I have a column called updated which is intended to show the last time that column was altered.
My first attempt at this was to create a trigger that changed the updated column to the value returned by now(). But because this trigger happens on an update event, it caused an infinite loop (updating the updated column causes the trigger to fire).
I also tried implementing a rule to do this with similar effects.
I can't imagine that this is something I am forced to do on the application layer when ever I call and update function. So how can I update that row's updated column without causing infinite loops?
Use a trigger like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION update() RETURNS trigger AS $$
BEGIN
IF NEW.updated = OLD.updated THEN
NEW.updated = NOW()
END IF;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
CREATE TRIGGER table_update
BEFORE UPDATE ON table
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE update()
This way you aren't in a loop--you only update the value once (before the UPDATE is executed), and you also don't clobber the value, if for some reason you want to set updated explicitly (as in when importing old data from backup, for instance).
I have solved this in other applications by checking the field I am changing and if nothing is changed, then I do not do the update. If you can check the updated column and if it is within the last N seconds, do not do the update. This should stop the infinite loop. Pick the number you want for N, so you can know the update timestamp is always within N seconds.
Related
My trigger is defined the following way:
CREATE TRIGGER update_contract_finished_at
AFTER INSERT OR DELETE OR UPDATE OF performed_on
ON task
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE update_contract_finished_at_function();
I now want to evoke this trigger to set the variables which are updated by the trigger. How do I do that?
Something like
for each row in task
execute procedure update_contract_finished_at_function();
I know I can update with a standard update set statement. I also want to verifiy that my trigger works on all the data correctly.
I'd write a slightly modified copy of update_contract_finished_at_function that takes type task as input and returns void.
Then replace NEW in the trigger function with $1 and call the function like this:
SELECT copy_func(task) FROM task;
If the functions are almost identical, it should be good enough to test the trigget function.
The way to manually trigger your on update trigger once would be:
UPDATE task SET performed_on = performed_on
however depending on how complicated your logic is in there and how many rows you have in the table a separate query might be significantly faster for initializing a large number of rows.
Since you mentioned you want to test the behaviour of your trigger you can clone the table or do a table or database dump and restore the data afterwards. If this is a live system you should instead do a database dump, restore to another system, add your trigger, test it, repeat from restore until you nail it... and only after you're sure it does what you want update the live system with it.
I ended up writing a PL/pgSQL function that in a loop processes all events in chronological order and calling it:
create or replace function process_event_history()
returns void
language plpgsql
as
$$
declare
event record;
begin
for event in
select id, timestamp
from events
order by timestamp
loop
update events set timestamp = event.timestamp
where id = event.id;
end loop;
end;
$$;
--;;
-- Execute the above function causing the trigger to run for all events.
select process_event_history();
--;;
-- Remove the temporary processing function.
drop function process_event_history();
I would like to make sure that the values of certain required fields can not be changed later on. Is there a way to define this on the schema level?
Currently, I'm thinking about implementing this using a Record Trigger to raise an exception if a value change is noticed but this feels clunky.
E.g.:
BEGIN
IF (TG_OP = 'UPDATE') THEN
IF (NEW.product_id !== OLD.product_id) THEN
RAISE EXCEPTION 'Attempt to change frozen field "product_id" on UPDATE.'
END IF;
END IF;
END
If you want a trigger with comparison on a field, you can save execution by specifying condition on the trigger itself:
A Boolean expression that determines whether the trigger function will
actually be executed. If WHEN is specified, the function will only be
called if the condition returns true. In FOR EACH ROW triggers, the
WHEN condition can refer to columns of the old and/or new row values
by writing OLD.column_name or NEW.column_name respectively. Of course,
INSERT triggers cannot refer to OLD and DELETE triggers cannot refer
to NEW.
eg:
CREATE TRIGGER check_update
BEFORE UPDATE ON accounts
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (OLD.product_id IS DISTINCT FROM NEW.product_id)
EXECUTE PROCEDURE check_account_update();
Of course it does not freeze anything. Now you cant change it with update, unless you disable the trigger, update and enable trigger back. But at least later requires alter table, not just update
In Postgresql I can have two kinds of triggers: FOR EACH ROW and FOR EACH STATEMENT. If I do a FOR EACH ROW trigger, I can add a WHERE clause something like OLD.* != NEW.* so it only fires if something has actually changed. Is there any way to do something similar with STATEMENT level triggers? I know I can't do the same thing since OLD and NEW aren't available, but I was thinking perhaps there might be a way to check the number of rows changed from within my function itself or the like.
