Thread: (trigger function) -> ERROR: NEW used in non-rule query
I'm writing a trigger which wants to reference the pre-defined NEW record. I can do this idval := NEW.blah; This works fine!!! What I really need to do is idval := NEW.(quote_ident(TG_ARGV[3])); or this idval := NEW.(TG_ARGV[3]); unfortunately this returns "ERROR: NEW used in non-rule query" I've also tried using EXECUTE ''SELECT NEW.'' || quote_ident(TG_ARGV[3]); (to test if I can use a FOR-IN-EXECUTE to extract it) and it produces exactly the same error. Obviously NEW goes out of scope for some reason. I can understand the case with EXECUTE but the other statements should have worked :( This is very frustrating because it is the *ONLY* thing standing in the way of me solving a larger problem (which I will use to repsond to another thread in this forum). Does anyone know how to access an arbitarily specified field of the NEW record in a trigger function. I need this because arguments to a function in the trigger definition cannot be NEW.blah, they have to be static/literals (which is likely to be for the same reason that NEW goes out of scope any time I try to do something dynamic when evaluating a field on it). FYI: ref doco at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.3/interactive/plpgsql-trigger.html using pg 7.3.3 -- Terence Kearns ~ ph: +61 2 6201 5516 IT Database/Applications Developer Enterprise Information Systems Client Services Division University of Canberra www.canberra.edu.au
On Friday 18 Jul 2003 9:22 am, Terence Kearns wrote: > I'm writing a trigger which wants to reference the pre-defined NEW record. > > I can do this > idval := NEW.blah; > > This works fine!!! > > What I really need to do is > idval := NEW.(quote_ident(TG_ARGV[3])); > or this > idval := NEW.(TG_ARGV[3]); I'll give you the short answer - no you can't do this (in plpgsql). Which isn't to say it'll never be possible, but not at the moment. Can you afford to look at an alternative language? I'd suggest looking at TCL, although I must admit I've never used it myself. -- Richard Huxton
Richard Huxton wrote:
> On Friday 18 Jul 2003 9:22 am, Terence Kearns wrote:
>
>>I'm writing a trigger which wants to reference the pre-defined NEW record.
>>
>>I can do this
>>idval := NEW.blah;
>>
>>This works fine!!!
>>
>>What I really need to do is
>>idval := NEW.(quote_ident(TG_ARGV[3]));
>>or this
>>idval := NEW.(TG_ARGV[3]);
>
>
> I'll give you the short answer - no you can't do this (in plpgsql). Which
> isn't to say it'll never be possible, but not at the moment.
>
> Can you afford to look at an alternative language? I'd suggest looking at TCL,
> although I must admit I've never used it myself.
>
>
damn. There's realy no other way for me to access the value since the
trigger function will be called from different relations.
I tried idval := (''NEW.'' || TG_ARGV[3]); but recieved
ERROR: pf_atoi: error in "NEW.blah": can't parse "NEW.blah"
Oh well, can't win them all :/
Well I suppose I could try TCL. The problem is that there is little to
no documentation on postgres stored procedures in TCL and I've never
even seen the language before. None the less, I'll look into it. It's
almost worth it. If that fails, I may even try perl <shudders>. if that
files, I will try to get --with-python to configure (which it's refusing
to do at the moment even though I have a working installation).
--
Terence Kearns ~ ph: +61 2 6201 5516
IT Database/Applications Developer
Enterprise Information Systems
Client Services Division
University of Canberra
www.canberra.edu.au
On Friday 18 July 2003 10:18, Terence Kearns wrote:
> damn. There's realy no other way for me to access the value since the
> trigger function will be called from different relations.
>
> I tried idval := (''NEW.'' || TG_ARGV[3]); but recieved
> ERROR: pf_atoi: error in "NEW.blah": can't parse "NEW.blah"
>
> Oh well, can't win them all :/
Well, not this one at the moment, anyway.
> Well I suppose I could try TCL. The problem is that there is little to
> no documentation on postgres stored procedures in TCL and I've never
> even seen the language before. None the less, I'll look into it. It's
> almost worth it. If that fails, I may even try perl <shudders>. if that
> files, I will try to get --with-python to configure (which it's refusing
> to do at the moment even though I have a working installation).
Not sure if you can write triggers in perl, and I think python is going
untrusted only (which means you need to be an admin to create functions).
- Richard Huxton
Terence, > Oh well, can't win them all :/ Nope. I'll suggest that for the TODO list ... we already have several requests for added features for PL/pgSQL. The problem is that we currently don't have a lead developer for PL/pgSQL, so the language has rather stagnated. > Well I suppose I could try TCL. The problem is that there is little to > no documentation on postgres stored procedures in TCL and I've never > even seen the language before. None the less, I'll look into it. It's > almost worth it. If that fails, I may even try perl <shudders>. And what's wrong with Perl? Other than the inability to write triggers with it? (We want to enable triggers in PL/perl, but that functionality isn't coming until at least 7.5). -- Josh Berkus Aglio Database Solutions San Francisco
Josh Berkus wrote: >>Well I suppose I could try TCL. The problem is that there is little to >>no documentation on postgres stored procedures in TCL and I've never >>even seen the language before. None the less, I'll look into it. It's >>almost worth it. If that fails, I may even try perl <shudders>. >> >> > >And what's wrong with Perl? Other than the inability to write triggers with >it? > That's *exactly* "what's wrong" with it :-) If I understand what he is talking about correctly, his whole problem is that he is writing a trigger :-) Dima
Josh Berkus wrote: > Terence, > > >>Oh well, can't win them all :/ > > > Nope. I'll suggest that for the TODO list ... we already have several > requests for added features for PL/pgSQL. The problem is that we currently > don't have a lead developer for PL/pgSQL, so the language has rather > stagnated. > Well beggers can't be choosers. I find it entirely amazing that one has access to such a capable product entirely free of charge :) While people like myself may raise issues from time to time and sometimes express frustration, it doesn't mean that we don't think that postgres (and associated tools) is absolutely awsome. I'm more than content to "make do" ;^) with what postgres has now. > >>Well I suppose I could try TCL. The problem is that there is little to >>no documentation on postgres stored procedures in TCL and I've never >>even seen the language before. None the less, I'll look into it. It's >>almost worth it. If that fails, I may even try perl <shudders>. > > > And what's wrong with Perl? Other than the inability to write triggers with > it? (We want to enable triggers in PL/perl, but that functionality isn't > coming until at least 7.5). > Let's just say I don't belong to the very large community who LOVE the language. Don't get too excited, it's just my personal preference. I don't find the language "easy" at all (which is how it is towted). One of these days when I get "spare time" (and the moon is blue), then I will hit it again and maybe do it justice in terms of effort.