Prevent duplicate data in using After Insert Trigger - sql

Question

I can detect duplicate records, but when I'm inserting new data it will detect it as a duplicate record even if doesn't already exist.
Here is my code:
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[SDPRawInventory_Dup_Trigger]
ON [dbo].[SDPRawInventory]
AFTER INSERT
AS
DECLARE #Year float,
#Month float,
#SDPGroup nvarchar(255);
SELECT
#Year = i.InvYear, #Month = i.InvMonth, #SDPGroup = i.SDPGroup
FROM inserted i;
IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM SDPRawInventory A
WHERE A.InvYear = #Year
AND A.InvMonth = #Month
AND A.SDPGroup = #SDPGroup) >= 1
BEGIN
RAISERROR ('Duplicate data', 16, 1)
ROLLBACK;
END
ELSE
BEGIN
INSERT INTO SDPRawInventory
SELECT * FROM inserted;
END
This is the table
And to clarify there is no primary key nor unique identifier.

Answer 1

If you are unable to put a constraint in place, then you need to handle the fact that Inserted may have multiple records. And because its an after insert trigger, you don't need to do anything if no duplicates are found because the records are already inserted.
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[SDPRawInventory_Dup_Trigger]
ON [dbo].[SDPRawInventory]
AFTER INSERT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
IF EXISTS (
SELECT 1
FROM dbo.SDPRawInventory S
INNER JOIN Inserted I ON
-- Test for a duplicate
S.InvYear = I.InvYear
AND S.InvMonth = I.InvMonth
AND S.SDPGroup = I.SDPGroup
-- But ensure the duplicate is a *different* record - assumes a unique ID
AND S.ID <> I.ID
)
BEGIN
THROW 51000, 'Duplicate data.', 1;
END;
END;
Note the simplified and modern error handling.
EDIT: And if you have no unique key, and no permission to add one, then you need an instead of trigger to only insert non-duplicates e.g.
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[SDPRawInventory_Dup_Trigger]
ON [dbo].[SDPRawInventory]
INSTEAD OF INSERT
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- Reject the entire insert if a single duplicate exists
-- Note if multiple records are inserted, some of which are duplicates and some of which aren't, they all get rejected
IF EXISTS (
SELECT 1
FROM dbo.SDPRawInventory S
INNER JOIN Inserted I ON
-- Test for a duplicate
A.InvYear = I.InvYear
AND A.InvMonth = I.InvMonth
AND A.SDPGroup = I.#SDPGroup
)
-- Test that Inserted itself doesn't contain duplicates
OR EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM Inserted GROUP BY InvYear, InvMonth, SDPGroup HAVING COUNT(*) > 1)
BEGIN
THROW 51000, 'Duplicate data.', 1;
END;
INSERT INTO dbo.SDPRawInventory (SDP_SKU_DESC, WholeQty, InvYear, InvMonth, SDPGroup, invUOM, LooseQty)
SELECT SDP_SKU_DESC, WholeQty, InvYear, InvMonth, SDPGroup, invUOM, LooseQty
FROM Inserted I
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT 1
FROM dbo.SDPRawInventory S
-- Test for a duplicate
WHERE S.InvYear = I.InvYear
AND S.InvMonth = I.InvMonth
AND S.SDPGroup = I.SDPGroup
);
END;
Note: This doesn't do anything to handle existing duplicates.

Answer 2

This trigger is executed after the new records were inserted, so it will at least find the original records in the SELECT COUNT statement. Changing >= 1 into >= 2 can only partially fix this when inserting is guaranteed to occur one record as a time. Moreover, it will still fail when there were already multiple duplicated of the newly inserted record in the database before the insert.
You need to exclude the latest inserted records from the COUNT. But a better idea would probably be to add a UNIQUE constraint for preventing duplicates, so no trigger would be necessary.
If adding a constraint is not possible yet, you should initiate a clean-up process to eliminate the existing duplicates beforehand. Everything else is looks pretty flawed to me, since it is unlikely the current approach will ever bring the table into a state with no duplicates.

Answer 3

You are creating the infinite loop. You just have to remove the insertion part from your trigger.
ELSE
BEGIN
INSERT INTO SDPRawInventory
SELECT * FROM inserted;
END
This should not be in the trigger as trigger is called as part of insertion. you should not write actual insertion in to table in trigger.