Jim, How about having the trigger write the pk of the table to a new table. The backend processing could then just join the new table on the pk to the existing table to give you a proper result set. In the same transaction delete the contents of the new pk table. Not as efficient as setting a flag but relationally sound and portable. Note that this problem cries out for column triggers. I don't know if anyone has them on a to do list. Rick Jim Archer <jim@xxxxxxxxxx> To: pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent by: cc: pgsql-general-owner@pos Subject: How to know a record has been updated, then reset the flag? tgresql.org 11/18/2004 12:53 AM Please respond to Jim Archer Hi All... I'm been fighting this problem for a few days now, and it seems like it should be simple. But the solution has eluded me so far... I need to flag a record when it is updated or when it is a new insert. Then I SELECT for the changed records and do something not related to Postgres. Easy enough, I created a trigger procedure and fired it on INSERT OR UPDATE and modify NEW to set the flag field to true. But then the problem is how do I reset the trigger? If I do an UPDATE the trigger fires again. I thought I could check for the flag field being NULL and that works for an INSERT, but apparently if it is an update NEW contains the existing value of the field. I am trying to avoid modifying the cost the needs to set the flags (I can change the schema), but I have full control over the code that has to reset them. Is there a way I can update a record without firing the trigger, or by bypassing it? This is a multi-user environment, so I can't really drop the trigger and readd it. Is there a solution not related to this? I would appreciate some help, thanks very much! ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html