Usage case: I am using the postgresql NOTIFY system to notify my app when data changes. Ideally, the app would get a single notification each time one or more records changes, and not get notified at all if data stays the same (even if an UPDATE was run). With a basic AFTER UPDATE FOR EACH STATEMENT trigger, I am getting notified every time an update statement runs - even if it doesn't actually change anything.
You should create two triggers: before update for each row and after update for each statement.
The first trigger checks if the table is being updated and sets a flag if so.
The second trigger checks the flag and performs notify if it was set.
You can use a custom configuration parameter as the flag (e.g. flags.the_table).
The solution is simple and safe, as the parameter is local in the current session.
create or replace function before_each_row_on_the_table()
returns trigger language plpgsql
as $$
begin
if new <> old then
set flags.the_table to 'on';
end if;
return new;
end $$;
create or replace function after_each_statement_on_the_table()
returns trigger language plpgsql
as $$
begin
if current_setting('flags.the_table', true) = 'on' then
notify your_channel, 'the_table was updated';
set flags.the_table to 'off';
end if;
return null;
end $$;
create trigger before_each_row_on_the_table
before update on the_table
for each row execute procedure before_each_row_on_the_table();
create trigger after_each_statement_on_the_table
after update on the_table
for each statement execute procedure after_each_statement_on_the_table();
The function current_setting() with two arguments is available in Postgres 9.6 or later.
So I am working on adding a last updated time to the database for my app's server. The idea is that it will record the time an update is applied to one of our trips and then the app can send a get request to figure out if it's got all of the correct up to date information.
I've added the column to our table, and provided the service for it all, and finally manage to get a trigger going to update the column every time a change is made to a trip in it's trip table. My problem now comes from the fact that the information that pertains to a trip is stored across a multitude of other tables as well (for instance, there are tables for the routes that make up a trip and the photos that a user can see on the trip, etc...) and if any of that data changes, then the trip's update time also needs to change. I can't for the life of me figure out how to set up the trigger so that when I change some route information, the last updated time for the trip(s) the route belongs to will be updated in it's table.
This is my trigger code as it stands now: it updates the trip table's last updated column when that trip's row is updated.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION record_update_time() RETURNS TRIGGER AS
$$
BEGIN
NEW.last_updated=now();
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE PLPGSQL;
CREATE TRIGGER update_entry_on_entry_change
BEFORE UPDATE ON mydatabase.trip FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE record_update_time();
--I used the next two queries just to test that the trigger works. It
--probably doesn't make a difference to you but I'll keep it here for reference
UPDATE mydatabase.trip
SET title='Sample New Title'
WHERE id = 2;
SELECT *
FROM mydatabase.trip
WHERE mydatabase.trip.id < 5;
Now I need it to update when the rows referencing the trip row with a foreign key get updated. Any ideas from someone more experienced with SQL triggers than I?
"mydatabase" is a remarkably unfortunate name for a schema.
The trigger function could look like this:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION trg_upaft_upd_trip()
RETURNS trigger
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS
$func$
BEGIN
UPDATE mydatabase.trip t -- "mydatabase" = schema name (?!)
SET last_updated = now()
WHERE t.id = NEW.trip_id -- guessing column names
RETURN NULL; -- calling this AFTER UPDATE
END
$func$;
And needs to be used in a trigger on every related table (not on trip itself):
CREATE TRIGGER upaft_upd_trip
AFTER UPDATE ON mydatabase.trip_detail
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE trg_upaft_upd_trip();
You also need to cover INSERT and DELETE (and possibly COPY) on all sub-tables ...
