SQL - How to create a trigger for two joined tables which is used for inserting - sql

Question

Ok , so I know that inserting information in a view based on two joined tables is impossible.
In order to do so , I need to create a trigger to insert the information in both tables , when an insert is made in that view.
For example :
CREATE VIEW myJoinedView AS
SELECT name,g.value from students
JOIN grades g on g.id=students.id;
The trigger is not working :
CREATE TRIGGER myTrigger
INSTEAD OF INSERT ON myJoinedView
BEGIN
INSERT INTO students
(name,value)
SELECT i.myJoinedView
FROM inserted i
INNER JOIN grades
ON i.id = grades.id
END myTrigger;
Then I'm trying to insert :
INSERT INTO myJoinedView VALUES ('Alex',10);
I don't know if the syntax is correct , I did not find any helpful documentation on this specific type of trigger.
I'm getting this error:
Error(10,46): PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "end-of-file" when
expecting one of the following: ( begin case declare end exception
exit for goto if loop mod null pragma raise return select update
while with
<< continue close current delete fetch lock
insert open rollback savepoint set sql execute commit forall merge
pipe purge
Any help will be well received.
Thank you!

Answer 1

You need to either perform the inserts separately with separate single table insert or merge statements or by using a multi table insert (insert all) statement. Assuming you have a sequence to generate the id you are joining on for example this code will work in a very rudimentary way, but has some significant issues:
create table students ( id number primary key
, name varchar2(60));
create table grades( id number not null
, value number
, constraint grades_fk1 foreign key (id) references students(id));
create sequence student_id_seq;
create or replace view studentgrades as
select name, value from students s join grades g on s.id = g.id;
create or replace trigger studentgrades_ii_trg
instead of insert on studentgrades
begin
insert all into students(id, name) values (student_id_seq.nextval, name)
into grades(id, value) values (student_id_seq.nextval, value)
select :new.name name, :new.value value from dual;
end;
/
insert into studentgrades values ('Alex',10);
insert into studentgrades values ('Alex',8);
The BIG issue with the above trigger is that every time a grade is inserted for 'Alex' a new student record for 'Alex' is also created instead of reusing the previous student record for 'Alex'. That's probably not the desired behavior. Instead it should probably just insert a new grade record for Alex. One way to acheive this is for the studentgrades view to include the id column from the students table so you can uniquely identify which student to add the grade to, updating the trigger as needed:
create or replace view studentgrades as
select s.id, name, value from students s join grades g on s.id = g.id;
create or replace trigger studentgrades_ii_trg
instead of insert on studentgrades
declare
newid students.id%type;
begin
if :new.id is null then
newid := student_id_seq.nextval;
else
newid := :new.id;
end if;
insert all when :new.id is null
then into students(id, name) values (id, name)
else into grades(id, value) values (id, value)
select newid id, :new.name name, :new.value value from dual;
end;
/
insert into studentgrades values (null, 'Paul',10);
insert into studentgrades values (student_id_seq.currval, 'Paul',8);
However, now what happens if you try this:
insert into studentgrades values (student_id_seq.currval, 'Mary',10);
In this case the name is effectively ignored and Paul gets a new grade so again this isn't quite right. The question is should Paul's name be updated to Mary, or should a new student record for Mary be created, or should an exception be raised?