Chapter 2

Constraints, Triggers, Views

Database System – The complete book,

Hector Garcia-Molina, Jeffrey D. Ullman, Jennifer Widom
 Chapter Outline
 Keys and Foreign Key
 Constraints on Attributes and Tuples
 Modification of Constraints
 Trigger
 Views

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 Declaring Foreign-Key
Constraints
 In SQL we may declare an attribute or attributes of
one relation to be a foreign key, referencing some
attribute(s) of a second relation (possibly the same
relation)
 The referenced attribute(s) of the second relation
must be declared UNIQUE or the PRIMARY KEY for
their relation. Otherwise, we cannot make the
foreign-key declaration.
 Values of the foreign key appearing in the first
relation must also appear in the referenced attributes
of some tuple.
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 Two ways to declare a foreign key.
• Example:
Suppose we wish to declare the relation
Studio(name, address, presC#)
which has a foreign key presC# that references cert#
of relation:
MovieExec(name, addreses, cert#, netWorth)
We may declare presC# directly to reference cert# as
follows:
CREATE TABLE Studio (
name CHAR(30) PRIMARY KEY,
address VARCHAR(255),
presC# INT REFERENCES
MovieExec(cert#));
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Two ways to declare a foreign key (cont.).
• Example:
An alternative form is to add the foreign key
declaration separately, as
CREATE TABLE Studio (
name CHAR(30) PRIMARY KEY,
address VARCHAR(255),
presC# INT,
FOREIGN KEY (presC#) REFERENCES
MovieExec(cert#)
);

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 Maintaining Referential Integrity.
• The following actions will be prevented by the DBMS
(i.e., a run-time exception or error will be generated).
a)Insert a new Studio tuple whose presC# value is not
NULL and is not the cert# component of any
MovieExec tuple.
b)Update a Studio tuple to change the presC#
component to a non-NULL value that is not the
cert# component of any MovieExec tuple.
c) Delete a MovieExec tuple, and its cert# component,
which is not NULL, appears as the presC# component
of one or more Studio tuples.
d)Update a MovieExec tuple in a way that changes the
cert# value, and the old cert# is the value of
presC# of some movie studio.
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 Maintaining Referential Integrity (cont.)

• For the first two modifications, where the change is

to the relation where the foreign-key constraint is
declared, there is no alternative; the system has to
reject the violating modification.
• For changes to the referenced relation, of which the
last two modifications are examples, the designer
can choose among three options:
1. The Default Policy: Reject Violating Modifications.
2. The Cascade Policy: Under this policy, changes to
the referenced at­tribute(s) are mimicked at the
foreign key.
3. The Set-Null Policy.
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 Maintaining Referential Integrity (cont.)

Example:
CREATE TABLE Studio (
name CHAR(30) PRIMARY KEY,
address VARCHAR(255),
presC# INT REFERENCES
MovieExec(cert#)
ON DELETE SET NULL
ON UPDATE CASCADE
);

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 Constraints on Attributes and Tuples.
 Not-Null Constraints:
Example:
CREATE TABLE Studio (
name CHAR(30) PRIMARY KEY,
address VARCHAR(255),
presC# INT REFERENCES MovieExec(cert#)
NOT NULL
);

• We could not insert a tuple into Studio by specifying

only the name and address.
• We could not use the set-null policy 9
Constraints on Attributes and Tuples (cont.).
 Attribute-Based CHECK Constraints :
Example: Suppose we want to require that certificate
numbers be at least six digits.
CREATE TABLE Studio (
name CHAR(30) PRIMARY KEY,
address VARCHAR(255),
presC# INT REFERENCES MovieExec(cert#)
CHECK (presC# >= 100000)
);

• We could not insert a tuple into Studio by specifying

only the name and address.
• We could not use the set-null policy
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Constraints on Attributes and Tuples (cont.).
 Tuple-Based CHECK Constraints :
Example:
CREATE TABLE MovieStar (
name CHAR(30) PRIMARY KEY,
address VARCHAR(255),
gender CHAR(1),
birthdate DATE,
CHECK (gender = ’F’ OR name NOT LIKE ’Ms.%’ )
);

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 Modification of Constraints.
 Giving Names to Constraints :
Example:
CREATE TABLE MovieStar (
name CHAR(30) CONSTRAINT NamelsKey PRIMARY KEY,
address VARCHAR(255),
gender CHAR(1),
birthdate DATE,
CONSTRAINT RightTitle
CHECK (gender = ’F’ OR name NOT LIKE ’Ms.%’ )
);
Remember, it is a good idea to give each of your
constraints a name, even if you do not believe you will
ever need to refer to it.
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 Modification of Constraints.
 Altering Constraints on Tables:
Example:
ALTER TABLE MovieStar DROP CONSTRAINT
NamelsKey;

