Getting error in Postgres trigger creation - postgresql

I'm trying to create this trigger in my PostgresSql environment:
CREATE TRIGGER MYTRIGGER
BEFORE INSERT
ON MYTABLE
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF( LENGTH( :NEW.VAL ) > 10 )
THEN
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR( -20003,
'Cannot exceed 10 chars' );
END IF;
IF :NEW.FQN_ID IS NULL THEN
:NEW.FQN_ID :=
CASE :NEW.SUBTYPECODE
WHEN NULL THEN 'A:'
WHEN 0 THEN 'B:'
WHEN 1 THEN 'C:'
WHEN 2 THEN 'D:'
ELSE 'Z:' || :NEW.SUBTYPECODE || '::'
--END || :NEW.OBJECTID;
END || STRUCTURE_FQNID_SEQ.NEXTVAL;
END IF;
END;
But I get this error:
ERROR: syntax error at or near "BEGIN"
LINE 5: BEGIN
^
SQL state: 42601
Character: 79
I think I'm missing something but I can't get it.
Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

Here are my notes about triggers in several DBMSs: https://github.com/iwis/SQL-notes. I marked the differences between the DBMSs in orange. I think that the notes are quite complete, so you don't have to read about triggers in Postgres documentation.
I see the following changes that need to done in your example:
Change Oracle :NEW to Postgres NEW.
Instead of a BEGIN ... END block, write EXECUTE FUNCTION my_trigger_function();, where my_trigger_function is a function that needs to be created like in the example given by a_horse_with_no_name.
This function should return NEW in your case - the reason is described here.
If a more complicated code is fired by a trigger, then you also need to understand the differences between PL/SQL and PL/pgSQL languages. These languages ​​are quite similar, though there are some differences. Your code is simple so the differences are small. It's probably enough to:
Write Postgres RETURNS in the function definition instead of Oracle RETURN.
Write $$ before BEGIN, and $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; after END.
Write Postgres RAISE 'Cannot exceed 10 chars'; instead of Oracle RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20003, 'Cannot exceed 10 chars');.
I don't know if sequences work in the same way in PostgreSQL - I haven't read about them yet.
Let me know if my notes are understandable - I'm not sure about it because they are super compact so you need to decipher the markings used by me.

Related

SQL0628N with MODIFIES SQL DATA when creating a table function

I am trying to encapsulate the functionality from this sample code here, inside a Table-Function.
I can run the sample alone without any problem.
But when I create a table function, just with a single call to OPEN_CURSOR , I receive SQL0577N
CREATE FUNCTION ROW_CHECKSUM
( IN sSchema VARCHAR(128) ,
IN sTable VARCHAR(128) ,
IN sColumnList VARCHAR(1024) ,
IN sWhere VARCHAR(1023),
IN iRows INTEGER
)
RETURNS TABLE (ROW_PK_VALUES VARCHAR(3000), CHECKSUM INTEGER )
LANGUAGE SQL
SPECIFIC ROW_CHECKSUM
--NO EXTERNAL ACTION
--MODIFIES SQL DATA
--NOT DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
DECLARE iCheckSum INTEGER ;
DECLARE sKyes VARCHAR(1024) ;
DECLARE iCursor INTEGER;
DECLARE sQuery VARCHAR(32000) ;
SET sQuery = 'SELECT ' || sColumnList || ' FROM "' || sSchema || '"."' || sTable || '" WHERE ' || sWhere || ' FETCH FIRST ' || TO_CHAR(iRows) || ' ONLY' ;
CALL DBMS_SQL.OPEN_CURSOR(iCursor);
--CALL DBMS_SQL.PARSE(iCursor, sQuery, DBMS_SQL.native) ;
--PIPE (sKeys, iCheckSum) ;
--PIPE ('abcd', 1234) ;
RETURN ;
END
----
SQL0577N User defined routine "DB2ADMIN.ROW_CHECKSUM" (specific name "")
attempted to modify data but was not defined as MODIFIES SQL DATA. LINE
NUMBER=33. SQLSTATE=38002
it seems, OPEN_CURSOR demands to have the MODIFY SQL DATA specified.. ok.. let's go!
But, when I specify it, then I get the following error, instead:
SQL0628N Multiple or conflicting keywords involving the "MODIFIES SQL DATA"
clause are present. LINE NUMBER=33. SQLSTATE=42613
The error details for -628 error is too generic and does not help me to determine what's really going on here.
I need to perform dynamic SQL queries using DBMS_SQL module, and return the result set using PIPE , like this other sample here.
I have been reading spread documentations the entire day.. and so far was not able to determine exactly what rule I am violating.
Also, found some inconsistencies on documentation, which I don't understand:
This page, says:
SQL table functions cannot contain compiled compound statements.
While, the Rules from RETURN statement says the opposite, and matches with PIPE sample code:
In an SQL table function using a compound SQL (compiled) statement, an expression, NULL, or fullselectcannot be specified. Rows are returned from the function using the PIPE statement and the RETURN statement is required as the last statement to execute when the function exits (SQLSTATE 2F005).
Appreciate any help!
Look at the note about the MODIFIES SQL DATA in the CREATE FUNCTION statement description:
4 Valid only for compiled scalar function definition and an inlined
table function definition.
But you can't use PIPE in an inlined function.
So, you want to use different functionalities, which can't be used together.
The inconsistency you found in the documentation is not related to you problem.

