For updating a field called 'last_modified' I'm trying to update this field automatically using a trigger, in stead of changing all update-statements. The field should only be updated when a field value has changed. Problem here is that you have to maintain the triggers if a table field is added, removed or renamed. The fields are stored in rdb$relation_fields, no problem. But building a query comparing the old and new value dynamically is.
create trigger test for test_table active before update position 0 as
declare variable fn char(31);
begin
for select rdb$field_name from rdb$relation_fields where rdb$relation_name = 'test_table' into :fn do
begin
if ('old.'||:fn <> 'new.'||:fn) then
begin
new.last_modified = current_timestamp;
break;
end
end
end
Problem here is that 'old.'||:fn and 'new.':fn not really are comparing values, but literal strings, so the value of the fields cannot be compared. I've seen over here Firebird - get all modified fields inside a trigger that a trigger is attached to a system table, something I don't want to.
Is this fully-automated way of updating the 'last_modified' field not possible in this way? Or do I have to create a stored procedure that deletes al triggers and then recreates them with new fields, once I perform a update on the database (using this code http://www.firebirdfaq.org/faq133/).
Related
I have an existing table in the database. I want to update a column value with 1 or 2 by making a condition on another column value of the same table and I want to do it with a script
Below is the stored procedure script which I wrote but it is not updating the table.
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[updateDocumentCategory]
AS
BEGIN
UPDATE cmdocuments
SET docCategoryId = CASE
WHEN (docUploadable = 'Y') THEN 2
WHEN (docUploadable = 'N') THEN 1
END
END
Provided below is the sample data
This is a bit long for a column.
Indeed, it is not updating the table. How can I tell? If it did, then the value would be NULL, not 0.
This suggests that the problem is that the stored procedure is not being called. If that is the case, you can just update the table using the specified update statement.
However, if this is something that you really need to be consistent, I would suggest using a computed column:
ALTER TABLE cmdocuments ADD docCategoryId AS (
CASE WHEN docUploadable = 'Y' THEN 2
WHEN docUploadable = 'N' THEN 1
END);
This will ensure that docCategoryId has the correct value without having to update the table. Then the stored procedure won't even be needed.
I had a task -- to create update trigger, that works on real table data change (not just update with the same values). For that purpose I had created copy table then began to compare updated rows with the old copied ones. When trigger completes, it's neccessary to actualize the copy:
UPDATE CopyTable SET
id = s.id,
-- many, many fields
FROM MainTable s WHERE s.id IN (SELECT [id] FROM INSERTED)
AND CopyTable.id = s.id;
I don't like to have this ugly code in the trigger anymore, so I have extracted it to a stored procedure:
CREATE PROCEDURE UpdateCopy AS
BEGIN
UPDATE CopyTable SET
id = s.id,
-- many, many fields
FROM MainTable s WHERE s.id IN (SELECT [id] FROM INSERTED)
AND CopyTable.id = s.id;
END
The result is -- Invalid object name 'INSERTED'. How can I workaround this?
Regards,
Leave the code in the trigger. INSERTED is a pseudo-table only available in the trigger code. Do not try to pass around this pseudo-table values, it may contain a very large number of entries.
This is T-SQL, a declarative data access language. It is not your run-of-the-mill procedural programming language. Common wisdom like 'code reuse' does not apply in SQL and it will only cause you performance issues. Leave the code in the trigger, where it belongs. For ease of re-factoring, generate triggers through some code generation tool so you can easily refactor the triggers.
The problem is that INSERTED is only available during the trigger
-- Trigger changes to build list of id's
DECLARE #idStack VARCHAR(max)
SET #idStack=','
SELECT #idStack=#idStack+ltrim(str(id))+',' FROM INSERTED
-- Trigger changes to call stored proc
EXEC updateCopy(#idStack)
-- Procedure to take a comma separated list of id's
CREATE PROCEDURE UpdateCopy(#IDLIST VARCHAR(max)) AS
BEGIN
UPDATE CopyTable SET
id = s.id,
-- many, many fields
FROM MainTable s WHERE charindex(','+ltrim(str(s.id))+',',#idList) > 0
AND CopyTable.id = s.id;
END
Performance will not be great, but it should allow you to do what you want.
Just typed in on the fly, but should run OK
The real question is "How to pass array of GUIDs in a stored procedure?" or, more wide, "How to pass an array in a stored procedure?".
