the user or application.

Consider the following trigger:

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER emp_count
AFTER DELETE ON EMP
FOR EACH ROW
DECLARE
    n INTEGER;
BEGIN
    SELECT COUNT(*) INTO n FROM emp;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(' There are now ' || n ||
        ' employees.');
END;

If the SQL statement

DELETE FROM emp WHERE empno = 7499;

is issued, the following error is returned:

ORA-04091: table SCOTT.EMP is mutating, trigger/function may not see it

Oracle returns this error when the trigger fires since the table is mutating when the first row is deleted. (Only one row is deleted by the statement, since EMPNO is a primary key, but Oracle has no way of knowing that.)

If you delete the line "FOR EACH ROW" from the trigger above, the trigger becomes a statement trigger, the table is not mutating when the trigger fires, and the trigger does output the correct data.

If you need to update a mutating or constraining table, you could use a temporary table, a PL/SQL table, or a package variable to bypass these restrictions. For example, in place of a single AFTER row trigger that updates the original table, resulting in a mutating table error, you may be able to use two triggers-an AFTER row trigger that updates a temporary table, and an AFTER statement trigger that updates the original table with the values from the temporary table.

Declarative integrity constraints are checked at various times with respect to row triggers.

See Also:

Oracle8 Concepts for information about the interaction of triggers and integrity constraints.

 

Because declarative referential integrity constraints are currently not supported between tables on different nodes of a distributed database, the constraining table restrictions do not apply to triggers that access remote nodes. These restrictions are also not enforced among tables in the same database that are connected by loop-back database links. A loop-back database link makes a local table appear remote by defining a Net8 path back to the database that contains the link.

You should not use loop-back database links to circumvent the trigger restrictions. Such applications might behave unpredictably.

Who Is the Trigger User?

If you issue the statement

SELECT username FROM USER_USERS

in a trigger, the name of the owner of the trigger is returned, not the name of user who is updating the table.

Privileges Required to Create Triggers

To create a trigger in your schema, you must have the CREATE TRIGGER system privilege, and either

To create a trigger in another user's schema, you must have the CREATE ANY TRIGGER system privilege. With this privilege, the trigger can be created in any schema and can be associated with any user's table.

Privileges for Referenced Schema Objects

The object privileges to the schema objects referenced in the trigger body must be granted to the trigger's owner explicitly (not via a role). The statements in the trigger body operate under the privilege domain of the trigger's owner, not the privilege domain of the user issuing the triggering statement. This is similar to stored procedures.

See Also:

"Privileges Required to Execute a Procedure" on page 10-40.

 

When Triggers Are Compiled

Triggers are similar to PL/SQL anonymous blocks with the addition of the :NEW and :OLD capabilities, but their compilation is different. A PL/SQL anonymous block is compiled each time it is loaded into memory. Compilation involves three stages:

  1. syntax checking: PL/SQL syntax is checked and a parse tree is generated
  2. semantic checking: type checking and further processing on the parse tree
  3. code generation: the pcode is generated

Triggers, in contrast, are fully compiled when the CREATE TRIGGER command is issued, and the pcode is stored in the data dictionary. Hence, firing the trigger no longer requires the opening of a shared cursor to run the trigger action. Instead, the trigger is executed directly.

If errors occur during the compilation of a trigger, the trigger is still created. If a DML statement fires this trigger, the DML statement will fail. (Runtime trigger errors always cause the DML statement to fail.) You can use the SHOW ERRORS command in SQL*Plus or Enterprise Manager to see any compilation errors when you create a trigger, or you can SELECT the errors from the USER_ERRORS view.

Dependencies

Compiled triggers have dependencies. They become invalid if a depended-on object, such as a stored procedure or a function called from the trigger body, is modified. Triggers that are invalidated for dependency reasons are recompiled when next invoked.

You can examine the ALL_DEPENDENCIES view to see the dependencies for a trigger. For example, the statement

SELECT NAME, REFERENCED_OWNER, REFERENCED_NAME, REFERENCED_TYPE
    FROM ALL_DEPENDENCIES
    WHERE OWNER = 'SCOTT' and TYPE = 'TRIGGER';

shows the dependencies for the triggers in the SCOTT schema.

