Re: Update & Lack of Error Message

On Thu, Jan 26, 2006 at 02:22:37PM -0800, operationsengineer1(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote:
> i set up an update statement to update a unit's status
> from incomplete to completed.
>
> however, pgsql doesn't kick out an error message when
> i try to update something that doesn't exist.

The database has no way of knowing that a certain number of rows
updated (zero in your case) represents an error; that's something
the application knows. An update that affects zero rows is perfectly
legitimate in many applications.

> i'm thinking about running a select to check the
> existence of the serial number before running the
> update. that way, i can check that the serial 1.
> exists and 2. hasn't already been updated and, based
> on the result, kick out a message to the user as
> appropriate.

Your API should provide a way to get the number of rows updated.
What language and database interface are you using?

--
Michael Fuhr