Here is the answers:
http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql-2005.html
http://www.sommarskog.se/arrays-in-sql-2008.html
Below is the code snippet with comments which describes the problem statement. We have an update trigger which internally calls another update trigger on the same table inspite of Recursive Trigger Enabled Property Set to false.
Would like to understand the reason for this as this is causing a havoc in my applications.
/* Drop statements for the table and triggers*/
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.triggers WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo]. [t_upd_TestTrigger_002]'))
DROP TRIGGER [dbo].[t_upd_TestTrigger_002]
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.triggers WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[t_upd_TestTrigger_002]'))
DROP TRIGGER [dbo].[t_upd_TestTrigger_001]
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[TestTrigger]') AND type in (N'U'))
DROP TABLE [dbo].[TestTrigger]
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTrigger] /*Creating a test table*/
(
[InternalKey] INT NOT NULL,
[UserModified] varchar(50) DEFAULT SUSER_SNAME()
)
/* Please run the snippet below as seperate batch, else you will get
an error that 'CREATE TRIGGER' must be the first statement in a
query batch.
CREATING A UPDATE TRIGGER FOR THE TEST TABLE
*/
CREATE TRIGGER [t_upd_TestTrigger_001] ON [dbo].[TestTrigger]
FOR UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
--This trigger has some business logic which gets executed
print 'In Trigger 001 '
END
/* Please run the snippet below as separate batch, else you will
get an error that 'CREATE TRIGGER' must be the first statement
in a query batch.
CREATING Another UPDATE TRIGGER FOR THE TEST TABLE
This trigger updates the audit fields in the table and it has to be
a separate trigger, We cannot combine this with other update triggers -
So table TestTrigger will have two FOR UPDATE triggers
*/
CREATE TRIGGER [t_upd_TestTrigger_002] ON [dbo].[TestTrigger]
FOR UPDATE
AS
print 'bad guy starts'
UPDATE SRC
SET UserModified = SUSER_SNAME()
FROM inserted AS INS
INNER JOIN dbo.[TestTrigger] AS SRC
ON INS.InternalKey = SRC.InternalKey
print 'bad guy ends'
/* INSERTING TEST VALUE IN THE TEST TRIGGER TABLE*/
INSERT INTO dbo.[TestTrigger](InternalKey,UserModified)
SELECT 1 ,'Tester1' UNION ALL
SELECT 2,'Tester2' UNION ALL
SELECT 3 ,'Tester3'
/* TestTrigger table has 3 records, we will update the InternalKey
of first record from 1 to 4. We would expect following actions
1) [t_upd_TestTrigger_001] to be executed once
2) [t_upd_TestTrigger_002] to be executed once
3) A message that (1 row(s) affected) only once.
On Execution, i find that [t_upd_TestTrigger_002] internally triggers
[t_upd_TestTrigger_001].
Please note Database level property Recursive Triggers enabled is
set to false.
*/
/*UPDATE THE TABLE SEE THE MESSAGE IN RESULT WINDOW*/
UPDATE dbo.[TestTrigger]
SET InternalKey = 4
WHERE InternalKey = 1
"Recursive Triggers enabled" does not affect transitive triggers.
Which means that if trigger A updates a table in a manner that activates trigger B, and trigger B updates the same table, so that trigger A is run again, SQL Server has no way of detecting and inhibiting this endless loop. Especially since trigger B can update other tables, and a trigger on them could update the original table again - this could become as complex as you like.
Eventually, the trigger nesting level limit will be reached, and the loop stops.
I suspect that both of your triggers update the source table in some way. SQL Server can only detect recursive triggers if a trigger is activating itself. I suppose that's not the case for you. Restructuring the triggers is the only clean way out.
As a (hackery) idea: You could append a field to the table (data-type and value is irrelevant) that is updated by no operation but by triggers. Then change your second-order triggers to update that field. Add an IF UPDATE() check for that field to your first-order trigger. Prevent the now redundant update if the field has been set. If that makes sense. ;-)
MSDN: Using Nested Triggers, see sections "Direct recursion" and "Indirect recursion".
You can use IF UPDATE(), as Tomalak described, to skip trigger logic if UserModified is being updated.
Another possibility is to move the UserModified column to a separate table to avoid recursion.
If you want to stop this kind of behaviour across the database totally, "To disable indirect recursion, set the nested triggers server option to 0 using sp_configure. For more information, see Using Nested Triggers."
Of course, there's always the consideration that you may want to actually use nested triggers.
I'm using Sqlserver express and I can't do before updated trigger. There's a other way to do that?