Recompiling a Trigger

Use the ALTER TRIGGER command to recompile a trigger manually. For example, the command

ALTER TRIGGER print_salary_changes COMPILE;

recompiles the PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES trigger.

To recompile a trigger, you must own the trigger or have the ALTER ANY TRIGGER system privilege.

Migration Issues

Non-compiled triggers cannot be fired under compiled trigger releases (such as Oracle 7.3 and Oracle8). If upgrading from a non-compiled trigger release to a compiled trigger release, all existing triggers must be compiled. The upgrade script cat73xx.sql invalidates all triggers so that they are automatically recompiled when first executed. (The xx stands for a variable minor release number.)

Downgrading from Oracle 7.3 or later to a release prior to 7.3 requires that you execute the cat73xxd.sql downgrade script. This handles portability issues between stored and non-stored trigger releases.

Debugging a Trigger

You can debug a trigger using the same facilities available for stored procedures.

Note Also:

"Debugging" on page 10-37

 

Modifying a Trigger

Like a stored procedure, a trigger cannot be explicitly altered; it must be replaced with a new definition. (The ALTER TRIGGER command is used only to recompile, enable or disable a trigger.).

When replacing a trigger, you must include the OR REPLACE option in the CREATE TRIGGER statement. The OR REPLACE option is provided to allow a new version of an existing trigger to replace the older version without affecting any grants made for the original version of the trigger.

Alternatively, the trigger can be dropped using the DROP TRIGGER command, and you can rerun the CREATE TRIGGER command.

To drop a trigger, the trigger must be in your schema or you must have the DROP ANY TRIGGER system privilege.

Enabling and Disabling Triggers

A trigger can be in one of two distinct modes:

enabled  

An enabled trigger executes its trigger body if a triggering statement is issued and the trigger restriction (if any) evaluates to TRUE.  

disabled  

A disabled trigger does not execute its trigger body, even if a triggering statement is issued and the trigger restriction (if any) evaluates to TRUE.  

Disabling Triggers

You might temporarily disable a trigger if

By default, triggers are enabled when first created. Disable a trigger using the ALTER TRIGGER command with the DISABLE option. For example, to disable the trigger named REORDER of the INVENTORY table, enter the following statement:

ALTER TRIGGER reorder DISABLE;

All triggers associated with a table can be disabled with one statement using the ALTER TABLE command with the DISABLE clause and the ALL TRIGGERS option. For example, to disable all triggers defined for the INVENTORY table, enter the following statement:

ALTER TABLE inventory
    DISABLE ALL TRIGGERS;

Enabling Triggers

By default, a trigger is automatically enabled when it is created; however, it can later be disabled. Once you have completed the task that required the trigger to be disabled, re-enable the trigger so that it fires when appropriate.

Enable a disabled trigger using the ALTER TRIGGER command with the ENABLE option. To enable the disabled trigger named REORDER of the INVENTORY table, enter the following statement:

ALTER TRIGGER reorder ENABLE;

All triggers defined for a specific table can be enabled with one statement using the ALTER TABLE command with the ENABLE clause with the ALL TRIGGERS option. For example, to enable all triggers defined for the INVENTORY table, enter the following statement:

ALTER TABLE inventory
    ENABLE ALL TRIGGERS;

Privileges Required to Enable and Disable Triggers

To enable or disable triggers using the ALTER TABLE command, you must either own the table, have the ALTER schema object privilege for the table, or have the ALTER ANY TABLE system privilege.

To enable or disable triggers using the ALTER TRIGGER command, you must own the trigger or have the ALTER ANY TRIGGER system privilege.

Listing Information About Triggers

The following data dictionary views reveal information about triggers:

The Oracle8 Reference gives a complete description of these data dictionary views. For example, assume the following statement was used to create the REORDER trigger:

CREATE TRIGGER reorder
AFTER UPDATE OF parts_on_hand ON inventory
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN(new.parts_on_hand < new.reorder_point)
DECLARE
   x NUMBER;
BEGIN
   SELECT COUNT(*) INTO x
      FROM pending_orders
      WHERE part_no = :new.part_no;
   IF x = 0  THEN
      INSERT INTO pending_orders
         VALUES (:new.part_no, :new.reorder_quantity,
                 sysdate);
   END IF;
END;

The following two queries return information about the REORDER trigger:

SELECT trigger_type, triggering_event, table_name
   FROM user_triggers
   WHERE name = 'REORDER';

