Procedural Constraint Enforcement (Triggers)

SQL has an alternative method of addressing database integrity, involving event-driven procedural code. The special procedures that can be used for this purpose are called triggers and the events that activate them are specified update operations. For example, suppose it is required for every row in IS_CALLED to have a matching row on StudentId in IS_ENROLLED_ON, enforcing a business rule to the effect that every registered student must be enrolled on at least one course. Then a triggered procedure might be activated every time INSERT is used to add a row to IS_CALLED, checking to see if a matching row exists in IS_ENROLLED_ON and raising an exception if there isn't one. But that wouldn't be sufficient to address the requirement.

Further triggers would be needed, activated by UPDATE statements on IS_CALLED and IS_ENROLLED_ON that cause changes to StudentId values in either of those tables, and by DELETE statements on IS_ENROLLED_ON. As this simple example demonstrates, use of triggered procedures for constraint enforcement can be complicated and error-prone. As one practitioner told me, "It quickly gets so complicated that it's almost impossible for a human not to make errors..., and even when you're not facing a 'complicated' case, the work to be done is tedious and boring".