For a sync process, my SQL Server database should record a list items that have changed - table name and primary key.
The DB already has a table and stored procedure to do this:
EXEC #ErrCode = dbo.SyncQueueItem "tableName", 1234;
I'd like to add triggers to a table to call this stored procedure on INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE. How do I get the key? What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?
CREATE TABLE new_employees
(
id_num INT IDENTITY(1,1),
fname VARCHAR(20),
minit CHAR(1),
lname VARCHAR(30)
);
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ('dbo.sync_new_employees','TR') IS NOT NULL
DROP TRIGGER sync_new_employees;
GO
CREATE TRIGGER sync_new_employees
ON new_employees
AFTER INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
AS
DECLARE #Key Int;
DECLARE #ErrCode Int;
-- How to get the key???
SELECT #Key = 12345;
EXEC #ErrCode = dbo.SyncQueueItem "new_employees", #key;
GO
The way to access the records changed by the operation is by using the Inserted and Deleted pseudo-tables that are provided to you by SQL Server.
Inserted contains any inserted records, or any updated records with their new values.
Deleted contains any deleted records, or any updated records with their old values.
More Info
When writing a trigger, to be safe, one should always code for the case when multiple records are acted upon. Unfortunately if you need to call a SP that means a loop - which isn't ideal.
The following code shows how this could be done for your example, and includes a method of detecting whether the operation is an Insert/Update/Delete.
declare #Key int, #ErrCode int, #Action varchar(6);
declare #Keys table (id int, [Action] varchar(6));
insert into #Keys (id, [Action])
select coalesce(I.id, D.id_num)
, case when I.id is not null and D.id is not null then 'Update' when I.id is not null then 'Insert' else 'Delete' end
from Inserted I
full join Deleted D on I.id_num = D.id_num;
while exists (select 1 from #Keys) begin
select top 1 #Key = id, #Action = [Action] from #Keys;
exec #ErrCode = dbo.SyncQueueItem 'new_employees', #key;
delete from #Keys where id = #Key;
end
Further: In addition to solving your specified problem its worth noting a couple of points regarding the bigger picture.
As #Damien_The_Unbeliever points out there are built in mechanisms to accomplish change tracking which will perform much better.
If you still wish to handle your own change tracking, it would perform better if you could arrange it such that you handle the entire recordset in one go as opposed to carrying out a row-by-row operation. There are 2 ways to accomplish this a) Move your change tracking code inside the trigger and don't use a SP. b) Use a "User Defined Table Type" to pass the record-set of changes to the SP.
You should use the Magic Table to get the data.
Usually, inserted and deleted tables are called Magic Tables in the context of a trigger. There are Inserted and Deleted magic tables in SQL Server. These tables are automatically created and managed by SQL Server internally to hold recently inserted, deleted and updated values during DML operations (Insert, Update and Delete) on a database table.
Inserted magic table
The Inserted table holds the recently inserted values, in other words, new data values. Hence recently added records are inserted into the Inserted table.
Deleted magic table
The Deleted table holds the recently deleted or updated values, in other words, old data values. Hence the old updated and deleted records are inserted into the Deleted table.
**You can use the inserted and deleted magic table to get the value of id_num **
SELECT top 1 #Key = id_num from inserted
Note: This code sample will only work for a single record for insert scenario. For Bulk insert/update scenarios you need to fetch records from inserted and deleted table stored in the temp table or variable and then loop through it to pass to your procedure or you can pass a table variable to your procedure and handle the multiple records there.
A DML trigger should operate set data else only one row will be processed. It can be something like this. And of course use magic tables inserted and deleted.