Postgres: Returning Results or Error from Stored Functions

I am struggling to figure out how to best handle the return of results or errors to my application from Postgres stored functions.
Consider the following contrived psudeocode example:
app.get_resource(_username text)
RETURNS <???>
BEGIN
IF ([ ..user exists.. ] = FALSE) THEN
RETURN 'ERR_USER_NOT_FOUND';
END IF;
IF ([ ..user has permission.. ] = FALSE) THEN
RETURN 'ERR_NO_PERMISSION';
END IF;
-- Return the full user object.
RETURN QUERY( SELECT 1
FROM app.resources
WHERE app.resources.owner = _username);
END
The function can fail with a specific error or succeed and return 0 or more resources.
At first I tried creating a custom type to always use as a standard return type in eachh function:
CREATE TYPE app.appresult AS (
success boolean,
error text,
result anyelement
);
Postgres does not allow this however:
[42P16] ERROR: column "result" has pseudo-type anyelement
I then discovered OUT parameters and attempted the following uses:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION app.get_resource(
IN _username text,
OUT _result app.appresult -- Custom type
-- {success bool, error text}
)
RETURNS SETOF record
AS
$$
BEGIN
IF 1 = 1 THEN -- just a test
_result.success = false;
_result.error = 'ERROR_ERROR';
RETURN NULL;
END IF;
RETURN QUERY(SELECT * FROM app.resources);
END;
$$
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql' VOLATILE;
Postgres doesn't like this either:
[42P13] ERROR: function result type must be app.appresult because of OUT parameters
Also tried a similar function but reversed: Returning a custom app.appresult object and setting the OUT param to "SETOF RECORD". This was also not allowed.
Lastly i looked into Postgres exception handling using
RAISE EXCEPTION 'ERR_MY_ERROR';
So in the example function, i'd just raise this error and return.
This resulted in the driver sending back the error as:
"ERROR: ERR_MY_ERROR\nCONTEXT: PL/pgSQL function app.test(text) line 6 at RAISE\n(P0001)"
This is easy enough to parse but doing things this way feels wrong.
What is the best way to solve this problem?
Is it possible to have a custom AppResult object that i could return?
Something like:
{ success bool, error text, result <whatever type> }
//Edit 1 //
I think I'm leaning more towards #Laurenz Albe solution.
My main goal is simple: Call a stored procedure which can return either an error or some data.
Using RAISE seems to accomplish this and the C++ driver allows easy checking for an error condition returned from a query.
if ([error code returned from the query] == 90100)
{
// 1. Parse out my overly verbose error from the raw driver
// error string.
// 2. Handle the error.
}
I'm also wondering about using custom SQLSTATE codes instead of parsing the driver string.
Throwing '__404' might mean that during the course of my SPs execution, it could not continue because some record needed was not found.
When calling the sql function from my app, i have a general idea of what it failing with a '__404' would mean and how to handle it. This avoids the additional step of parsing driver error string.
I can also see the potential of this being a bad idea.
Bedtime reading:
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/errcodes-appendix.html
This is slightly opinion based, but I think that throwing an error is the best and most elegant solution. That is what errors are for!
To distinguish various error messages, you could use SQLSTATEs that start with 6, 8 or 9 (these are not used), then you don't have to depend on the wording of the error message.
You can raise such an error with
RAISE EXCEPTION SQLSTATE '90001' USING MESSAGE = 'my own error';
We do something similar to what you're trying to do, but we use TEXT rather than ANYELEMENT, because (almost?) any type can be cast to TEXT and back. So our type looks something like:
(errors our_error_type[], result TEXT)
The function which returns this stores errors in the errors array (it's just some custom error type), and can store the result (cast to text) in the result field.
The calling function knows what type it expects, so it can first check the errors array to see if any errors were returned, and if not it can cast the result value to the expected return type.
As a general observation, I think exceptions are more elegant (possibly because I come from a c# background). The only problem is in plpgsql exception handling is (relatively) slow, so it depends on the context - if you're running something many times in a loop, I would prefer a solution that doesn't use exception handling; if it's a single call, and/or especially when you want it to abort, I prefer raising an exception. In practice we use both at various points throughout our call stacks.
And as Laurenz Albe pointed out, you're not meant to "parse" exceptions, so much as raise an exception with specific values in specific fields, which the function that catches the exception can then extract and act on directly.
As an example:
Setup:
CREATE TABLE my_table (id INTEGER, txt TEXT);
INSERT INTO my_table VALUES (1,'blah');
CREATE TYPE my_type AS (result TEXT);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION my_func()
RETURNS my_type AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
m my_type;
BEGIN
SELECT my_table::TEXT
INTO m.result
FROM my_table;
RETURN m;
END
$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql STABLE;
Run:
SELECT (m.result::my_table).*
FROM my_func() AS m
Result:
| id | txt |
-------------
| 1 | blah |

