Question

Is there a way to create MySQL trigger which triggers on either UPDATE or INSERT?

Something like

CREATE TRIGGER t_apps_affected BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ...

Obviously, the above don’t work. So, any workarounds without creating two separate triggers?
I need this in order to update running counter on another table.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, there is no shorthand form – you must create multiple triggers – one for each event.

The doc says:

trigger_event indicates the kind of statement that activates the trigger. The trigger_event can be one of the following:

INSERT: The trigger is activated whenever a new row is inserted into
the table; for example, through INSERT, LOAD DATA, and REPLACE
statements.

UPDATE: The trigger is activated whenever a row is modified; for
example, through UPDATE statements.

DELETE: The trigger is activated whenever a row is deleted from the
table; for example, through DELETE and REPLACE statements. However,
DROP TABLE and TRUNCATE TABLE statements on the table do not activate
this trigger, because they do not use DELETE. Dropping a partition
does not activate DELETE triggers, either. See Section 12.1.27,
“TRUNCATE TABLE Syntax”.