CREATE TRIGGER dbo.tr_employees
ON dbo.employees --the table from Northwind database
AFTER INSERT,DELETE,UPDATE
AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;
declare #tbl table (id int identity(1,1),delId int,insId int)
--Use "magic tables" inserted and deleted
insert #tbl(delId, insId)
select d.EmployeeID, i.EmployeeID
from inserted i --empty when "delete"
full join deleted d --empty when "insert"
on i.EmployeeID=d.EmployeeID
declare #id int,#key int,#action char
select top 1 #id=id, #key=isnull(delId, insId),
#action=case
when delId is null then 'I'
when insId is null then 'D'
else 'U' end --just in case you need the operation executed
from #tbl
--do something for each row
while #id is not null --instead of cursor
begin
--do the main action
--exec dbo.sync 'employees', #key, #action
--remove processed row
delete #tbl where id=#id
--refill #variables
select top 1 #id=id, #key=isnull(delId, insId),
#action=case
when delId is null then 'I'
when insId is null then 'D'
else 'U' end --just in case you need the operation executed
from #tbl
end
END
Not the best solution, but just a direct answer on the question:
SELECT #Key = COALESCE(deleted.id_num,inserted.id_num);
Also not the best way (if not the worst) (do not try this at home), but at least it will help with multiple values:
DECLARE #Key INT;
DECLARE triggerCursor CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD READ_ONLY
FOR SELECT COALESCE(i.id_num,d.id_num) AS [id_num]
FROM inserted i
FULL JOIN deleted d ON d.id_num = i.id_num
WHERE (
COALESCE(i.fname,'')<>COALESCE(d.fname,'')
OR COALESCE(i.minit,'')<>COALESCE(d.minit,'')
OR COALESCE(i.lname,'')<>COALESCE(d.lname,'')
)
;
OPEN triggerCursor;
FETCH NEXT FROM triggerCursor INTO #Key;
WHILE ##FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
EXEC #ErrCode = dbo.SyncQueueItem 'new_employees', #key;
FETCH NEXT FROM triggerCursor INTO #Key;
END
CLOSE triggerCursor;
DEALLOCATE triggerCursor;
Better way to use trigger based "value-change-tracker":
INSERT INTO [YourTableHistoryName] (id_num, fname, minit, lname, WhenHappened)
SELECT COALESCE(i.id_num,d.id_num) AS [id_num]
,i.fname,i.minit,i.lname,CURRENT_TIMESTAMP AS [WhenHeppened]
FROM inserted i
FULL JOIN deleted d ON d.id_num = i.id_num
WHERE ( COALESCE(i.fname,'')<>COALESCE(d.fname,'')
OR COALESCE(i.minit,'')<>COALESCE(d.minit,'')
OR COALESCE(i.lname,'')<>COALESCE(d.lname,'')
)
;
The best (in my opinion) way to track changes is to use Temporal tables (SQL Server 2016+)
inserted/deleted in triggers will generate as many rows as touched and calling a stored proc per key would require a cursor or similar approach per row.
You should check timestamp/rowversion in SQL Server. You could add that to the all tables in question (not null, auto increment, unique within database for each table/row etc).
You could add a unique index on that column to all tables you added the column.
##DBTS is the current timestamp, you can store today's ##DBTS and tomorrow you will scan all tables from that to current ##DBTS. timestamp/rowversion will be incremented for all updates and inserts but for deletes it won't track, for deletes you can have a delete only trigger and insert keys into a different table.
Change data capture or change tracking could do this easier, but if there is heavy volumes on the server or large number of data loads, partition switches scanning the transaction log becomes a bottleneck and in some cases you will have to remove change data capture to save the transaction log from growing indefinetely.
This is similar to Compare deleted and inserted table in SQL Server 2008 but the results were not what I was looking for.
I do want the trigger to fire if a specific column changes, however the program we have does a delete of all information and an reinsert of all new information every time it is saved. there is no simple update.
I want to write to an audit table, but ONLY if that specific column has changed once a save has occurred.
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[deleted]
ON [dbo].[DispTech]
FOR DELETE, INSERT
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON;
IF (SELECT serviceman FROM deleted) <> (SELECT ServiceMan FROM inserted)
BEGIN
INSERT INTO misc.dbo.DeletedTest ("Status", dispatch, serviceman)
SELECT
'Deleted', d.Dispatch, d.ServiceMan
FROM
deleted d
INSERT INTO misc.dbo.DeletedTest ("Status", dispatch, serviceman)
SELECT
'Inserted', i.Dispatch, i.ServiceMan
FROM
inserted i
END
This does NOT work as it results back NULL for everything. I know I could sort it all out in the audit table if I dump everything in there each time, but I really want a cleaner set of data and want to use it for other processing.
I have a view based upon 2 tables, I have written an instead of insert trigger to insert into that view:
Create trigger tr_vWEmployeeDetails_InsteadOfInsert
on vWEmployeeDetails
Instead Of Insert
as
Begin
Declare #DeptId int
Select #DeptId = DeptId
from tblDepartment
join inserted on inserted.DeptName = tblDepartment.DeptName
if(#DeptId is null)
Begin
Raiserror('Invalid Department Name. Statement terminated', 16, 1)
return
End
Insert into tblEmployee(Id, Name, Gender, DepartmentId)
Select Id, Name, Gender, #DeptId
from inserted
End
The above code works fine, but I want to know that the insert statement to the view doesn't work, instead the trigger works, then from where do we get values in the 'inserted' magic table.
Please explain.
From the relevant MSDN page:
DML trigger statements use two special tables: the deleted table and the inserted tables. SQL Server automatically creates and manages these tables. You can use these temporary, memory-resident tables to test the effects of certain data modifications and to set conditions for DML trigger actions. You cannot directly modify the data in the tables or perform data definition language (DDL) operations on the tables, such as CREATE INDEX.
The insert on the view is blocked by the use of the instead of trigger - That's literally the meaning of "instead of".
