Update trigger to ensure matching values in other table Oracle SQL Developer - oracle

Question

I am trying to come up with a way to make sure that when a table is updated, that a certain condition is met. Can this be done in a trigger? I have made the following two tables, storeTable and employeeTable.
I need to make sure that when storeManager is updated in the storeTable, that the employee has a storeID that matches the store in which I am trying to update the storeManager. (employee cannot be manager of a store he does not work at)
In addition, I need to make sure that the employee exists in the employeeTable. I was thinking some sort of CASE statement would be best, but dont know how this could be enforced by a trigger.
I was thinking about morphing the "Foreign Key Trigger for Child Table" trigger example from https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B12037_01/appdev.101/b10795/adfns_tr.htm#1007172 but I could not figure out how to change this to fit my specific need. Any help is much appreciated.
For context, the current keys are:
storeTable:
storeID PRIMARY KEY
employeeTable:
empID PRIMARY KEY
storeID FOREIGN KEY REFERS TO storeTable.storeID

Answer 1

To me, it seems that constraints can do the job. You don't need triggers.
Here's how. First, create tables without any constraints. Then add them, both primary and foreign key ones which will be deferrable (otherwise you wouldn't be able to insert any rows as parent keys don't exist yet).
SQL> create table employee
2 (empid number,
3 fname varchar2(10),
4 storeid number
5 );
Table created.
SQL> create table store
2 (storeid number,
3 storename varchar2(20),
4 storemanager number
5 );
Table created.
SQL>
SQL> alter table employee add constraint pk_employee primary key (empid, storeid);
Table altered.
SQL> alter table store add constraint pk_store primary key (storeid);
Table altered.
SQL>
SQL> alter table store add constraint fk_store_emp foreign key (storemanager, storeid)
2 references employee (empid, storeid)
3 deferrable initially deferred;
Table altered.
SQL> alter table employee add constraint fk_emp_store foreign key (storeid)
2 references store (storeid)
3 deferrable initially deferred;
Table altered.
SQL>
Now let's add some data: initial insert into employee will be OK until I commit - then it'll fail because its store doesn't exist yet:
SQL> insert into employee values (1, 'John' , 1);
1 row created.
SQL> commit;
commit
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02091: transaction rolled back
ORA-02291: integrity constraint (SCOTT.FK_EMP_STORE) violated - parent key not
found
SQL>
But, if I don't commit and pay attention to what I'm entering (i.e. that referential integrity is maintained), it'll be OK:
SQL> insert into employee values (1, 'John' , 1);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into employee values (2, 'Matt' , 2);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into store values (1, 'Santa Clara', 1);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into store values (2, 'San Francisco', 2); --> note 2 as STOREID
1 row created.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.
SQL> select * From employee;
EMPID FNAME STOREID
---------- ---------- ----------
1 John 1
2 Matt 2
SQL> select * From store;
STOREID STORENAME STOREMANAGER
---------- -------------------- ------------
1 Santa Clara 1
2 San Francisco 2
SQL>
See? So far so good.
Now I'll try to modify STORE table and set its manager to John who works in storeid = 1 which means that it should fail:
SQL> update store set storemanager = 1
2 where storeid = 2;
1 row updated.
SQL> commit;
commit
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02091: transaction rolled back
ORA-02291: integrity constraint (SCOTT.FK_STORE_EMP) violated - parent key not
found
SQL>
As expected.
Let's now add emplyoee ID = 6, Jimmy, who works in storeid = 2 and set him to be manager in San Francisco (storeid = 2):
SQL> insert into employee values (6, 'Jimmy', 2);
1 row created.
SQL> update store set storemanager = 6
2 where storeid = 2;
1 row updated.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.
SQL>
Yey! It works!
As you can see, no triggers needed.
Note that - if you want to drop any of those tables - you'll fail as they are referenced by each other:
SQL> drop table store;
drop table store
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02449: unique/primary keys in table referenced by foreign keys
SQL> drop table employee;
drop table employee
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-02449: unique/primary keys in table referenced by foreign keys
SQL>
It means that you'd first have to drop foreign key constraints, then drop tables:
SQL> alter table employee drop constraint fk_emp_store;
Table altered.
SQL> alter table store drop constraint fk_store_emp;
Table altered.
SQL> drop table store;
Table dropped.
SQL> drop table employee;
Table dropped.
SQL>
That's all, I guess.