Lab #11 Worksheet

CSC 3326 Database Systems Lab Fall 2022
Lab #11 Worksheet
1. Triggers
A trigger is procedural SQL code associated with a given table, and is automatically
executed before or after some update/insertion/deletion on that table (triggering
event). A trigger can be used to enforce constraints, to automate critical actions (like
updating some derived attribute). A trigger can update values, insert records, and
call procedures. A table may have multiple triggers that are fired on different events
and can do different things. Triggers add processing capabilities to a database
application (event-based actions).
To create a new trigger in PostgreSQL, you follow these steps:
● First, create a trigger function using CREATE FUNCTION statement.
Second, bind the trigger function to a table by using CREATE TRIGGER statement.
CREATE FUNCTION trigger_function()

RETURNS TRIGGER
LANGUAGE PLPGSQL
AS $$ BEGIN
-- trigger logic
END;
$$;
A trigger function receives data about its calling environment through a special
structure called TriggerData which contains a set of local variables. For example,
OLD and NEW represent the states of the row in the table before or after the
triggering event.
CREATE TRIGGER trigger_name {BEFORE | AFTER} { event }
ON table_name
[FOR [EACH] { ROW | STATEMENT }]
EXECUTE PROCEDURE trigger_function
a) First add a new smallint attribute called reorder in the table Product. The new
attribute will have value 1 when the quantity on hand for a given product falls below
the minimum allowed quantity on hand.
ALTER TABLE Product ADD COLUMN reorder smallint;
i) Now create the following trigger:
CREATE FUNCTION update_prod() RETURNS TRIGGER

AS $$
BEGIN
Ziyad Mourabiti — DB Systems Lab — Fall 2022

UPDATE Product
SET reorder = 1
WHERE productCode = NEW.productCode;
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;
CREATE TRIGGER trProdUpd AFTER UPDATE ON

Product FOR EACH ROW
WHEN (OLD.quantityOnHand IS DISTINCT FROM NEW.quantityOnHand
AND NEW.quantityOnHand < NEW.minQuantityOnHand) EXECUTE
FUNCTION update_prod();
ii) Now pick a product that has reorder different than 1, and decrease its quantity on
hand so that it becomes less than its minQoH. For example:
UPDATE Product
SET quantityOnHand = quantityOnHand -9
WHERE productCode = '1546-QQ2';
Check that product’s row values.
What happened? Please note that this trigger may need improvement.
b) In this example, a trigger will be used to maintain a derived attribute (amount) in

the Invoice table:
i) Add attribute amount of type decimal (8, 2) (not nullable) to table Invoice,
with a
defaultvalue 0. Give the SQL statement to do that.
ii) Update the amount attribute to be the sum of the corresponding total line
prices. You can use a correlated subquery. Give the corresponding SQL
statement.
iii) Create a trigger that will automatically update (increase) the invoice
amount every time a line is inserted (use the example trigger on the handout
online).
iv) Insert some invoice line for some existing invoice and check the effect on
the corresponding invoice.
c) Create a trigger that would update (increase) the customer balance every time an
amount is invoiced for that customer (example trigger on the handout online).
2. Cursors.

A cursor is a procedural SQL mechanism that allows for walking through the result
set of a query that may return more than one row. It is used to fetch the information
one record at a time. A cursor needs first to be declared; the basic syntax looks like:
DECLARE cursorName CURSOR FOR SelectStatement;
You also need to declare local variables where to fetch data from cursor; for example
DECLARE varName dataType[,...n];
At some point in the code, the cursor needs to be opened to execute:
OPEN cursorName;
To get the first record, we have to fetch the next row:
FETCH NEXT FROM cursorName INTO variableName[, ...n]];
The special variable FOUND can be checked to see whether a row was obtained or
not.
Then a typical use of a cursor will proceed as follows:
FETCH NEXT FROM cursorName INTO variableName,...; WHILE FOUND

= TRUE
LOOP
-- process/print/do something with variableName, ... ...
-- fetch next row and loop back to process it FETCH NEXT FROM
cursorName INTO variableName,...;
END LOOP;
CLOSE cursorName;
a) Create the stored procedure spPrintCustByArea() that uses a cursor to print

customers in a specific area code.
b) Run the above stored procedure:
CALL spPrintCustByArea('0161');
What is the output?
NB. Please note that cursors can be used in SQL functions as well.

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CSC 3326 Database Systems Lab Fall 2022

Lab #11 Worksheet

To create a new trigger in PostgreSQL, you follow these steps:

● First, create a trigger function using CREATE FUNCTION statement.

CREATE FUNCTION trigger_function()

ALTER TABLE Product ADD COLUMN reorder smallint;

i) Now create the following trigger:

CREATE FUNCTION update_prod() RETURNS TRIGGER

Ziyad Mourabiti — DB Systems Lab — Fall 2022

CREATE TRIGGER trProdUpd AFTER UPDATE ON

Check that product’s row values.

b) In this example, a trigger will be used to maintain a derived attribute (amount) in

defaultvalue 0. Give the SQL statement to do that.

Ziyad Mourabiti — DB Systems Lab — Fall 2022

DECLARE cursorName CURSOR FOR SelectStatement;

DECLARE varName dataType[,...n];

At some point in the code, the cursor needs to be opened to execute:

To get the first record, we have to fetch the next row:

FETCH NEXT FROM cursorName INTO variableName[, ...n]];

Then a typical use of a cursor will proceed as follows:

FETCH NEXT FROM cursorName INTO variableName,...; WHILE FOUND

-- process/print/do something with variableName, ... ...

a) Create the stored procedure spPrintCustByArea() that uses a cursor to print

b) Run the above stored procedure:

What is the output?

Ziyad Mourabiti — DB Systems Lab — Fall 2022

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