Please note that your trigger code will fail if an insert statement to the view will try to insert multiple records. The reason for this is that in SQL Server, triggers are raised per statement, and not per row. The following code that is specified in the beginning of the trigger
Declare #DeptId int
Select #DeptId = DeptId
from tblDepartment
join inserted
on inserted.DeptName = tblDepartment.DeptName
Will fail once the inserted table will have multiple rows that matches the on clause if the join.
Triggers in SQL Server must always be written to handle multiple rows in the inserted / deleted table.
I'm looking to add a WHERE clause to the trigger shown below and looking for a bit of advice if possible. Currently the trigger works on the basis of any particular items being added to the order and not just specific ones (ideally with a prefix).
CREATE TRIGGER ItalianEmail ON SOPOrderReturn
FOR INSERT, UPDATE
AS
declare #SOPOrderReturnID int;
UPDATE SOPOrderReturn
SET AnalysisCode19 = 'mario#aol.com'
FROM SOPOrderReturn
INNER JOIN INSERTED i ON SOPOrderReturn.SOPOrderReturnID = i.SOPOrderReturnID)
GO
The layout of the tables in SQL Server is the following:
SOPOrderReturn [Header Table] -- Holds Order Information (has primary key SOPOrderReturnID)
SOPOrderReturnLine [Order Line table] -- stores the item data for the order
(has primary key SOPOrderReurnLineID and a foreign key SOPOrderReturnID)
I need the WHERE clause to pick up the StockItem on the SOPOrderReturnLine table if its LIKE 'XXX_%'
I hope I have explained enough of the structure of the tables for you to get an idea of what I would like to achieve?
Any help offered is gratefully appreciated and I thank you for your time.
Try the following. Notice the alias on
CREATE TRIGGER ItalianEmail ON SOPOrderReturn
FOR INSERT, UPDATE
AS
declare #SOPOrderReturnID int;
UPDATE oRet
SET AnalysisCode19 = 'mario#aol.com'
FROM SOPOrderReturn oRet
INNER JOIN INSERTED i ON (oRet.SOPOrderReturnID = i.SOPOrderReturnID)
INNER JOIN SOPOrderReturnLine oRetLine ON (oRetLine.SOPOrderReturnID = i.SOPOrderReturnID)
WHERE oRetLine.StockItem LIKE 'XXX%'
GO
I have a problem where I need to check that two columns in each table in a database are unique.
We have the database with barcode entries called uid and rid.
Table 1: T1.uid
And
Table 2: T2.rid
No barcodes in the two table columns must be the same.
How can we ensure that.
If a insertion of a barcode into table T1.uid matches an entry in
T2.rid we want to throw an error.
The tables are cleaned up and is in a consistent state where the entries in
T1.uid and T2.rid are unique over both table columns.
It is not possible to insert NULL values in the tables respective uid and tid column(T1.uid and T2.rid)
It is not possible to create a new table for all barcodes.
Because we don't have full control of the database server.
EDIT 19-02-2015
This solution cannot work for us, because we cannot make a new table
to keep track of the unique names(see table illustration).
We want to have a constraint over two columns in different tables without changing the schema.
Per the illustration we want to make it impossible for john to exist in
T2 because he already exists in table T1. So an error must be "thrown"
when we try to insert John in T2.Name.
The reason is that we have different suppliers that inserts into these tables
in different ways, if we change the schema layout, all suppliers would
need to change their database queries. The total work is just to much,
if we force every suppplier to make changes.
So we need something unobtrusive, that doesnt require the suppliers to change
their code.
A example could be that T1.Name is unique and do not accept NULL values.
If we try insert an existing name, like "Alan", then an exception will occur
because the column has unique values.
But we want to check for uniqueness in T2.Name at the same time.
The new inserted value should be unique over the two tables.
Maybe something like this:
SELECT uid FROM Table1
Where Exists (
SELECT rid FROM Table2
WHERE Table1.uid = rid )
This will show all rows from Table1 where their column uid has an equivalent in column rid of Table2.
The condition before the insertion happens could look like below. #Idis the id you need to insert the data for.
DECLARE #allowed INT;
SELECT #allowed = COUNT(*)
FROM
(
SELECT T1.uid FROM T1 WHERE T1.uid = #Id
UNION ALL
SELECT T2.rid FROM T2 WHERE T2.rid = #id
)
WHERE
#id IS NOT NULL;
IF #allowed = 0
BEGIN
---- insert allowed
SELECT 0;
END
Thanks to all who answered.
I have solved the problem. A trigger is added to the database
everytime an insert or update procedure is executed, we catch it
check that the value(s) to be inserted doens't exist in the columns of the two
tables. if that check is succesfull we exceute the original query.
Otherwise we rollback the query.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/25600/Triggers-SQL-Server
Instead Of Triggers