Question

In my database I have a table Employee that has recursive association (an employee can be boss of other employee):

create table if not exists `employee` (

  `SSN` varchar(64) not null,
  `name` varchar(64) default null,
  `designation` varchar(128) not null,
  `MSSN` varchar(64) default null, 
  primary key (`ssn`),
  constraint `fk_manager_employee`  foreign key (`mssn`) references employee(ssn)

) engine=innodb default charset=latin1;

 

mysql> describe Employee;
+-------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field       | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| SSN         | varchar(64)  | NO   | PRI | NULL    |       |
| name        | varchar(64)  | YES  |     | NULL    |       |
| designation | varchar(128) | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
| MSSN        | varchar(64)  | YES  | MUL | NULL    |       |
+-------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Then inserts:

mysql> insert into Employee values
    -> ("1", "A", "OWNER",  NULL), 
    -> ("2", "B", "BOSS",   "1"),
    -> ("3", "C", "WORKER", "2"),
    -> ("4", "D", "BOSS",   "2"),
    -> ("5", "E", "WORKER", "4"),
    -> ("6", "F", "WORKER", "1"),
    -> ("7", "G", "WORKER", "4")
    -> ;
Query OK, 7 rows affected (0.02 sec)
Records: 7  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0   

Now I have following hierarchical relation (owner > boss > worker) among the rows in table:

     A
    / \
   B   F
  / \
 c   D
    / \
   G   E

Following is Select statement for table:

mysql> SELECT * FROM Employee;
+-----+------+-------------+------+
| SSN | name | designation | MSSN |
+-----+------+-------------+------+
| 1   | A    | OWNER       | NULL |
| 2   | B    | BOSS        | 1    |  
| 3   | C    | WORKER      | 2    |  
| 4   | D    | BOSS        | 2    |  
| 5   | E    | WORKER      | 4    |   
| 6   | F    | WORKER      | 1    |  
| 7   | G    | WORKER      | 4    |  
+-----+------+-------------+------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Now, I want to impose a constraint like : If any employee (BOSS) deleted then new BOSS of workers under him become immediate BOSS of deleted employee (Old BOSS). e.g. If I delete D then B Become BOSS of G and E.

For that I also written a Trigger as follows:

mysql>  DELIMITER $$
mysql>        CREATE
    ->        TRIGGER `Employee_before_delete` BEFORE DELETE
    ->          ON `Employee`
    ->          FOR EACH ROW BEGIN
    ->          UPDATE Employee
    ->          SET MSSN=old.MSSN
    ->          WHERE MSSN=old.MSSN; 
    ->        END$$
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.07 sec)

mysql>        DELIMITER ;

But When I perform some deletion:

mysql> DELETE FROM Employee WHERE SSN='4';
ERROR 1442 (HY000): Can't update table 'Employee' in stored function/trigger
because it is already used by statement which invoked this stored 
function/trigger.

I learn here that this trigger is not possible because In MySQL triggers can't manipulate the table they are assigned to.

Is there some other possible way to do this? Is it possible using Nested Query? Can some one suggest me other method ? A suggestion would be enough but should be efficient.

EDIT:
I got answers:
Instead of trigger a stored procedure or two consecutive queries is possible.
First and second.

The Solution I wrote for this problem as below, Working Well!:

• A a helper signal function as I am writing for MYSQL version older then 5.5.

DELIMITER //

CREATE PROCEDURE `my_signal`(in_errortext VARCHAR(255))
BEGIN
    SET @sql=CONCAT('UPDATE `', in_errortext, '` SET x=1');
    PREPARE my_signal_stmt FROM @sql;
    EXECUTE my_signal_stmt;
    DEALLOCATE PREPARE my_signal_stmt;
END//

• A Stored Procedure to delete employee from Employee Table.

CREATE PROCEDURE delete_employee(IN dssn varchar(64))
BEGIN
    DECLARE empDesignation varchar(128);
    DECLARE empSsn         varchar(64);
    DECLARE empMssn        varchar(64);
     SELECT SSN, designation, MSSN  INTO empSsn, empDesignation, empMssn 
     FROM Employee 
     WHERE SSN = dssn;

   IF (empSsn IS NOT NULL) THEN
    CASE       
           WHEN empDesignation = 'OWNER' THEN 
               CALL my_signal('Error: OWNER can not deleted!');

           WHEN empDesignation = 'WORKER' THEN 
            DELETE FROM Employee WHERE SSN = empSsn;               

           WHEN empDesignation = 'BOSS' THEN 
               BEGIN 
                   UPDATE Employee
                   SET MSSN = empMssn
                   WHERE MSSN = empSsn;

                DELETE FROM Employee WHERE SSN = empSsn;                   

               END;
    END CASE;
   ELSE 
               CALL my_signal('Error: Not a valid row!');
   END IF;
END//

DELIMITER ;

Answer 1

Use a stored procedure:

UPDATE b
   SET b.mssn = a.mssn
  FROM EMPLOYEE a
  JOIN EMPLOYEE b ON b.mssn = a.ssn
 WHERE a.ssn = @deletedBoss

DELETE FROM employee WHERE ssn = @deletedBoss

With a stored procedure, you can simply delete the rows you want, and after that, update the same table. That should prevent the error message.