ALTER TABLE MovieStar ADD CONSTRAINT

NamelsKey
PRIMARY KEY (name);

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 Triggers.
• A trigger is a series of actions that are associated with
certain events, and that are performed whenever these
events arise.
• Triggers differ from the kinds of constraints in three
points:
1. Triggers are only awakened when certain events,
specified by the database programmer, occur (usually
insert, delete, or update).
2. Once awakened by its triggering event, the trigger tests
a condition.
3. If the condition of the trigger is satisfied, the action
associated with the trigger is performed by the DBMS.
Triggers, sometimes called event-condition-action
rules or ECA rules
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 Triggers.
• Example. MovieExec(name, address, cert#,
netWorth)
1) CREATE TRIGGER NetWorthTrigger
2) AFTER UPDATE OF netWorth ON MovieExec
3) REFERENCING
4) OLD ROW AS OldTuple,
5) NEW ROW AS NewTuple
6) FOR EACH ROW
7) WHEN (OldTuple.netWorth > NewTuple.netWorth)
8) UPDATE MovieExec
9) SET netWorth = OldTuple.netWorth
10) WHERE cert# = NewTuple.cert#;
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 The Options for Trigger Design

 We may replace AFTER by BEFORE (line 2) in which

case the WHEN condition is tested on the database
state that exists before the triggering event is
executed.
 Besides UPDATE (line 2), other possible triggering
events are INSERT and DELETE.
 The WHEN clause is optional. If it is missing, then
the action is executed whenever the trigger is
awakened.
 There can be any number of such statements (line
8-10), separated by semicolons and surrounded by
BEGIN...END.
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 The Options for Trigger Design
• If we omit the FOR EACH ROW on line (6) or replace
it by the default FOR EACH STATEMENT, then a row-
level trigger becomes a statement-level trigger.
• A statement-level trigger is executed once when­ever
a statement of the appropriate type is executed, no
matter how many rows — zero, one, or many — it
actually affects.
• In a statement-level trigger, we cannot refer to old
and new tuples di­rectly (as line 4,5), but using
declarations such as OLD TABLE AS OldStuff and
NEW TABLE AS NewStuff.

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 The Options for Trigger Design
• Example
1) CREATE TRIGGER AvgNetWorthTrigger
2) AFTER UPDATE OF netWorth ON MovieExec
3) REFERENCING
4) OLD TABLE AS OldStuff,
5) NEW TABLE AS NewStuff
6) FOR EACH STATEMENT
7) WHEN ((SELECT AVG(netWorth) FROM MovieExec) < 500000 )
8) BEGIN
9) DELETE FROM MovieExec
10) WHERE (name, address , cert#, netWorth) IN NewStuff;
11) INSERT INTO MovieExec
12) (SELECT * FROM OldStuff ) ;
13) END;
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 Create trigger in SQL server
CREATE TRIGGER Trigger_name ON {table | View}
{FOR | AFTER | INSTEAD OF} { [ INSERT ] [ , ] [ UPDATE ] [ , ] [ DELETE ] }
AS { sql_statement [ ; ] [ ,...n ] [ ; ] > }
•Arguments
- FOR | AFTER: AFTER specifies that the DML trigger is fired only when
all operations specified in the triggering SQL statement have executed
successfully. All referential cascade actions and constraint checks also
must succeed before this trigger fires. AFTER is the default when FOR is
the only keyword specified. AFTER triggers cannot be defined on views.
- INSTEAD OF: Specifies that the DML trigger is executed instead of the
triggering SQL statement, therefore, overriding the actions of the
triggering statements. INSTEAD OF cannot be specified for DDL or logon
triggers. At most, one INSTEAD OF trigger per INSERT, UPDATE, or
DELETE statement can be defined on a table or view. INSTEAD OF
triggers are not allowed on updatable views that use WITH CHECK
OPTION. 
- DML triggers are frequently used for enforcing business rules and data
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integrity. 
 Create trigger in SQL server
• Example 1
The following DML trigger prints a message to the client when
anyone tries to add or change data in the Customertable in
the AdventureWorks2012 database.

IF OBJECT_ID ('Sales.reminder1', 'TR') IS NOT NULL

DROP TRIGGER Sales.reminder1;
GO
CREATE TRIGGER reminder1 ON Sales.Customer
AFTER INSERT, UPDATE
AS RAISERROR ('Notify Customer Relations', 16, 10);
GO

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 Create trigger in SQL server
• Example 2
The following example sends an e-mail message to a specified
person (MaryM) when the Customer table changes.

