SQL Server A trigger to work on multiple row inserts

Question

Hi,

I am maintaining some code that has a trigger on a table to increment a column. That column is then used by a 3rd party application A. Lets say that the table is called test with two columns num1 and num2. The trigger runs on each insert of num1 in test. Following is the trigger:

USE [db1]
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
ALTER TRIGGER [dbo].[TEST_MYTRIG] ON [dbo].[test]
FOR INSERT AS
begin
SET NOCOUNT ON
DECLARE @PROC_NEWNUM1 VARCHAR (10)
DECLARE @NEWNUM2 numeric(20)

SELECT @PROC_NEWNUM1 = num1 FROM INSERTED
select @NEWNUM2 = MAX(num2) from TEST
if @NEWNUM2 is null
Begin
set  @NEWNUM2  = 0
end
set @NEWNUM2 = @NEWNUM2 + 1
UPDATE TEST SET num2 = @NEWNUM2 WHERE num1 = @PROC_NEWNUM1
SET NOCOUNT OFF
End

This works fine in simple row based inserts, but there is another 3rd party app B (sigh) that sometimes does multiple inserts on this table something like this but not exactly:

INSERT INTO [db1].[dbo].[test]
           ([num1])

   Select db1.dbo.test.num1 from [db1].[dbo].[test]
GO

This causes the trigger to behave erratically...

Now I don't have access to the source of app A or B and only control the database and the trigger. Is there anything that can be done with the trigger so that the updates done to num2 are correct in case of multiple inserts?

Solution:

Following is the solution based on affan's code:

 DECLARE @PROC_NEWNUM1 VARCHAR (10)
 DECLARE @NEWNUM2 numeric(20)
 DECLARE my_Cursor CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FOR SELECT num1 FROM INSERTED;

 OPEN my_Cursor 
 FETCH NEXT FROM my_Cursor into @PROC_NEWNUM1

 WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 
 BEGIN 

 select @NEWNUM2 = MAX(num2) from TEST
 if @NEWNUM2 is null
 Begin
    set  @NEWNUM2  = 0
 End
 set @NEWNUM2 = @NEWNUM2 + 1
 UPDATE TEST SET num2 = @NEWNUM2  WHERE num1 = @PROC_NEWNUM1
 FETCH NEXT FROM my_Cursor into @PROC_NEWNUM1  
 END

CLOSE my_Cursor
DEALLOCATE my_Cursor

Check here for a set based approach: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2183748/sql-server-rewrite-trigger-to-avoid-cursor-based-approach

Answer 1

Take a look at inserted pseudo table in your trigger as it will contain multiple rows during these operations. You should always handle multiple rows in your triggers anyway.

See here for more info:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/407935/how-to-test-for-multiple-row-actions-in-a-sql-server-trigger

Answer 2

Trigger needs to be rewriteen to handle multiple row inserts. Never write a trigger like taht using variables. ALl triggers must alawys consider that someday someone is going to do amulit-row insert/update/delete.

YOu shouldn't be incrementing columns that way in a trigger either, if you need incremented column numbers why aren't you using an identity column?

Answer 3

You just have to open a cursor on INSERTED and iterate it for @PROC_NEWNUM1 and put your rest of code that loop. e.g

 DECLARE @PROC_NEWNUM1 VARCHAR (10)
 DECLARE @NEWNUM2 numeric(20)
 DECLARE my_Cursor CURSOR FOR SELECT num1 FROM INSERTED; 
 OPEN my_Cursor; 

 FETCH NEXT FROM @PROC_NEWNUM1; 


 WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0 
 BEGIN FETCH NEXT FROM my_Cursor 
 select @NEWNUM2 = MAX(num2) from TEST
 if @NEWNUM2 is null
 Begin
  set  @NEWNUM2  = 0
 end
 set @NEWNUM2 = @NEWNUM2 + 1
 UPDATE TEST SET num2 = @NEWNUM2 WHERE num1 = @PROC_NEWNUM1

 END; 

CLOSE my_Cursor; DEALLOCATE my_Cursor;