TYPE             TRIGGERING_STATEMENT       TABLE_NAME
---------------- -------------------------- ------------
AFTER EACH ROW   UPDATE                     INVENTORY

SELECT trigger_body
   FROM user_triggers
   WHERE name = 'REORDER';

TRIGGER_BODY
--------------------------------------------
DECLARE
   x NUMBER;
BEGIN
   SELECT COUNT(*) INTO x
      FROM pending_orders
      WHERE part_no = :new.part_no;
   IF x = 0
      THEN INSERT INTO pending_orders
         VALUES (:new.part_no, :new.reorder_quantity,
            sysdate);
   END IF;
END;

Examples of Trigger Applications

You can use triggers in a number of ways to customize information management in an Oracle database. For example, triggers are commonly used to

This section provides an example of each of the above trigger applications. These examples are not meant to be used as is, but are provided to assist you in designing your own triggers.

Auditing with Triggers

Triggers are commonly used to supplement the built-in auditing features of Oracle. Although triggers can be written to record information similar to that recorded by the AUDIT command, triggers should be used only when more detailed audit information is required. For example, use triggers to provide value-based auditing on a per-row basis tables.

Sometimes, the Oracle AUDIT command is considered a security audit facility, while triggers can provide financial audit facility.

When deciding whether to create a trigger to audit database activity, consider what Oracle's auditing features provide, compared to auditing defined by triggers.

DML as well as DDL auditing  

Standard auditing options permit auditing of DML and DDL statements regarding all types of schema objects and structures. Comparatively, triggers only permit auditing of DML statements issued against tables.  

Centralized audit trail  

All database audit information is recorded centrally and automatically using the auditing features of Oracle.  

Declarative method  

Auditing features enabled using the standard Oracle features are easier to declare and maintain, and less prone to errors when compared to auditing functions defined by triggers.  

Auditing options can be audited  

Any changes to existing auditing options can also be audited to guard against malicious database activity.  

Session and execution time auditing  

Using the database auditing features, records can be generated once every time an audited statement is issued (BY ACCESS) or once for every session that issues an audited statement (BY SESSION). Triggers cannot audit by session; an audit record is generated each time a trigger-audited table is referenced.  

Auditing of unsuccessful data access  

Database auditing can be set to audit when unsuccessful data access occurs. However, any audit information generated by a trigger is rolled back if the triggering statement is rolled back.  

Sessions can be audited  

Connections and disconnections, as well as session activity (physical I/Os, logical I/Os, deadlocks, etc.), can be recorded using standard database auditing.  

When using triggers to provide sophisticated auditing, AFTER triggers are normally used. By using AFTER triggers, auditing information is recorded after the triggering statement is subjected to any applicable integrity constraints, preventing cases where the audit processing is carried out unnecessarily for statements that generate exceptions to integrity constraints.

When to use AFTER row vs. AFTER statement triggers depends on the information being audited. For example, row triggers provide value-based auditing on a per-row basis for tables. Triggers can also require the user to supply a "reason code" for issuing the audited SQL statement, which can be useful in both row and statement-level auditing situations.

The following example demonstrates a trigger that audits modifications to the EMP table on a per-row basis. It requires that a "reason code" be stored in a global package variable before the update.

Example

This trigger demonstrates

Comments within the code explain the functionality of the trigger.

CREATE TRIGGER audit_employee
AFTER INSERT OR DELETE OR UPDATE ON emp
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
/* AUDITPACKAGE is a package with a public package
   variable REASON.  REASON could be set by the
   application by a command such as EXECUTE
   AUDITPACKAGE.SET_REASON(reason_string). Note that a
   package variable has state for the duration of a
   session and that each session has a separate copy of
   all package variables. */

IF auditpackage.reason IS NULL THEN
   raise_application_error(-20201, 'Must specify reason'
      || ' with AUDITPACKAGE.SET_REASON(reason_string)');
END IF;

/* If the above conditional evaluates to TRUE, the
   user-specified error number and message is raised,
   the trigger stops execution, and the effects of the
   triggering statement are rolled back.  Otherwise, a
   new row is inserted into the predefined auditing
   table named AUDIT_EMPLOYEE containing the existing
   and new values of the EMP table and the reason code
   defined by the REASON variable of AUDITPACKAGE.  Note
   that the "old" values are NULL if triggering
   statement is an INSERT and the "new" values are NULL
   if the triggering statement is a DELETE. */