MSSQL does not support BEFORE triggers. The closest you have is INSTEAD OF triggers but their behavior is different to that of BEFORE triggers in MySQL.
You can learn more about them here, and note that INSTEAD OF triggers "Specifies that the trigger is executed instead of the triggering SQL statement, thus overriding the actions of the triggering statements." Thus, actions on the update may not take place if the trigger is not properly written/handled. Cascading actions are also affected.
You may instead want to use a different approach to what you are trying to achieve.
It is true that there aren't "before triggers" in MSSQL. However, you could still track the changes that were made on the table, by using the "inserted" and "deleted" tables together. When an update causes the trigger to fire, the "inserted" table stores the new values and the "deleted" table stores the old values. Once having this info, you could relatively easy simulate the "before trigger" behaviour.
Can't be sure if this applied to SQL Server Express, but you can still access the "before" data even if your trigger is happening AFTER the update. You need to read the data from either the deleted or inserted table that is created on the fly when the table is changed. This is essentially what #Stamen says, but I still needed to explore further to understand that (helpful!) answer.
The deleted table stores copies of the affected rows during DELETE and
UPDATE statements. During the execution of a DELETE or UPDATE
statement, rows are deleted from the trigger table and transferred to
the deleted table...
The inserted table stores copies of the affected rows during INSERT
and UPDATE statements. During an insert or update transaction, new
rows are added to both the inserted table and the trigger table...
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191300.aspx
So you can create your trigger to read data from one of those tables, e.g.
CREATE TRIGGER <TriggerName> ON <TableName>
AFTER UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
INSERT INTO <HistoryTable> ( <columns...>, DateChanged )
SELECT <columns...>, getdate()
FROM deleted;
END;
My example is based on the one here:
http://www.seemoredata.com/en/showthread.php?134-Example-of-BEFORE-UPDATE-trigger-in-Sql-Server-good-for-Type-2-dimension-table-updates
sql-server triggers
T-SQL supports only AFTER and INSTEAD OF triggers, it does not feature a BEFORE trigger, as found in some other RDBMSs.
I believe you will want to use an INSTEAD OF trigger.
All "normal" triggers in SQL Server are "AFTER ..." triggers. There are no "BEFORE ..." triggers.
To do something before an update, check out INSTEAD OF UPDATE Triggers.
To do a BEFORE UPDATE in SQL Server I use a trick. I do a false update of the record (UPDATE Table SET Field = Field), in such way I get the previous image of the record.
Remember that when you use an instead trigger, it will not commit the insert unless you specifically tell it to in the trigger. Instead of really means do this instead of what you normally do, so none of the normal insert actions would happen.
Full example:
CREATE TRIGGER [dbo].[trig_020_Original_010_010_Gamechanger]
ON [dbo].[T_Original]
AFTER UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE #Old_Gamechanger int;
DECLARE #New_Gamechanger int;
-- Insert statements for trigger here
SELECT #Old_Gamechanger = Gamechanger from DELETED;
SELECT #New_Gamechanger = Gamechanger from INSERTED;
IF #Old_Gamechanger != #New_Gamechanger
BEGIN
INSERT INTO [dbo].T_History(ChangeDate, Reason, Callcenter_ID, Old_Gamechanger, New_Gamechanger)
SELECT GETDATE(), 'Time for a change', Callcenter_ID, #Old_Gamechanger, #New_Gamechanger
FROM deleted
;
END
END
The updated or deleted values are stored in DELETED. we can get it by the below method in trigger
Full example,
CREATE TRIGGER PRODUCT_UPDATE ON PRODUCTS
FOR UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #PRODUCT_NAME_OLD VARCHAR(100)
DECLARE #PRODUCT_NAME_NEW VARCHAR(100)
SELECT #PRODUCT_NAME_OLD = product_name from DELETED
SELECT #PRODUCT_NAME_NEW = product_name from INSERTED
END
I've got the following trigger on a table for a SQL Server 2008 database. It's recursing, so I need to stop it.
After I insert or update a record, I'm trying to simply update a single field on that table.
Here's the trigger :
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[tblMediaAfterInsertOrUpdate]
ON [dbo].[tblMedia]
BEFORE INSERT, UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE #IdMedia INTEGER,
#NewSubject NVARCHAR(200)
SELECT #IdMedia = IdMedia, #NewSubject = Title
FROM INSERTED
-- Now update the unique subject field.
