unable to assign value to composite column in trigger

On Dec 18, 2008, at 4:19 PM, Ketema Harris wrote:

The following is a snippet from a trigger i am using:

_mycompositeType.user_id = (OLD).mycompositeType.user_id;
...do some stuff... --notice that assigning from the trigger record
works

but later on...

(new).mycompositeType.transaction_id := _transaction_id;

Fails with syntax error at or near "("

I have tried removing the () and it fails with "syntax error at or
near "new""

non composite column can be assigned to in the trigger just fine:

new.other_columm := 5; --gives no issues

How can a composite column be assigned to inside a trigger?

Thanks

Ketema J. Harris
www.ketema.net
ketema@ketema.net
ketemaj on iChat

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I have answered my own question. It appears that any composite column
elements in the NEW and OLD variables within a trigger can be read
from using the () accessor syntax, but not assigned to. What I had to
do was create a variable of the composite type and then assign the
whole column.

EX:

_var mycompositeType;

_var.element := 1
_var.element2 := 2

new.compositeCol := _var

It seems a little strange that the same accessor syntax can't be used
on both sides of the assignment operator, but this method solved my
problem.