INSERT INTO audit_employee VALUES
   (:old.ssn, :old.name, :old.job_classification, :old.sal,
   :new.ssn, :new.name, :new.job_classification, :new.sal,
   auditpackage.reason, user, sysdate );
END;

Optionally, you can also set the reason code back to NULL if you wanted to force the reason code to be set for every update. The following simple AFTER statement trigger sets the reason code back to NULL after the triggering statement is executed:

CREATE TRIGGER audit_employee_reset
AFTER INSERT OR DELETE OR UPDATE ON emp
BEGIN
   auditpackage.set_reason(NULL);
END;

Notice that the previous two triggers are both fired by the same type of SQL statement. However, the AFTER row trigger is fired once for each row of the table affected by the triggering statement, while the AFTER statement trigger is fired only once after the triggering statement execution is completed.

Another example of using triggers to do auditing is shown below. This trigger tracks changes being made to the EMP table, and stores this information in AUDIT_TABLE and AUDIT_TABLE_VALUES.

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER audit_emp
   AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON emp
   FOR EACH ROW
   DECLARE
      time_now DATE;
      terminal CHAR(10);
   BEGIN

      -- get current time, and the terminal of the user
      time_now := SYSDATE;
      terminal := USERENV('TERMINAL');

      -- record new employee primary key
      IF INSERTING THEN 
         INSERT INTO audit_table
            VALUES (audit_seq.NEXTVAL, user, time_now,
               terminal, 'EMP', 'INSERT', :new.empno);

      -- record primary key of the deleted row
      ELSIF DELETING THEN                           
         INSERT INTO audit_table
            VALUES (audit_seq.NEXTVAL, user, time_now,
               terminal, 'EMP', 'DELETE', :old.empno);

      -- for updates, record the primary key
      -- of the row being updated
      ELSE 
         INSERT INTO audit_table
            VALUES (audit_seq.NEXTVAL, user, time_now,
               terminal, 'EMP', 'UPDATE', :old.empno);

         -- and for SAL and DEPTNO, record old and new values
         IF UPDATING ('SAL') THEN
            INSERT INTO audit_table_values
               VALUES (audit_seq.CURRVAL, 'SAL',
                  :old.sal, :new.sal);

         ELSIF UPDATING ('DEPTNO') THEN
            INSERT INTO audit_table_values
               VALUES (audit_seq.CURRVAL, 'DEPTNO',
                  :old.deptno, :new.deptno);
         END IF;
      END IF;
 END;
/

Integrity Constraints and Triggers

Triggers and declarative integrity constraints can both be used to constrain data input. However, triggers and integrity constraints have significant differences.

Declarative integrity constraints are statements about the database that are always true. A constraint applies to existing data in the table and any statement that manipulates the table.

See Also:

Chapter 9, "Maintaining Data Integrity"

 

Triggers constrain what a transaction can do. A trigger does not apply to data loaded before the definition of the trigger; therefore, it is not known if all data in a table conforms to the rules established by an associated trigger.

Although triggers can be written to enforce many of the same rules supported by Oracle's declarative integrity constraint features, triggers should only be used to enforce complex business rules that cannot be defined using standard integrity constraints. The declarative integrity constraint features provided with Oracle offer the following advantages when compared to constraints defined by triggers:

Centralized integrity checks  

All points of data access must adhere to the global set of rules defined by the integrity constraints corresponding to each schema object.  

Declarative method  

Constraints defined using the standard integrity constraint features are much easier to write and are less prone to errors when compared with comparable constraints defined by triggers.  

While most aspects of data integrity can be defined and enforced using declarative integrity constraints, triggers can be used to enforce complex business constraints not definable using declarative integrity constraints. For example, triggers can be used to enforce

Enforcing Referential Integrity Using Triggers

Many cases of referential integrity can be enforced using triggers. However, only use triggers when you want to enforce the UPDATE and DELETE SET NULL (when referenced data is updated or deleted, all associated dependent data is site to NULL), and UPDATE and DELETE SET DEFAULT (when referenced data is updated or deleted, all associated dependent data is set to a default value) referential actions, or when you want to enforce referential integrity between parent and child tables on different nodes of a distributed database.

