Hi hackers,
The FOR PORTION OF thread [1] noted the challenges in defining the
interaction between FPO and insert triggers.
Where an UPDATE FOR PORTION OF produces two temporal leftovers, I feel
trigger behavior should be
symmetrical between the two leftovers, whatever that behavior may be.
Currently a tuple-modifying BEFORE INSERT ROW trigger will fire for
both leftovers, but the second leftover's trigger
will see tuple modifications from the first leftover's trigger. I feel
this produces a surprising asymmetry:
```
CREATE TABLE products (id int, valid_at daterange, name text, revision int);
CREATE FUNCTION increment_product_revision() RETURNS trigger LANGUAGE
plpgsql AS $$
BEGIN NEW.revision := NEW.revision + 1; RETURN NEW; END; $$;
CREATE TRIGGER products_insert_trigger BEFORE INSERT ON products
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE FUNCTION increment_product_revision();
INSERT INTO products VALUES (1, '[2020-01-01, 2020-12-31)', 'widget', 0);
-- Update producing two leftovers
UPDATE products FOR PORTION OF valid_at FROM '2020-04-01' TO '2020-08-01'
SET name = 'gadget' WHERE id = 1;
SELECT * FROM products ORDER BY valid_at;
-- id | valid_at | name | revision
-- ---+-------------------------+--------+---------
-- 1 | [2020-01-01,2020-04-01) | widget | 2
-- 1 | [2020-04-01,2020-08-01) | gadget | 1
-- 1 | [2020-08-01,2020-12-31) | widget | 3
-- first leftover has revision=2 - ok
-- second leftover has revision=3 - surprising?
```
[1] https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/ec498c3d-5f2b-48ec-b989-5561c8aa2024%40illuminatedcomputing.com
Best regards,
Sergei
