## 45.6. PL/Perl Triggers

 PL/Perl can be used to write trigger functions. In a trigger function, the hash reference `$_TD` contains information about the current trigger event. `$_TD` is a global variable, which gets a separate local value for each invocation of the trigger. The fields of the `$_TD` hash reference are:

`$_TD->{new}{foo}`

`NEW` value of column `foo`

`$_TD->{old}{foo}`

`OLD` value of column `foo`

`$_TD->{name}`

 Name of the trigger being called

`$_TD->{event}`

 Trigger event: `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, `DELETE`, `TRUNCATE`, or `UNKNOWN`

`$_TD->{when}`

 When the trigger was called: `BEFORE`, `AFTER`, `INSTEAD OF`, or `UNKNOWN`

`$_TD->{level}`

 The trigger level: `ROW`, `STATEMENT`, or `UNKNOWN`

`$_TD->{relid}`

 OID of the table on which the trigger fired

`$_TD->{table_name}`

 Name of the table on which the trigger fired

`$_TD->{relname}`

 Name of the table on which the trigger fired. This has been deprecated, and could be removed in a future release. Please use $\_TD-\>{table\_name} instead.

`$_TD->{table_schema}`

 Name of the schema in which the table on which the trigger fired, is

`$_TD->{argc}`

 Number of arguments of the trigger function

`@{$_TD->{args}}`

 Arguments of the trigger function. Does not exist if `$_TD->{argc}` is 0.

 Row-level triggers can return one of the following:

`return;`

 Execute the operation

`"SKIP"`

 Don't execute the operation

`"MODIFY"`

 Indicates that the `NEW` row was modified by the trigger function

 Here is an example of a trigger function, illustrating some of the above:

```
CREATE TABLE test (
    i int,
    v varchar
);

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION valid_id() RETURNS trigger AS $$
    if (($_TD->{new}{i} >= 100) || ($_TD->{new}{i} <= 0)) {
        return "SKIP";    # skip INSERT/UPDATE command
    } elsif ($_TD->{new}{v} ne "immortal") {
        $_TD->{new}{v} .= "(modified by trigger)";
        return "MODIFY";  # modify row and execute INSERT/UPDATE command
    } else {
        return;           # execute INSERT/UPDATE command
    }
$$ LANGUAGE plperl;

CREATE TRIGGER test_valid_id_trig
    BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON test
    FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE FUNCTION valid_id();

```

