Oracle INSTEAD OF Triggers

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use an Oracle INSTEAD OF trigger to insert data
into tables via a non-updatable view.

What is an instead of trigger in Oracle

An INSTEAD OF trigger is a trigger (https://www.oracletutorial.com/plsql-tutorial/oracle-trigger/) that

allows you to update data in tables via their view (https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-view/) which
cannot be modified directly through DML statements.

When you issue a DML statement such as INSERT (https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-

basics/oracle-insert/) , UPDATE (https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-basics/oracle-update/) ,

or DELETE (https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-basics/oracle-delete/) to a non-updatable
view, Oracle will issue an error. Check it out for more information on the updatable view
(https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-view/oracle-updatable-view/) .

If the view has an INSTEAD OF trigger, it will automatically skip the DML statement and
execute other DML statements instead.

Note that an INSTEAD OF trigger is fired for each row of the view that gets modified.

In Oracle, you can create an INSTEAD OF trigger for a view only. You cannot create an
INSTEAD OF trigger for a table.

The following illustrates the syntax of creating an INSTEAD OF trigger:

CREATE [OR REPLACE] TRIGGER trigger_name

INSTEAD OF {INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE}
 ON view_name
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
EXCEPTION
...
END;

In this syntax:

First, specify the name of the trigger after the CREATE TRIGGER keywords. Use OR
REPLACE if you want to modify an existing trigger.

Second, use the INSTEAD OF keywords followed by an operation such as INSERT ,

UPDATE , and DELETE .

Third, specify the name of the view with which the trigger is associated.

Finally, specify the code that executes instead of the INSERT , UPDATE , and DELETE .

Oracle INSTEAD OF trigger example

We will use the customers and contacts tables from the sample database
(https://www.oracletutorial.com/getting-started/oracle-sample-database/) for the demonstration.

First, create a view (https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-view/oracle-create-view/) based on the

customers and contacts tables:
 CREATE VIEW vw_customers AS
SELECT
name,
address,
website,
credit_limit,
first_name,
last_name,
email,
phone
FROM
customers
INNER JOIN contacts USING (customer_id);

Next, attempt to insert (https://www.oracletutorial.com/oracle-basics/oracle-insert/) a new customer and

contact into the underlying tables via the view vw_customers :

INSERT INTO
vw_customers(
name,
address,
website,
credit_limit,
first_name,
last_name,
email,
phone
)
VALUES(
'Lam Research',
'Fremont, California, USA',
'https://www.lamresearch.com/',
2000,
 'John',
'Smith',
'john.smith@lamresearch.com',
'+1-510-572-0200'
);

Oracle issued the following error:

SQL Error: ORA-01779: cannot modify a column which maps to a non key-preserve
01779. 00000 - "cannot modify a column which maps to a non key-preserved tab
*Cause: An attempt was made to insert or update columns of a join view whi
map to a non-key-preserved table.
*Action: Modify the underlying base tables directly.

Then, create an INSTEAD OF trigger on the view vw_customers :

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER new_customer_trg

INSTEAD OF INSERT ON vw_customers
FOR EACH ROW
DECLARE
l_customer_id NUMBER;
BEGIN
-- insert a new customer first
INSERT INTO customers(name, address, website, credit_limit)
VALUES(:NEW.NAME, :NEW.address, :NEW.website, :NEW.credit_limit)
RETURNING customer_id INTO l_customer_id;

-- insert the contact

INSERT INTO contacts(first_name, last_name, email, phone, customer_id)
VALUES(:NEW.first_name, :NEW.last_name, :NEW.email, :NEW.phone, l_custome
END;
In this trigger, we inserted a new customer, get customer id, and use that id to insert a new
contact.

After that, execute the following statement again:

INSERT INTO
vw_customers(
name,
address,
website,
credit_limit,
first_name,
last_name,
email,
phone
)
VALUES(
'Lam Research',
'Fremont, California, USA',
'https://www.lamresearch.com/',
2000,
'John',
'Smith',
'john.smith@lamresearch.com',
'+1-510-572-0200'
);

This picture illustrates the INSTEAD OF trigger:

Finally, verify data from the customers table:

SELECT * FROM customers

ORDER BY customer_id DESC
FETCH FIRST ROWS ONLY;

Here is the output:

As you can see, the new customer has been inserted successfully.

This statement returns the contact of the new customer:

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use an Oracle INSTEAD OF trigger to insert data into
the base tables via a non-updatable view.
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