This approach has many potential points of failure. As alternative, consider a query or view that computes the latest last_updated from sub-tables dynamically. If you update often this might be the superior approach.
If you rarely UPDATE and SELECT often, your first approach might pay.
I have a trigger function for a table test which has the following code snippet:
IF TG_OP='UPDATE' THEN
IF OLD.locked > 0 AND
( OLD.org_id <> NEW.org_id OR
OLD.document_code <> NEW.document_code OR
-- other columns ...
)
THEN
RAISE EXCEPTION 'Message';
-- more code
So I am statically checking all the column's new value with its previous value to ensure integrity. Now every time my business logic changes and I have to add new columns into that table, I will have to modify this trigger each time. I thought it would be better if somehow I could dynamically check all the columns of that table, without explicitly typing their name.
How can it be done?
From 9.0 beta2 documentation about WHEN clause in triggers, which might be able to be used in earlier versions within the trigger body:
OLD.* IS DISTINCT FROM NEW.*
or possibly (from 8.2 release notes)
IF row(new.*) IS DISTINCT FROM row(old.*)
Take a look at the information_schema, there is a view "columns". Execute a query to get all current columnnames from the table that fired the trigger:
SELECT
column_name
FROM
information_schema.columns
WHERE
table_schema = TG_TABLE_SCHEMA
AND
table_name = TG_TABLE_NAME;
Loop through the result and there you go!
More information can be found in the fine manual.
In Postgres 9.0 or later add a WHEN clause to your trigger definition (CREATE TRIGGER statement):
CREATE TRIGGER foo
BEFORE UPDATE
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (OLD IS DISTINCT FROM NEW) -- parentheses required!
EXECUTE PROCEDURE ...;
Only possible for triggers BEFORE / AFTER UPDATE, where both OLD and NEW are defined. You'd get an exception trying to use this WHEN clause with INSERT or DELETE triggers.
And radically simplify the trigger function accordingly:
...
IF OLD.locked > 0 THEN
RAISE EXCEPTION 'Message';
END IF;
...
No need to test IF TG_OP='UPDATE' ... since this trigger only works for UPDATE anyway.
Or move that condition in the WHEN clause, too:
CREATE TRIGGER foo
BEFORE UPDATE
FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (OLD.locked > 0
AND OLD IS DISTINCT FROM NEW)
EXECUTE PROCEDURE ...;
Leaving only an unconditional RAISE EXCEPTION in your trigger function, which is only called when needed to begin with.
Read the fine print:
In a BEFORE trigger, the WHEN condition is evaluated just before the
function is or would be executed, so using WHEN is not materially
different from testing the same condition at the beginning of the
trigger function. Note in particular that the NEW row seen by the
condition is the current value, as possibly modified by earlier
triggers. Also, a BEFORE trigger's WHEN condition is not allowed to
examine the system columns of the NEW row (such as oid), because those
won't have been set yet.
In an AFTER trigger, the WHEN condition is evaluated just after the
row update occurs, and it determines whether an event is queued to
fire the trigger at the end of statement. So when an AFTER trigger's
WHEN condition does not return true, it is not necessary to queue an
event nor to re-fetch the row at end of statement. This can result in
significant speedups in statements that modify many rows, if the
trigger only needs to be fired for a few of the rows.
Related:
Fire trigger on update of columnA or ColumnB or ColumnC
To also address the question title
Is it possible to dynamically loop through a table's columns?
Yes. Examples:
Handle result when dynamic SQL is in a loop
Removing all columns with given name
Iteration over RECORD variable inside trigger
Use pl/perl or pl/python. They are much better suited for such tasks. much better.
You can also install hstore-new, and use it's row->hstore semantics, but that's definitely not a good idea when using normal datatypes.