History table referencing other values in the table / accessing package table variables - sql

Question

I have a system for tracking usage of computers in a lab. Slightly simplified, it works out to:
Machines are associated with a lab.
Machines have a binary logged_in state, which gets updated automatically when users log in and out.
There is a view keyed on the lab which gathers the total number of seats associated with the lab, and the current number in use for that lab.
What I would like to do is add a history or audit table, which would track changes to lab population over time. I had a trigger on the machine table to store the time and the total lab population in my lab history table every time the machine table changed. The problem is that, in order to get the new total for the lab, I have to examine the other values in the machine table. This results in a table mutating error.
Some things I found on here and elsewhere suggested that I should create a package to track the labs being changed. Use a before trigger to clear the list, a row trigger to store each labid being changed, and an after trigger to update the history table with new values for only those labs whose ids are in the list. I've tried that, but can't figure out how to access the values I've stored in the package table (or even if it is storing them properly in the first place.) As will no doubt be obvious, I'm unfamiliar with PL/SQL packages and table variables - the whole syntax of referring to table entries like arrays struck me as vaguely heretical though incredibly useful if it works. So most of the below is just copied and adapted from other solutions I've found, but they didn't stretch as far as how to actually use my table of changed lablocids, assuming its being created properly in the first place. The following simply tells me that pg_machine_in_use_pkg.changedlablocids does not exist when I try to compile the final trigger.
create or replace package labstats_adm.pg_machine_in_use_pkg
as
type arr is table of number index by binary_integer;
changedlablocids arr;
empty arr;
end;
/
create or replace trigger labstats_adm.pg_machine_in_use_init
before insert or update
on labstats_adm.pg_machine
begin
-- begin each update with a blank list of changed lablocids
pg_machine_in_use_pkg.changedlablocids := pg_machine_in_use_pkg.empty;
end;
/
--
create or replace trigger labstats_adm.pg_machine_in_use_update
after insert or update of in_use,lablocid
on labstats_adm.pg_machine
for each row
begin
-- record lablocids - old and new - of changed machines
if :new.lablocid is not null then
pg_machine_in_use_pkg.changedlablocids( pg_machine_in_use_pkg.changedlablocids.count+1 ) := :new.lablocid;
end if;
if :old.lablocid is not null and :old.lablocid != :new.lablocid then
pg_machine_in_use_pkg.changedlablocids( pg_machine_in_use_pkg.changedlablocids.count+1 ) := :old.lablocid;
end if;
end;
create or replace trigger labstats_adm.pg_machine_lab_history
after insert or update of in_use,lablocid
on labstats_adm.pg_machine
begin
-- for each lablocation we just logged a change to, update that labs history
insert into labstats_adm.pg_lab_history (labid, time, total_seats, used_seats)
select labid, systimestamp, total_seats, used_seats
from labstats_adm.lab_usage
where labid in (
select distinct labid from pg_machine_in_use_pkg.changedlablocids
);
end;
/
On the other hand, if there is a better overall approach than the package, I'm all ears.

Answer 1

After some reflection I've got to go with #tbone on this one. In my experience a history table should be a copy of the data in the "real" table with fields added to show when particular 'version' of the data shown by a row in the history table was in effect. So if the "real" table is something like
CREATE TABLE REAL_TABLE
(ID_REAL_TABLE NUMBER PRIMARY KEY,
COL2 NUMBER,
COL3 VARCHAR2(50));
then I'd create the history table as
CREATE TABLE HIST_TABLE
(ID_HIST_TABLE NUMBER PRIMARY KEY
ID_REAL_TABLE NUMBER,
COL2 NUMBER,
COL3 VARCHAR2(50),
EFFECTIVE_START_DT TIMESTAMP(9) NOT NULL,
EFFECTIVE_END_DT TIMESTAMP(9));
and I'd have the following triggers to get everything populated:
CREATE TRIGGER REAL_TABLE_BI
BEFORE INSERT ON REAL_TABLE
REFERENCING OLD AS OLD
NEW AS NEW
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF :NEW.ID_REAL_TABLE IS NULL THEN
:NEW.ID_REAL_TABLE := REAL_TABLE_SEQUENCE.NEXTVAL;
END IF;
END REAL_TABLE_BI;
CREATE TRIGGER HIST_TABLE_BI
BEFORE INSERT ON HIST_TABLE
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF :NEW.ID_HIST_TABLE IS NULL THEN
:NEW.ID_HIST_TABLE := HIST_TABLE_SEQUENCE.NEXTVAL;
END IF;
END HIST_TABLE_BI;
CREATE TRIGGER REAL_TABLE_AIUD
AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE ON REAL_TABLE
FOR EACH ROW
DECLARE
tsEffective_start_date TIMESTAMP(9) := SYSTIMESTAMP;
tsEffective_end_date TIMESTAMP(9) := dtEffective_start_date - INTERVAL '0.000000001' SECOND;
BEGIN
IF UPDATING OR DELETING THEN
UPDATE HIST_TABLE
SET EFFECTIVE_END_DATE := tsEffective_end_date
WHERE ID_REAL_TABLE = :NEW.ID_REAL_TABLE AND
EFFECTIVE_END_DATE IS NULL;
END IF;
IF INSERTING OR UPDATING THEN
INSERT INTO HIST_TABLE (ID_REAL_TABLE, COL2, COL3, EFFECTIVE_START_DATE)
VALUES (:NEW.ID_REAL_TABLE, :NEW.COL2, :NEW.COL3, tsEffective_start_date);
END IF;
END REAL_TABLE_AIUD;
Using this method the "history" table has all historical versions of the data in the "real" table PLUS a complete copy of the "current" data from the "real" table; this is done to simplify queries which need to report on all versions of the data in the table up to and including present values.
The advantage of using triggers to do all this is that the maintenance of the primary keys and the history table becomes automatic and can't be easily circumvented or forgotten.
Share and enjoy.

Answer 2

Sorry so slow to get back; its taken me a bit of fiddling, and I haven't had a lot of time to work on it.
Thanks to Bob Jarvis for pointing me at the compound triggers, which cleaned up the overall structure significantly. After that, I just had to sanitise the way I'm getting values back out of my table variable. On the odd chance that someone else stumbles over this looking for the answer to the same problem, I'll post my final solution here:
create or replace
trigger pg_machine_in_use_update
for insert or update or delete of in_use,lablocid
on labstats_adm.pg_machine
compound trigger
type arr is table of number index by binary_integer;
changedlabids arr;
idx binary_integer;
after each row is
newlabid labstats_adm.pg_labs.labid%TYPE;
oldlabid labstats_adm.pg_labs.labid%TYPE;
begin
-- store the labids of any changed locations
-- PL/SQL does not like us testing for the existence of something that isn't there, so just set it twice if necessary
if ( :new.lablocid is not null ) then
select labid into newlabid from labstats_adm.pg_lablocation where lablocid = :new.lablocid;
changedlabids( newlabid ) := 1;
end if;
if ( :old.lablocid is not null ) then
select labid into oldlabid from labstats_adm.pg_lablocation where lablocid = :old.lablocid;
changedlabids( oldlabid ) := 1;
end if;
end after each row;
after statement is
begin
idx := changedlabids.FIRST;
while idx is not null loop
insert into labstats_adm.pg_lab_history (labid, time, total_seats, used_seats)
select labid, systimestamp, total_seats, used_seats
from labstats_adm.lab_usage
where labid = idx;
idx := changedlabids.NEXT(idx);
end loop;
end after statement;
end pg_machine_in_use_update;