Dynamically accessing columns from a row type in a trigger

From: "Rhys A(dot)D(dot) Stewart" <rhys(dot)stewart(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: pgsql-general(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Dynamically accessing columns from a row type in a trigger
Date: 2023-08-12 20:09:56
Message-ID: CACg0vTm8in3pdagru2Y-Q5Ru8UqfgVaqfTiW+kRw0jAj2wWQkw@mail.gmail.com
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-general

Greetings all,

I am writing a trigger and would like to know how to dynamically
access a column from the "OLD" variable. pk_col is the column name
from the table.

I've come up with either doing this:
EXECUTE format('SELECT $1.%1$I', pk_col) INTO pk_val USING OLD;

which looks a bit excessive, or this

pk_val = to_jsonb(OLD.*)->pk_col

which looks cleaner, but then I am having to incur a little overhead
by using the to_jsonb function. Ideally, something like this would be
great:

pk_val = OLD[pk_col]

but evidently we can't subscript ROW types.

Am I missing out on a simpler or more elegant solution?

Rhys
Peace & Love | Live Long & Prosper

Responses

Browse pgsql-general by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Adrian Klaver 2023-08-12 20:22:31 Re: Dynamically accessing columns from a row type in a trigger
Previous Message Amn Ojee Uw 2023-08-12 13:04:46 Re: A Good Beginner's Book