Re: Returning NEW in an on-delete trigger

[Jeff Davis <pgsql@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2008-09-18 at 15:04 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> This does seem like a bit of a gotcha for someone who writes RETURN NEW
> instead of RETURN OLD or vice versa, but I'm not sure how much we can do
> about that.  Lots of people like to write triggers that fire on multiple
> event types, so we couldn't throw a syntax error for such a reference.
> A runtime error for a use of the variable might be possible, but a quick
> look at the code doesn't make it look easy.
> 

Here's a doc patch that may clear up some of the confusion.

Regards,
	Jeff Davis

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml
index 9b2e2e9..bdc16db 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml
@@ -3036,7 +3036,8 @@ RAISE unique_violation USING MESSAGE = 'Duplicate user ID: ' || user_id;
       <para>
        Data type <type>RECORD</type>; variable holding the new
        database row for <command>INSERT</>/<command>UPDATE</> operations in row-level
-       triggers. This variable is <symbol>NULL</symbol> in statement-level triggers.
+       triggers. This variable is <symbol>NULL</symbol> in statement-level triggers
+       and for <command>DELETE</command> operations.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>
@@ -3047,7 +3048,8 @@ RAISE unique_violation USING MESSAGE = 'Duplicate user ID: ' || user_id;
       <para>
        Data type <type>RECORD</type>; variable holding the old
        database row for <command>UPDATE</>/<command>DELETE</> operations in row-level
-       triggers. This variable is <symbol>NULL</symbol> in statement-level triggers.
+       triggers. This variable is <symbol>NULL</symbol> in statement-level triggers
+       and for <command>INSERT</command> operations.
       </para>
      </listitem>
     </varlistentry>