Pavel Stehule schrieb am 05.08.2019 um 08:19: >>> I have seen some hacks suggesting TRY/CATCH or converting to a JSON >>> and checking if the field exists, but I would think that there's a >>> better way to check if the field is in the NEW record, no? > >> I assume using to_jsonb(new) and then check for the key in the json value >> will be faster than checking e.g. information_schema.column >> or pg_catalog.pg_attribute > > Alternative solution can be using other language than PLpgSQL - > PLPythonu or PLPerl (there it is simple task). This language is not > designed for too dynamic code. PLpgSQL triggers are designed for > stable schema - you should to know if table has email column or not. > > Catching errors in PLpgSQL is relative expensive solution due related > savepoint overhead in background. Yes, exception handling (or a catalog lookup) is expensive. That's why I suggested that using to_jsonb() has the least overhead. The check is then as simple as: if (to_jsonb(new) ? 'email') then ... do something end if; Thomas