Dan Fitzpatrick <dan(at)eparklabs(dot)com> writes:
> The rule is creating a new value from the sequence a_a_id_seq for
> "new.options_id" on each UPDATE call. How do I use the variable
> new.options_id in the three update statements without incrementing the
> sequence again?
You don't. This is one of the major disadvantages of rules: they're
macros, not functions, and as such don't have any real local variables.
You should probably look into whether you can do what you want with a
trigger instead of a rule.
regards, tom lane