Question

NOTE:
I initially thought my problem had to do with CONCAT, but since the exact error persisted even when I completely eliminated CONCAT from my query, I figured I should completely over-write of my original post.

I’m trying to set a trigger, and keep getting a Syntax Error.
When I tried this

CREATE TRIGGER set_aka_name 
BEFORE INSERT ON sandbox_person
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
  IF (NEW.aka IS NULL) THEN
    SET NEW.aka = 'test value';
  END IF;
END

…I got this error:

1064 – You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that
corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use
near ” at line 6

And when trying this (without the IF peren’s)

CREATE TRIGGER set_aka_name 
BEFORE INSERT ON sandbox_person
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
  IF NEW.aka IS NULL THEN
    SET NEW.aka = 'test value';
  END IF;
END

…I get the same exact error

1064 – You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that
corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use
near ” at line 6

It’s got to be something simple … but I’m just not seeing it.
I’m on MySQL 5.1.36.
What am I missing?
Any pointers?

Answer 1

try to change delimiter first:

DELIMITER |

CREATE TRIGGER set_aka_name 
BEFORE INSERT ON sandbox_person
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
  IF NEW.aka IS NULL THEN
    SET NEW.aka = 'test value';
  END IF;
END|

DELIMITER ;

Maybe MySQL sees the first “;” as the end of CREATE TRIGGER