How do I alter a CHECK constraint on Firebird? - sql

Question

I have a Firebird table like this:
CREATE TABLE events (
event VARCHAR(6) NOT NULL
CHECK (event IN ('deploy', 'revert', 'fail')),
change_id CHAR(40) NOT NULL,
change VARCHAR(512) NOT NULL
);
Now I need to add another value to the IN() list in the CHECK constraint. How do I do that?
Things I've tried so far:
Updating the value in RDB$TRIGGERS.RDB$TRIGGER_SOURCE:
UPDATE RDB$TRIGGERS
SET RDB$TRIGGER_SOURCE = 'CHECK (event IN (''deploy'', ''revert'', ''fail'', ''merge''))'
WHERE RDB$TRIGGER_SOURCE = 'CHECK (event IN (''deploy'', ''revert'', ''fail''))';
Does not seem to work, as the trigger is compiled in RDB$TRIGGERS.RDB$TRIGGER_BLR.
Creating a new table with a new check, copying the data over, dropping the old table and renaming the new table. However, it seems that one cannot rename a Firebird table, so I can't make the new table have the same name as the old one.
I suspect updating RDB$TRIGGERS is the way to go (idk!), if only I could get Firebird to recompile the code. But maybe there's a better way?

Answer 1

You need to drop and the re-create the check constraint.
As you didn't specify a name for your constraint, Firebird created one, so you first need to find that name:
select trim(cc.rdb$constraint_name), trg.rdb$trigger_source
from rdb$relation_constraints rc
join rdb$check_constraints cc on rc.rdb$constraint_name = cc.rdb$constraint_name
join rdb$triggers trg on cc.rdb$trigger_name = trg.rdb$trigger_name
where rc.rdb$relation_name = 'EVENTS'
and rc.rdb$constraint_type = 'CHECK'
and trg.rdb$trigger_type = 1;
I just added the trigger source for informational reasons.
Once you have the name, you can drop it, e.g.
alter table events drop constraint integ_27;
and then add the new constraint:
alter table events
add constraint check_event_type
CHECK (event IN ('deploy', 'revert', 'fail', 'merge'));
In the future you don't need to look for the constraint name because you already it.

Answer 2

Here's how to do it dynamically:
SET AUTOddl OFF;
SET TERM ^;
EXECUTE BLOCK AS
DECLARE trig VARCHAR(64);
BEGIN
SELECT TRIM(cc.rdb$constraint_name)
FROM rdb$relation_constraints rc
JOIN rdb$check_constraints cc ON rc.rdb$constraint_name = cc.rdb$constraint_name
JOIN rdb$triggers trg ON cc.rdb$trigger_name = trg.rdb$trigger_name
WHERE rc.rdb$relation_name = 'EVENTS'
AND rc.rdb$constraint_type = 'CHECK'
AND trg.rdb$trigger_type = 1
INTO trig;
EXECUTE STATEMENT 'ALTER TABLE EVENTS DROP CONSTRAINT ' || trig;
END^
SET TERM ;^
COMMIT;
ALTER TABLE events ADD CONSTRAINT check_event_type CHECK (
event IN ('deploy', 'revert', 'fail', 'merge')
);
COMMIT;
I had to disable AUTOddl and put in explicit commits or else I got a deadlock on the ALTER TABLE ADD CONSTRAINT statement.

Answer 3

Here's how to do it dynamically:
EXECUTE BLOCK RETURNS (STMT VARCHAR(1000)) AS
BEGIN
SELECT TRIM(R.RDB$CONSTRAINT_NAME)
FROM RDB$RELATION_CONSTRAINTS R
WHERE R.RDB$RELATION_NAME = 'TABLE_NAME'
AND UPPER(R.RDB$CONSTRAINT_TYPE) = UPPER('PRIMARY KEY')
INTO :STMT;
IF (:STMT IS NOT NULL) THEN
BEGIN
EXECUTE STATEMENT 'ALTER TABLE TABLE_NAME DROP CONSTRAINT ' || :STMT || ';';
EXECUTE STATEMENT 'ALTER TABLE TABLE_NAME ADD CONSTRAINT ' || :STMT || ' PRIMARY KEY (FIELD1, FIELD2, FIELD3);';
END
ELSE
BEGIN
EXECUTE STATEMENT 'ALTER TABLE FIELD1 ADD CONSTRAINT PK_PRIMARY_NAME PRIMARY KEY (FIELD1, FIELD2, FIELD3);';
END
END;