Question

I am trying to write a trigger but getting syntax error:

CREATE TRIGGER archive_domain_trig
  AFTER UPDATE OF is_rejected ON pending_domains
  FOR EACH ROW 
  WHEN (new.is_rejected is True)
  EXECUTE PROCEDURE archive_domain_fun();

ERROR: syntax error at or near “OF”

not only this but it is giving error on “when” condition also e.g.

CREATE TRIGGER archive_domain_trig
  AFTER UPDATE ON pending_domains
  FOR EACH ROW 
  WHEN (new.is_rejected is True)
  EXECUTE PROCEDURE archive_domain_fun();

gives:

ERROR: syntax error at or near “WHEN”.

select version();
"EnterpriseDB 8.3.0.116 on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 4.1.0"

This is almost similar to postgres example, can anyone tell me what am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

I’d guess that EnterpriseDB 8.3 is the EnterpriseDB version of PostgreSQL 8.3. Conditional triggers (i.e. the WHEN option) are a new feature in PostgreSQL 9.0. Compare the CREATE TRIGGER documentation for 8.3 and 9.0.