Question

I am trying to write a trigger to validate if the customer/address exist before inserting but i encounter some error. Able to advise on this?

Below is the table:
Customer (CustID,CustName,DOB)

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER CREATEACCOUNT
  BEFORE INSERT ON ACCOUNT
  FOR EACH ROW 
DECLARE
  newCustID     varchar(10);
  newPostCode   int;
  newStreet     char;
  newAccType    varchar(15);
  newAccStatus  char(9);
  newAccBalance int;
  varRowCount   int;
BEGIN

  newCustID := :new.CustID;

  SELECT COUNT(*) 
    INTO varRowCount
    FROM Customer
   WHERE CustID = newCustID;

  IF (varRowCount > 0) THEN 
    RETURN;
  END IF;

  IF (varRowCount = 0) THEN
    BEGIN
      INSERT INTO CUSTOMER VALUES (newCustID,:new.CustName,:new.DOB);
    END;
  END IF;
END;

Below is the error message:
Error(27,46): PLS-00049: bad bind variable ‘NEW.CUSTNAME’
Error(27,60): PLS-00049: bad bind variable ‘NEW.DOB’

Answer 1

The trigger is defined on the ACCOUNT table. You’ve posted the definition of the CUSTOMER table. Unless the ACCOUNT table has columns CustName and DOB, which seems highly unlikely, you can’t refer to :new.CustName or :new.DOB— the :new record is for the row that is currently being inserted into the ACCOUNT table.

Where do you intend to get the CustName and DOB to insert into the Customer table?

Taking a step back, why is a trigger on the Account table trying to insert a row into the Customer table in the first place. That seems like an exceptionally poor design. The CustID in the Account table would presumably be a foreign key that references the Customer table. That would mean, though, that you could only insert the parent row in a trigger if you declare the constraints as deferable and defer them at the beginning of every transaction. The trigger would also generally have no way of determining the information for the Customer columns that you want to populate which is the source of the error you’re getting.