When using triggers to maintain referential integrity, declare the PRIMARY (or UNIQUE) KEY constraint in the parent table. If referential integrity is being maintained between a parent and child table in the same database, you can also declare the foreign key in the child table, but disable it; this prevents the corresponding PRIMARY KEY constraint from being dropped (unless the PRIMARY KEY constraint is explicitly dropped with the CASCADE option).

To maintain referential integrity using triggers:

The following sections provide examples of the triggers necessary to enforce referential integrity. The EMP and DEPT table relationship is used in these examples.

Several of the triggers include statements that lock rows (SELECT... FOR UPDATE). This operation is necessary to maintain concurrency as the rows are being processed.

Foreign Key Trigger for Child Table

The following trigger guarantees that before an INSERT or UPDATE statement affects a foreign key value, the corresponding value exists in the parent key. The mutating table exception included in the example below allows this trigger to be used with the UPDATE_SET_DEFAULT and UPDATE_CASCADE triggers. This exception can be removed if this trigger is used alone.

CREATE TRIGGER emp_dept_check
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OF deptno ON emp
FOR EACH ROW WHEN (new.deptno IS NOT NULL)

-- Before a row is inserted, or DEPTNO is updated in the EMP
-- table, fire this trigger to verify that the new foreign
-- key value (DEPTNO) is present in the DEPT table.
DECLARE
   dummy INTEGER;  -- used for cursor fetch below
   invalid_department EXCEPTION;
   valid_department EXCEPTION;
   mutating_table EXCEPTION;
   PRAGMA EXCEPTION_INIT (mutating_table, -4091);
-- Cursor used to verify parent key value exists.  If
-- present, lock parent key's row so it can't be
-- deleted by another transaction until this
-- transaction is committed or rolled back.
CURSOR PRINT_SALARY_CHANGES_cursor (dn NUMBER) IS
   SELECT deptno
   FROM dept
   WHERE deptno = dn
   FOR UPDATE OF deptno;
BEGIN
   OPEN dummy_cursor (:new.deptno);
   FETCH dummy_cursor INTO dummy;

   -- Verify parent key.  If not found, raise user-specified
   -- error number and message.  If found, close cursor
   -- before allowing triggering statement to complete.
   IF dummy_cursor%NOTFOUND THEN
      RAISE invalid_department;
   
ELSE
      RAISE valid_department;
   END IF;
   CLOSE dummy_cursor;
EXCEPTION
   WHEN invalid_department THEN
      CLOSE dummy_cursor;
      raise_application_error(-20000, 'Invalid Department'
         || ' Number' || TO_CHAR(:new.deptno));
   WHEN valid_department THEN
      CLOSE dummy_cursor;
   WHEN mutating_table THEN
      NULL;
END;

UPDATE and DELETE RESTRICT Trigger for the Parent Table

The following trigger is defined on the DEPT table to enforce the UPDATE and DELETE RESTRICT referential action on the primary key of the DEPT table:

CREATE TRIGGER dept_restrict
BEFORE DELETE OR UPDATE OF deptno ON dept
FOR EACH ROW

-- Before a row is deleted from DEPT or the primary key
-- (DEPTNO) of DEPT is updated, check for dependent
-- foreign key values in EMP; rollback if any are found.
DECLARE
   dummy INTEGER;      -- used for cursor fetch below
   employees_present EXCEPTION;
   employees_not_present EXCEPTION;

   -- Cursor used to check for dependent foreign key values.
   CURSOR dummy_cursor (dn NUMBER) IS
      SELECT deptno FROM emp WHERE deptno = dn;

BEGIN
   OPEN dummy_cursor (:old.deptno);
   FETCH dummy_cursor INTO dummy;

   -- If dependent foreign key is found, raise user-specified
   -- error number and message.  If not found, close cursor
   -- before allowing triggering statement to complete.
   IF dummy_cursor%FOUND THEN
      RAISE employees_present; /* dependent rows exist */
   ELSE
      RAISE employees_not_present; /* no dependent rows */
   END IF;
   CLOSE dummy_cursor;

EXCEPTION
   WHEN employees_present THEN
      CLOSE dummy_cursor;
      raise_application_error(-20001, 'Employees Present in'
         || ' Department ' || TO_CHAR(:old.deptno));
   WHEN employees_not_present THEN
      CLOSE dummy_cursor;
END;


WARNING:

This trigger will not work with self-referential tables (that is, tables with both the primary/unique key and the foreign key). Also, this trigger does not allow triggers to cycle (such as, A fires B fires A).

