INSTEAD OF triggers

INSTEAD OF triggers differ from BEFORE and AFTER triggers because when an INSTEAD OF trigger fires, the triggering action is skipped and the specified action is performed instead.

The following is a list of capabilities and restrictions that are unique to INSTEAD OF triggers:

There can only be one INSTEAD OF trigger for each trigger event on a given table.
INSTEAD OF triggers can be defined for a table or a view. However, INSTEAD OF triggers cannot be defined on materialized views since you cannot execute DML operations, such as INSERT, DELETE, and UPDATE statements, on materialized views.
You cannot specify the ORDER or WHEN clauses when defining an INSTEAD OF trigger.
You cannot define an INSTEAD OF trigger for an UPDATE OF column-list trigger event.
Whether an INSTEAD OF trigger performs recursion depends on whether the target of the trigger is a base table or a view. Recursion occurs for views, but not for base tables. That is, if an INSTEAD OF trigger performs DML operations on the base table on which the trigger is defined, those operations do not cause triggers to fire (including BEFORE or AFTER triggers). If the target is a view, all triggers fire for the operations performed on the view.
If a table has an INSTEAD OF trigger defined on it, you cannot execute an INSERT statement with an ON EXISTING clause against the table. Attempting to do so returns a SQLE_INSTEAD_TRIGGER error.
You cannot execute an INSERT statement on a view that was defined with the WITH CHECK OPTION (or is nested inside another view that was defined this way), and that has an INSTEAD OF INSERT trigger defined against it. This is true for UPDATE and DELETE statements as well. Attempting to do so returns a SQLE_CHECK_TRIGGER_CONFLICT error.
If an INSTEAD OF trigger is fired as a result of a positioned update, positioned delete, PUT statement, or wide insert operation, a SQLE_INSTEAD_TRIGGER_POSITIONED error is returned.

Updating non-updatable views using INSTEAD OF triggers

INSTEAD OF triggers allow you to execute INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements on a view that is not inherently updatable. The body of the trigger defines what it means to execute the corresponding INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement. For example, suppose you create the following view:

CREATE VIEW V1 ( Surname, GivenName, State ) 
   AS SELECT DISTINCT Surname, GivenName, State 
        FROM Contacts;

You cannot delete rows from V1 because the DISTINCT keyword makes V1 not inherently updatable. In other words, the database server cannot unambiguously determine what it means to delete a row from V1. However, you could define an INSTEAD OF DELETE trigger that implements a delete operation on V1. For example, the following trigger deletes all rows from Contacts with a given Surname, GivenName, and State when that row is deleted from V1:

CREATE TRIGGER V1_Delete
  INSTEAD OF DELETE ON V1
  REFERENCING OLD AS old_row
  FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
    DELETE FROM Contacts
      WHERE Surname = old_row.Surname
        AND GivenName = old_row.GivenName
        AND State = old_row.State
END;

Once the V1_Delete trigger is defined, you can delete rows from V1. You can also define other INSTEAD OF triggers to allow INSERT and UPDATE statements to be performed on V1.

If a view with an INSTEAD OF DELETE trigger is nested in another view, it is treated like a base table for checking the updatability of a DELETE. This is true for INSERT and UPDATE operations as well. Continuing from the previous example, create another view:

CREATE VIEW V2 ( Surname, GivenName ) AS
  SELECT Surname, GivenName from V1;

Without the V1_Delete trigger, you cannot delete rows from V2 because V1 is not inherently updatable, so neither is V2. However, if you define an INSTEAD OF DELETE trigger on V1, you can delete rows from V2. Each row deleted from V2 results in a row being deleted from V1, which causes the V1_Delete trigger to fire.

Be careful when defining an INSTEAD OF trigger on a nested view, since the firing of the trigger can have unintended consequences. To make the intended behavior explicit, define the INSTEAD OF triggers on any view referencing the nested view.

The following trigger could be defined on V2 to cause the desired behavior for a DELETE statement:

CREATE TRIGGER V2_Delete
  INSTEAD OF DELETE ON V2
  REFERENCING OLD AS old_row
  FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
    DELETE FROM Contacts
      WHERE Surname = old_row.Surname
        AND GivenName = old_row.GivenName
END;

The V2_Delete trigger ensures that the behavior of a delete operation on V2 remains the same, even if the INSTEAD OF DELETE trigger on V1 is removed or changed.

INSTEAD OF triggers

Updating non-updatable views using INSTEAD OF triggers

See also