<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Visibility of Data Changes</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK
REV="MADE"
HREF="mailto:pgsql-docs@postgresql.org"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="PostgreSQL 8.4.20 Documentation"
HREF="index.html"><LINK
REL="UP"
TITLE="Triggers"
HREF="triggers.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="Overview of Trigger Behavior"
HREF="trigger-definition.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="Writing Trigger Functions in C"
HREF="trigger-interface.html"><LINK
REL="STYLESHEET"
TYPE="text/css"
HREF="stylesheet.css"><META
HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type"
CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><META
NAME="creation"
CONTENT="2014-02-17T20:05:31"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="SECT1"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="5"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
>PostgreSQL 8.4.20 Documentation</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="trigger-definition.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="triggers.html"
>Fast Backward</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="60%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
>Chapter 35. Triggers</TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="triggers.html"
>Fast Forward</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="trigger-interface.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="TRIGGER-DATACHANGES"
>35.2. Visibility of Data Changes</A
></H1
><P
> If you execute SQL commands in your trigger function, and these
commands access the table that the trigger is for, then
you need to be aware of the data visibility rules, because they determine
whether these SQL commands will see the data change that the trigger
is fired for. Briefly:
<P
></P
></P><UL
><LI
><P
> Statement-level triggers follow simple visibility rules: none of
the changes made by a statement are visible to statement-level
triggers that are invoked before the statement, whereas all
modifications are visible to statement-level after triggers.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> The data change (insertion, update, or deletion) causing the
trigger to fire is naturally <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>not</I
></SPAN
> visible
to SQL commands executed in a row-level before trigger, because
it hasn't happened yet.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> However, SQL commands executed in a row-level before
trigger <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>will</I
></SPAN
> see the effects of data
changes for rows previously processed in the same outer
command. This requires caution, since the ordering of these
change events is not in general predictable; a SQL command that
affects multiple rows can visit the rows in any order.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> When a row-level after trigger is fired, all data changes made
by the outer command are already complete, and are visible to
the invoked trigger function.
</P
></LI
></UL
><P>
</P
><P
> If your trigger function is written in any of the standard procedural
languages, then the above statements apply only if the function is
declared <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>VOLATILE</TT
>. Functions that are declared
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>STABLE</TT
> or <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>IMMUTABLE</TT
> will not see changes made by
the calling command in any case.
</P
><P
> Further information about data visibility rules can be found in
<A
HREF="spi-visibility.html"
>Section 42.4</A
>. The example in <A
HREF="trigger-example.html"
>Section 35.4</A
> contains a demonstration of these rules.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="trigger-definition.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="index.html"
ACCESSKEY="H"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="trigger-interface.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>Overview of Trigger Behavior</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="triggers.html"
ACCESSKEY="U"
>Up</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>Writing Trigger Functions in C</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>
y~or5J ={Eeu磝Qk ᯘG{?+]ן?wM3X^歌>{7پK>on\jy R g/=fOroNVv~Y+ NGuÝHWyw[eQʨSb> >}Gmx[o[<{Ϯ_qF vM IENDB`