-- NOTE: dbo.CreateUniqueSubject is my own function.
-- It just does some string manipulation.
UPDATE tblMedia
SET UniqueTitle = dbo.CreateUniqueSubject(#NewSubject) +
CAST((IdMedia) AS VARCHAR(10))
WHERE tblMedia.IdMedia = #IdMedia
END
Can anyone tell me how I can prevent the trigger's insert from kicking off another trigger again?
Not sure if it is pertinent to the OP's question anymore, but in case you came here to find out how to prevent recursion or mutual recursion from happening in a trigger, you can test for this like so:
IF TRIGGER_NESTLEVEL() <= 1/*this update is not coming from some other trigger*/
MSDN link
I see three possibilities:
Disable trigger recursion:
This will prevent a trigger fired to call another trigger or calling itself again. To do this, execute this command:
ALTER DATABASE MyDataBase SET RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS OFF
GO
Use a trigger INSTEAD OF UPDATE, INSERT
Using a INSTEAD OF trigger you can control any column being updated/inserted, and even replacing before calling the command.
Control the trigger by preventing using IF UPDATE
Testing the column will tell you with a reasonable accuracy if you trigger is calling itself. To do this use the IF UPDATE() clause like:
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[tblMediaAfterInsertOrUpdate]
ON [dbo].[tblMedia]
FOR INSERT, UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE #IdMedia INTEGER,
#NewSubject NVARCHAR(200)
IF UPDATE(UniqueTitle)
RETURN;
-- What is the new subject being inserted?
SELECT #IdMedia = IdMedia, #NewSubject = Title
FROM INSERTED
-- Now update the unique subject field.
-- NOTE: dbo.CreateUniqueSubject is my own function.
-- It just does some string manipulation.
UPDATE tblMedia
SET UniqueTitle = dbo.CreateUniqueSubject(#NewSubject) +
CAST((IdMedia) AS VARCHAR(10))
WHERE tblMedia.IdMedia = #IdMedia
END
TRIGGER_NESTLEVEL can be used to prevent recursion of a specific trigger, but it is important to pass the object id of the trigger into the function. Otherwise you will also prevent the trigger from firing when an insert or update is made by another trigger:
IF TRIGGER_NESTLEVEL(OBJECT_ID('dbo.mytrigger')) > 1
BEGIN
PRINT 'mytrigger exiting because TRIGGER_NESTLEVEL > 1 ';
RETURN;
END;
From MSDN:
When no parameters are specified, TRIGGER_NESTLEVEL returns the total
number of triggers on the call stack. This includes itself.
Reference:
Avoiding recursive triggers
ALTER DATABASE <dbname> SET RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS OFF
RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS { ON | OFF }
ON Recursive firing of AFTER triggers is allowed.
OFF Only direct recursive firing of AFTER triggers is not allowed. To
also disable indirect recursion of
AFTER triggers, set the nested
triggers server option to 0 by using
sp_configure.
Only direct recursion is prevented when RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS is set to OFF.
To disable indirect recursion, you
must also set the nested triggers
server option to 0.
The status of this option can be determined by examining the
is_recursive_triggers_on column in the
sys.databases catalog view or the
IsRecursiveTriggersEnabled property of
the DATABASEPROPERTYEX function.
I think i got it :)
When the title is getting 'updated' (read: inserted or updated), then update the unique subject. When the trigger gets ran a second time, the uniquesubject field is getting updated, so it stop and leaves the trigger.
Also, i've made it handle MULTIPLE rows that get changed -> I always forget about this with triggers.
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[tblMediaAfterInsert]
ON [dbo].[tblMedia]
FOR INSERT, UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON
-- If the Title is getting inserted OR updated then update the unique subject.
IF UPDATE(Title) BEGIN
-- Now update all the unique subject fields that have been inserted or updated.
UPDATE tblMedia
SET UniqueTitle = dbo.CreateUniqueSubject(b.Title) +
CAST((b.IdMedia) AS VARCHAR(10))
FROM tblMedia a
INNER JOIN INSERTED b on a.IdMedia = b.IdMedia
END
END
You can have a separate NULLABLE column indicating whether the UniqueTitle was set.
Set it to true value in a trigger, and have the trigger do nothing if it's value is true in "INSERTED"
For completeness sake, I will add a few things. If you have a particular after trigger that you only want to run once, you can set it up to run last using sp_settriggerorder.
I would also consider if it might not be best to combine the triggers that are doing the recursion into one trigger.