Question

The trigger needs to stop a death date before the birthdate being entered.

CREATE TRIGGER Check_deathDate
BEFORE INSERT Or UPDATE of deathDate on Actor
FOR EACH ROW
DECLARE
deathDate           DATE;
birthDate           DATE;
deathDate_Error     EXCEPTION;
IF (deathDate < birthDate) THEN
RAISE deathDate_Error;
END IF;
EXCEPTION 
WHEN deathDate_Error THEN
Raise_application_error( 'deathDate' || 'should be before' || 'birthDate');
END;);

gives error…

*
ERROR at line 3:
ORA-04079: invalid trigger specification

…how else can i specifiy the IF?

Answer 1

Something like this:

CREATE TRIGGER Check_deathDate
BEFORE INSERT Or UPDATE of deathDate, birthDate on Actor
FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
    IF (:NEW.deathDate < :NEW.birthDate) THEN
        Raise_application_error(-20000, 'deathDate should be before birthDate');
    END IF;
END;
/