How to modify Trigger to update a single attribute in PostgreSQL - postgresql

Question

Here is my sample table.
CREATE TABLE employee_test(
idTst SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
monthDownload VARCHAR(6),
changeDate DATE);
I am trying to create a function and trigger that would update changeDate attribute with a current date when monthDownload attribute is updated.
The function I have it works with one problem. It updates all records instead of the one that was updated.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION downloadMonthChange()
RETURNS TRIGGER AS
$$
BEGIN
IF NEW.monthDownload <> OLD.monthDownload THEN
UPDATE employee_test
SET changeDate = current_date
where OLD.idTst = NEW.idTst;
END IF;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$
Language plpgsql;
Trigger
Create TRIGGER dataTest
AFTER UPDATE
ON employee_test
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE downloadMonthChange();
When I execute the following Update statement:
UPDATE employee_test SET monthDownload = 'oct12'
WHERE idTst = 1;
All changeDate rows get update with a current date.
Is there a way to have only a row with changed record to have a current date updated.

Answer 1

If you use a before trigger you can write directly to NEW
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION downloadMonthChange()
RETURNS TRIGGER AS
$$
BEGIN
IF NEW.monthDownload <> OLD.monthDownload THEN
NEW.changeDate = current_date;
END IF;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$
Language plpgsql;
the other option when you must use an after trigger is to include the primary key in the where clause. It appears that you were trying to do this, but you had a spurious OLD in the query. beause of that the where clause was only looking at the record responsible for the trigger call, and not limiting which records were to be updated.
IF NEW.monthDownload <> OLD.monthDownload THEN
UPDATE employee_test
SET changeDate = current_date
where idTst = NEW.idTst;