PostgreSQL Server Programming - Second Edition

Managing related data with triggers

Server programming can also mean setting up automated actions (triggers), so that some operations in the database cause some other things to happen as well. For example, you can set up a process where making an offer on some items is automatically reserved to them being in the stock table.

So, let's create a fruit stock table, as shown here:

CREATE TABLE fruits_in_stock (
    name text PRIMARY KEY,
    in_stock integer NOT NULL,
    reserved integer NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
    CHECK (in_stock between 0 and 1000 ),
    CHECK (reserved <= in_stock)
);

The CHECK constraints make sure that some basic rules are followed: you can't have more than 1000 fruits in stock (they'll probably go bad), you can't have a negative stock, and you can't ...