Triggers -- SQL Server

A trigger is a special kind of stored procedure that automatically executes when an event occurs in the database server.

DML triggers execute when a user tries to modify data through a data manipulation language (DML) event. DML events are INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements on a table or view. These triggers fire when any valid event is fired, regardless of whether or not any table rows are affected.

DDL triggers execute in response to a variety of data definition language (DDL) events. These events primarily correspond to Transact-SQL CREATE, ALTER, and DROP statements, and certain system stored procedures that perform DDL-like operations. 

Types Of Triggers
There are three action query types that you use in SQL which are INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE.

Basically, triggers are classified into two main types:

1. After Triggers (For Triggers)
2. Instead Of Triggers

(i) After Triggers
These triggers run after an insert, update or delete on a table. They are not supported for views.
AFTER TRIGGERS can be classified further into three types as:

AFTER INSERT Trigger
AFTER UPDATE Trigger
AFTER DELETE Trigger

Let’s create After triggers. First of all, let’s create a table and insert some sample data. Then, on this table, I will be attaching several triggers.

Let’s create After triggers. First of all, let’s create a table and insert some sample data. Then, on this table, I will be attaching several triggers.

CREATE TABLE Employee_Test
(
Emp_ID INT Identity,
Emp_name Varchar(100),
Emp_Sal Decimal (10,2)
)

INSERT INTO Employee_Test VALUES ('Anees',1000);
INSERT INTO Employee_Test VALUES ('Rick',1200);
INSERT INTO Employee_Test VALUES ('John',1100);
INSERT INTO Employee_Test VALUES ('Stephen',1300);
INSERT INTO Employee_Test VALUES ('Maria',1400);

I will be creating an AFTER INSERT TRIGGER which will insert the rows inserted into the table into another audit table. The main purpose of this audit table is to record the changes in the main table. This can be thought of as a generic audit trigger.

Now, create the audit table as:

CREATE TABLE Employee_Test_Audit
(
Emp_ID int,
Emp_name varchar(100),
Emp_Sal decimal (10,2),
Audit_Action varchar(100),
Audit_Timestamp datetime
)

(a) After Insert Trigger
This trigger is fired after an INSERT on the table. Let’s create the trigger as:

CREATE TRIGGER trgAfterInsert ON [dbo].[Employee_Test] 
FOR INSERT
AS
 declare @empid int;
 declare @empname varchar(100);
 declare @empsal decimal(10,2);
 declare @audit_action varchar(100);

 select @empid=i.Emp_ID from inserted i; 
 select @empname=i.Emp_Name from inserted i; 
 select @empsal=i.Emp_Sal from inserted i; 
 set @audit_action='Inserted Record -- After Insert Trigger.';

 insert into Employee_Test_Audit
           (Emp_ID,Emp_Name,Emp_Sal,Audit_Action,Audit_Timestamp) 
 values(@empid,@empname,@empsal,@audit_action,getdate());

 PRINT 'AFTER INSERT trigger fired.'
GO

The CREATE TRIGGER statement is used to create the trigger. The ON clause specifies the table name on which the trigger is to be attached. The FOR INSERT specifies that this is an AFTER INSERT trigger. In place of FOR INSERT, AFTER INSERT can be used. Both of them mean the same.

In the trigger body, table named inserted has been used. This table is a logical table and contains the row that has been inserted. I have selected the fields from the logical inserted table from the row that has been inserted into different variables, and finally inserted those values into the Audit table.
To see the newly created trigger in action, let's insert a row into the main table as:

insert into Employee_Test values('Chris',1500);

Now, a record has been inserted into the Employee_Test table. The AFTER INSERT trigger attached to this table has inserted the record into the Employee_Test_Audit as:

Reference: https://www.codeproject.com/