Unable to get the SQL function to run

I'm unable to get a simple SQL function that run over rows of a tables and display it column info
Here how the SQL function looks like.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION iterators() RETURNS Void AS $$
DECLARE
t2_row call_records%ROWTYPE;
BEGIN
FOR t2_row IN (SELECT timestamp,plain_crn INTO call_records limit 2)
LOOP
RAISE NOTICE t2_row.timestamp;
END LOOP
END
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
But I keep getting following error
ERROR: syntax error at or near "t2_row"
LINE 7: RAISE NOTICE t2_row.timestamp;
I'm not sure what possible syntax error the code has? Is it possible to get a bit more verbose error log or know as to what is the syntax error in code that I have to fix.
Statement RAISE requires format string. It should be trivial, but should be there.
RAISE NOTICE '%', t2_row.timestamp;

How to do error handling in Stored procedure

I am using Sybase ASE 12.5 at the moment. I have a code below:
create procedure test_launcher_fail_wrapper
as
begin
select convert(numeric(2),1234345)
if ##error != 0
begin
select "SP failed to execute"
return 1
end
end
Here, I am trying to convert a very large value/amount (1234345) to Numeric size 2. Which is not possible and it generates error.
Questions:
Is having ##error useful here? I ran this SP and it never went into
error handling
How to error handle these kind of scenarios?
I treat error handling in procs similarly to error handling in applications -- if there's an opportunity for you to contribute some actual value by handling the error, then by all means, do so, but if you can't really do anything to help, then you're better off just letting it go.
As an example of adding value, I've got one or two procs that add contextual information in the error message, like a list of ID values that conflict with an update operation. In this particular case, I know that the upstream consumer of the proc will log this error, and the text will be available to an operator who will find this information valuable when debugging the problem. I also know that while this condition is a real error, it's been known to happen from time-to-time, and the effort to format the error is worthwhile.
Does this catch your error?
create procedure test_launcher_fail_wrapper
as
begin
declare #database_err int
set #database_err = 0
select convert(numeric(2),1234345)
set #database_err = ##error
if #database_err <> 0
begin
PRINT 'SP failed to execute'
return 1
end
end
##error is the way to go but beware since:
Every Transact-SQL statement, including print statements and if tests, resets ##error, so the status check must immediately follow the batch for which success is in question.
As for a suggestion on how to handle error management in similar scenarios, have you considered using raiserror ?
An example:
create procedure proc1 as
begin
select convert(numeric(2),1234345)
if ##error <> 0
begin
raiserror 20001 "Error during convert in proc1"
return 1
end
end

Trigger and missing option

I'm developing a trigger that has to check the correctness of a date. I'm have big time trouble creating one, becase no matter how I try to simplify my code, Oracle returns me the same error: ORA-00922: missing or invalid option. I have checked the code over and over again and I really can't figure out where my issue is!
The following is an over-simplified version of the trigger, which gets the same error too.
CREATE OR REPLACE checkDateValidity
BEFORE INSERT
ON Event
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF :new.month>12
THEN
RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20101, 'Error: wrong month');
END IF;
END;
I really hope you can help me because at this point I really have no idea of what I am doing wrong.
You are missing the TRIGGER keyword:
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER checkDateValidity
.... ^^^^^^^