 

UPDATE and DELETE SET NULL Triggers for Parent Table

The following trigger is defined on the DEPT table to enforce the UPDATE and DELETE SET NULL referential action on the primary key of the DEPT table:

CREATE TRIGGER dept_set_null
AFTER DELETE OR UPDATE OF deptno ON dept
FOR EACH ROW

-- Before a row is deleted from DEPT or the primary key
-- (DEPTNO) of DEPT is updated, set all corresponding
-- dependent foreign key values in EMP to NULL.
BEGIN
   IF UPDATING AND :OLD.deptno != :NEW.deptno OR DELETING THEN
      UPDATE emp SET emp.deptno = NULL
         WHERE emp.deptno = :old.deptno;
   END IF;
END;

DELETE Cascade Trigger for Parent Table

The following trigger on the DEPT table enforces the DELETE CASCADE referential action on the primary key of the DEPT table:

CREATE TRIGGER dept_del_cascade
AFTER DELETE ON dept
FOR EACH ROW

-- Before a row is deleted from DEPT, delete all
-- rows from the EMP table whose DEPTNO is the same as
-- the DEPTNO being deleted from the DEPT table.
BEGIN
   DELETE FROM emp
      WHERE emp.deptno = :old.deptno;
END;


Note:

Typically, the code for DELETE cascade is combined with the code for UPDATE SET NULL or UPDATE SET DEFAULT to account for both updates and deletes.

 

UPDATE Cascade Trigger for Parent Table

The following trigger ensures that if a department number is updated in the DEPT table, this change is propagated to dependent foreign keys in the EMP table:

-- Generate a sequence number to be used as a flag for
-- determining if an update has occurred on a column.
CREATE SEQUENCE update_sequence
    INCREMENT BY 1 MAXVALUE 5000
    CYCLE;

CREATE PACKAGE integritypackage AS
   updateseq NUMBER;
END integritypackage;

CREATE or replace PACKAGE BODY integritypackage AS
END integritypackage;
ALTER TABLE emp ADD update_id NUMBER;   -- create flag col.

CREATE TRIGGER dept_cascade1 BEFORE UPDATE OF deptno ON dept
DECLARE
   dummy NUMBER;

-- Before updating the DEPT table (this is a statement
-- trigger), generate a new sequence number and assign
-- it to the public variable UPDATESEQ of a user-defined
-- package named INTEGRITYPACKAGE.
BEGIN
   SELECT update_sequence.NEXTVAL
      INTO dummy
      FROM dual;
   integritypackage.updateseq := dummy;
END;

CREATE TRIGGER dept_cascade2 AFTER DELETE OR UPDATE
   OF deptno ON dept FOR EACH ROW

-- For each department number in DEPT that is updated,
-- cascade the update to dependent foreign keys in the
-- EMP table.  Only cascade the update if the child row
-- has not already been updated by this trigger.
BEGIN
   IF UPDATING THEN
      UPDATE emp
         SET deptno = :new.deptno,
         update_id = integritypackage.updateseq /*from 1st*/
         WHERE emp.deptno = :old.deptno
         AND update_id IS NULL;
         /* only NULL if not updated by the 3rd trigger
            fired by this same triggering statement */
   END IF;
   IF DELETING THEN

   -- Before a row is deleted from DEPT, delete all
   -- rows from the EMP table whose DEPTNO is the same as
   -- the DEPTNO being deleted from the DEPT table.
      DELETE FROM emp
      WHERE emp.deptno = :old.deptno;
   END IF;
END;
CREATE TRIGGER dept_cascade3 AFTER UPDATE OF deptno ON dept
BEGIN  UPDATE emp
   SET update_id = NULL
   WHERE update_id = integritypackage.updateseq;
END;


Note:

Because this trigger updates the EMP table, the EMP_DEPT_CHECK trigger, if enabled, is also fired. The resulting mutating table error is trapped by the EMP_DEPT_CHECK trigger. You should carefully test any triggers that require error trapping to succeed to ensure that they will always work properly in your environment.