IF OBJECT_ID ('Sales.reminder2','TR') IS NOT NULL

DROP TRIGGER Sales.reminder2;
GO
CREATE TRIGGER reminder2 ON Sales.Customer
AFTER INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
AS EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
@profile_name = 'AdventureWorks2012 Admin',
@recipients = '[email protected]',
@body = 'Don''t forget to print a report for the
sales force.',
@subject = 'Reminder';
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GO
 Create trigger in SQL server
• Example 3
CREATE TRIGGER NetWorthTrigger on MovieExec
AFTER UPDATE as
declare @new int, @old int, @ssn int
select @new=ne.netWorth, @old=ol.netWorth, @ssn=ol.name
from inserted ne, deleted ol
where ne.name=ol.name
if (@old > @new)
Begin
UPDATE MovieExec
SET netWorth = @old
WHERE name = @ssn
end
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GO
 Views
 A view is a virtual table whose contents (columns
and rows) are defined by a query which gets data
in one or more tables (called base tables ) or other
views in the database.
 a view can be used for the following purposes:
1. To focus, simplify, and customize the perception each
user has of the database.
2. As a security mechanism by allowing users to access data
through the view, without granting the users permissions
to directly access the underlying base tables.
3. To provide a backward compatible interface to emulate a
table whose schema has changed

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 Views
 Declare by:
CREATE VIEW view_name AS
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;
 Drop by:
DROP VIEW <name>
 Modify by:
ALTER VIEW view_name AS
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition; 24
 Our Running Example
Beers(Beername, manf)
Bars(Barname, addr, license)
Drinkers(Drname, addr, phone)
Likes(Drname, beer)
Sells(barname, beer, price)
Frequents(Drname, barname)
 Underline = key (tuples cannot have
the same value in all key attributes).
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 Example: View Definition
 CanDrink(drinker, beer) is a view “containing”
the drinker-beer pairs such that the drinker
frequents at least one bar that serves the beer:

CREATE VIEW CanDrink AS

SELECT drinker, beer
FROM Frequents, Sells
WHERE Frequents.bar = Sells.bar;
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 Example: Accessing a View
 Query a view as if it were a base table.
 Also: a limited ability to modify views if it
makes sense as a modification of one
underlying base table.
 Example query:
SELECT beer FROM CanDrink
WHERE drinker = ’Sally’;

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 Views
 Problem: each time a base table changes,
the view may change.
 Note: A view always shows up-to-date data!
The database engine recreates the data,
using the view's SQL statement, every time a
user queries a view.

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 Un-updatable Views
 Views defined using groups and aggregate functions
are not updateable
 Views defined on multiple tables using joins are
generally not updateable
Ex. Dept(did, budget, manageid)
Works(eid, did, pct_time)
create view dd as
create view cc as
Select d.did, w.eid,
Select manageid,
w.pct_time
max(budget) as ln
from Dept d, Works w
from Dept;
where d.did = w.did;

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 Example
Movies (title, year, length, genre, studioName,
producerC#)
A view is defined as:
CREATE VIEW ParamountMovies AS
SELECT title , year
FROM Movies
WHERE studioName = ’ Paramount’ ;
Suppose we insert into view ParamountMovies
INSERT INTO ParamountMovies
VALUES(’StarTrek’ , 1979);
What happen??? 30
 Triggers on Views
 An INSTEAD OF trigger lets us interpret view
modifications in a way that makes sense.
Example: Dept(did, budget, manageid)
Works(eid, did, pct_time)

create view dd as
Select d.did, w.eid,
w.pct_time
from Dept d, Works w
where d.did = w.did;

We can not directly insert into dd:

INSERT INTO dd VALUES(9, 2, 16) 31
 Interpreting a View Insertion
 We cannot insert into view dd.
 But we can use an INSTEAD OF trigger
to turn a (did, eid, pct_time) triple into
two insertions of projected pairs, one
for each of Dept and Works.
 Dept.budget and Dept.manageid will have
to be NULL.

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 The Trigger on views
CREATE TRIGGER InsertToView ON dd
INSTEAD OF INSERT
AS
DECLARE @sdid int, @seid int, @spct_time int
SELECT @sdid = inserted.did, @seid = inserted.eid,
@spct_time = inserted.pct_time
FROM inserted
BEGIN
INSERT INTO Dept(did) VALUES(@sdid)
INSERT INTO Works VALUES(@seid, @sdid, @spct_time)
END

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 The Trigger in SQL-Server
CREATE TRIGGER GiveRaise1 ON Emp AFTER update
AS
Declare @new numeric(18,0), @old numeric(18,0), @eid smallint
SELECT @new=ne.Salary, @old=ol.salary, @eid = ne.eid
FROM Inserted ne, Deleted ol
where ne.eid = ol.eid
If @new>@old BEGIN
update Emp
Set Emp.salary = @new
where Emp.salary < @new and Emp.eid in
( Select D.manageid
From Emp E, Works W, Dept D
where E.eid = @eid
and E.eid = W.eid 34
and W.did = D.did); END
Q&A

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