TRIGGERS

TRIGGERS

A database trigger is a stored PL/SQL program

unit associated with a specific database table.
ORACLE executes (fires) a database trigger
automatically when a given SQL operation (like
INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE) affects the table.
Unlike a procedure, or a function, which must be
invoked explicitly, database triggers are invoked
implicitly.
 TRIGGERS
Database triggers can be used to perform any of the
following:
• Audit data modification
• Log events transparently
• Enforce complex business rules
• Derive column values automatically
• Implement complex security authorizations
• Maintain replicate tables
 TRIGGERS

• You can associate up to 12 database

triggers with a given table. A database
trigger has three parts: a triggering
event, an optional trigger constraint,
and a trigger action.

• When an event occurs, a database trigger

is fired, and an predefined PL/SQL block
will perform the necessary action.
 TRIGGERS
SYNTAX:
CREATE [OR REPLACE] TRIGGER trigger_name
{BEFORE|AFTER} triggering_event ON table_name
[FOR EACH ROW]
[WHEN condition]
DECLARE
Declaration statements
BEGIN
Executable statements
EXCEPTION
Exception-handling statements
END;
 TRIGGERS
The trigger_name references the name of the
trigger.
BEFORE or AFTER specify when the trigger is fired
(before or after the triggering event).
The triggering_event references a DML statement
issued against the table (e.g., INSERT, DELETE,
UPDATE).
The table_name is the name of the table associated
with the trigger.
The clause, FOR EACH ROW, specifies a trigger is a
row trigger and fires once for each modified row.
A WHEN clause specifies the condition for a trigger
to be fired.
Bear in mind that if you drop a table, all the
 TYPES OF TRIGGERS
Triggers may be called BEFORE or AFTER the
following events:
INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE.
The before/after options can be used to specify when
the trigger body should be fired with respect to
the triggering statement. If the user indicates a
BEFORE option, then Oracle fires the trigger
before executing the triggering statement. On
the other hand, if an AFTER is used, Oracle fires
the trigger after executing the triggering
statement.
 TYPES OF TRIGGERS
• A trigger may be a ROW or STATEMENT type. If
the statement FOR EACH ROW is present in the
CREATE TRIGGER clause of a trigger, the trigger
is a row trigger. A row trigger is fired for each
row affected by an triggering statement.
• A statement trigger, however, is fired only once
for the triggering statement, regardless of the
number of rows affected by the triggering
statement
 TYPES OF TRIGGERS
Example: statement trigger
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER mytrig1 BEFORE DELETE OR
INSERT OR UPDATE ON employee
BEGIN
IF (TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'day') IN ('sat', 'sun')) OR
(TO_CHAR(SYSDATE,'hh:mi') NOT BETWEEN '08:30' AND
'18:30') THEN RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(-20500,
'table is secured');
END IF;
END;
/
The above example shows a trigger that limits the DML
actions to the employee table to weekdays from 8.30am
to 6.30pm. If a user tries to insert/update/delete a row
in the EMPLOYEE table, a warning message will be
prompted.
 Example: ROW Trigger
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER mytrig2
AFTER DELETE OR INSERT OR UPDATE ON employee
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
IF DELETING THEN
INSERT INTO xemployee (emp_ssn, emp_last_name,emp_first_name, deldate)

VALUES (:old.emp_ssn, :old.emp_last_name,:old.emp_first_name, sysdate);

ELSIF INSERTING THEN
INSERT INTO nemployee (emp_ssn, emp_last_name,emp_first_name, adddate)

VALUES (:new.emp_ssn, :new.emp_last_name,:new.emp_first_name, sysdate);

ELSIF UPDATING('emp_salary') THEN
INSERT INTO cemployee (emp_ssn, oldsalary, newsalary, up_date)
VALUES (:old.emp_ssn,:old.emp_salary, :new.emp_salary, sysdate); ELSE

INSERT INTO uemployee (emp_ssn, emp_address, up_date)

VALUES (:old.emp_ssn, :new.emp_address, sysdate);
END IF;
END;
/
 TYPES OF TRIGGERS
Example: ROW Trigger

• The previous trigger is used to keep track of all

the transactions performed on the employee
table. If any employee is deleted, a new row
containing the details of this employee is stored
in a table called xemployee. Similarly, if a new
employee is inserted, a new row is created in
another table called nemployee, and so on.
• Note that we can specify the old and new values
of an updated row by prefixing the column names
with the :OLD and :NEW qualifiers.
 TYPES OF TRIGGERS
SQL> DELETE FROM employee WHERE
emp_last_name = 'Joshi';
1 row deleted.
SQL> SELECT * FROM xemployee;

EMP_SSN EMP_LAST_NAME EMP_FIRST_NAME DELDATE

------------- ----------------------- -------------------------- -----------------
999333333 Joshi Dinesh 02-MAY-
03
 ENABLING, DISABLING, DROPPING TRIGGERS
SQL>ALTER TRIGGER trigger_name DISABLE;
SQL>ALTER TABLE table_name DISABLE ALL
TRIGGERS;
To enable a trigger, which is disabled, we
can use the following syntax:
SQL>ALTER TABLE table_name ENABLE
trigger_name;
All triggers can be enabled for a specific
table by using the following command
SQL> ALTER TABLE table_name ENABLE ALL
TRIGGERS;
SQL> DROP TRIGGER trigger_name
END