 

Enforcing Complex Check Constraints

Triggers can enforce integrity rules other than referential integrity. For example, this trigger performs a complex check before allowing the triggering statement to execute. Comments within the code explain the functionality of the trigger.

CREATE TRIGGER salary_check
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OF sal, job ON emp
FOR EACH ROW
DECLARE
   minsal                NUMBER;
   maxsal                NUMBER;
   salary_out_of_range   EXCEPTION;
BEGIN

/* Retrieve the minimum and maximum salary for the
   employee's new job classification from the SALGRADE
   table into MINSAL and MAXSAL. */

SELECT minsal, maxsal INTO minsal, maxsal FROM salgrade
   WHERE job_classification = :new.job;


/* If the employee's new salary is less than or greater
   than the job classification's limits, the exception is
   raised.  The exception message is returned and the
   pending INSERT or UPDATE statement that fired the
   trigger is rolled back. */

   IF (:new.sal < minsal OR :new.sal > maxsal) THEN
      RAISE salary_out_of_range;
   END IF;
EXCEPTION
   WHEN salary_out_of_range THEN
      raise_application_error (-20300,
         'Salary '||TO_CHAR(:new.sal)||' out of range for '
         ||'job classification '||:new.job
         ||' for employee '||:new.name);
   WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
      raise_application_error(-20322,
         'Invalid Job Classification '
         ||:new.job_classification);
END;

Complex Security Authorizations and Triggers

Triggers are commonly used to enforce complex security authorizations for table data. Only use triggers to enforce complex security authorizations that cannot be defined using the database security features provided with Oracle. For, example, a trigger can prohibit updates to salary data of the EMP table during weekends, holidays, and non-working hours.

When using a trigger to enforce a complex security authorization, it is best to use a BEFORE statement trigger. Using a BEFORE statement trigger has these benefits:

Example

This example shows a trigger used to enforce security. The Comments within the code explain the functionality of the trigger.

CREATE TRIGGER emp_permit_changes
BEFORE INSERT OR DELETE OR UPDATE ON emp
DECLARE
   dummy INTEGER;
   not_on_weekends EXCEPTION;
   not_on_holidays EXCEPTION;
   non_working_hours EXCEPTION;
BEGIN
   /* check for weekends */
   IF (TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'DY') = 'SAT' OR
      TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'DY') = 'SUN') THEN
      RAISE not_on_weekends;
   END IF;
   /* check for company holidays */
   SELECT COUNT(*) INTO dummy FROM company_holidays
      WHERE TRUNC(day) = TRUNC(sysdate);
      /* TRUNC gets rid of time parts of dates */
   IF dummy > 0 THEN
      RAISE not_on_holidays;
   END IF;
   /* Check for work hours (8am to 6pm) */
   IF (TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'HH24') < 8 OR
      TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'HH24') > 18) THEN
      RAISE non_working_hours;
   END IF;
EXCEPTION
   WHEN not_on_weekends THEN
      raise_application_error(-20324,'May not change '
         ||'employee table during the weekend');
   WHEN not_on_holidays THEN
      raise_application_error(-20325,'May not change '
         ||'employee table during a holiday');
   WHEN non_working_hours THEN
      raise_application_error(-20326,'May not change '
      ||'emp table during non-working hours');
END;

Transparent Event Logging and Triggers

Triggers are very useful when you want to transparently perform a related change in the database following certain events.

Example

The REORDER trigger example on page 13-21 shows a trigger that reorders parts as necessary when certain conditions are met (that is, a triggering statement is issued and the PARTS_ON_HAND value is less than the REORDER_POINT value).

Derived Column Values and Triggers

Triggers can derive column values automatically based upon a value provided by an INSERT or UPDATE statement. This type of trigger is useful to force values in specific columns that depend on the values of other columns in the same row. BEFORE row triggers are necessary to complete this type of operation because

Example

The following example illustrates how a trigger can be used to derive new column values for a table whenever a row is inserted or updated. Comments within the code explain its functionality.

BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OF ename ON emp

/* Before updating the ENAME field, derive the values for
   the UPPERNAME and SOUNDEXNAME fields. Users should be
   restricted from updating these fields directly. */
FOR EACH ROW

BEGIN
   :new.uppername := UPPER(:new.ename);
   :new.soundexname := SOUNDEX(:new.ename);
END;




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