A trigger question

Chansup Byun wrote:

Hi,

I'm trying to set up a trigger to prevent any duplicate entries into
my table. But I couldn't figure out how to make my trigger work.

I have a PostgreSQL 8.1.5 installation.
I created the following table:

CREATE TABLE attendance (
attendance_id serial,
service_date timestamp DEFAULT NOW(),
service_type varchar(18),
attendance_count integer,
CONSTRAINT attendance_pk primary key (attendance_id)
);

INSERT INTO attendance (service_date, service_type, attendance_count )
VALUES ('2006-05-01', 'First Service', 100);
INSERT INTO attendance (service_date, service_type, attendance_count )
VALUES ('2006-05-01', 'Second Service', 120);

Now I create the following:

CREATE FUNCTION history_check_fn() RETURNS trigger AS $history_check_fn$
BEGIN
-- Check that service_date and service_type are given
IF NEW.service_date == OLD.service_date AND
NEW.service_type == OLD.service_type THEN
RAISE EXCEPTION 'Duplicate entry';
END IF;
RETURN;
END;
$history_check_fn$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;

CREATE TRIGGER history_check_tr
BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON attendance
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE history_check_fn();

When I tried to insert a duplicate entry [same service_date and
service_type], I got the following error:

INSERT INTO attendance (service_date, service_type, attendance_count )
VALUES ('2005-05-01', 'Second Service', 10);
ERROR: record "old" is not assigned yet
DETAIL: The tuple structure of a not-yet-assigned record is
indeterminate.
CONTEXT: PL/pgSQL function "history_check_fn" line 3 at if

I couldn't figure out what I'm doing incorrectly.
I appreciate if anyone can give me some advices.

I don't think OLD gets assigned for inserts. You should use TG_OP to
determine whether it is an insert or update calling the trigger.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/plpgsql-trigger.html

However, you might simply be better off defining some unique indexes to
prevent duplicates.

-Jonathan

On Mon, Dec 18, 2006 at 22:18:43 -0500,
Chansup Byun <byun1067@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm trying to set up a trigger to prevent any duplicate entries into
my table. But I couldn't figure out how to make my trigger work.

Couldn't you use a unique constraint to do this?

On 12/20/06, Bruno Wolff III <bruno@wolff.to> wrote:

On Mon, Dec 18, 2006 at 22:18:43 -0500,
Chansup Byun <byun1067@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

I'm trying to set up a trigger to prevent any duplicate entries into
my table. But I couldn't figure out how to make my trigger work.

Couldn't you use a unique constraint to do this?

Yes, I found that from a private email. it works great.

Thanks,

- Chansup