15.2. Types of Triggers

EnterpriseDB supports both row-level and statement-leveltriggers. A row-level trigger fires once for each row that is affected by a triggering event. For example, if deletion is defined as a triggering event on a table and a single DELETE command is issued that deletes five rows from the table, then the trigger will fire five times, once for each row.

In contrast, a statement-level trigger fires once per triggering statement regardless of the number of rows affected by the triggering event. In the prior example of a single DELETE command deleting five rows, a statement-level trigger would fire only once.

The sequence of actions can be defined regarding whether the trigger code block is executed before or after the triggering statement, itself, in the case of statement-level triggers; or before or after each row is affected by the triggering statement in the case of row-level triggers.

In a before row-level trigger, the trigger code block is executed before the triggering action is carried out on each affected row. In a before statement-level trigger, the trigger code block is executed before the action of the triggering statement is carried out.

In an after row-level trigger, the trigger code block is executed after the triggering action is carried out on each affected row. In an after statement-level trigger, the trigger code block is executed after the action of the triggering statement is carried out.