Thread: Context variable in application and trigger code

Context variable in application and trigger code

From
yudhi s
Date:
Hi,
We have a trigger function called from a trigger which executes before inserting rows in the table (say TAB1). This trigger function does some conversion of code to description and persists the description in the table in respective columns. We want to keep this trigger as light as possible as there will be 100's million rows inserted into this table from multiple input sources and the conversion should only happen  the inserts which happen from a specific input data stream.

There are 4-5 different input sources which will ingest data into this table (some are using file based processing framework and some are using other streaming technology). Say for example we want this description to only be fetched for input source - 1, but not others.  We don't have any such column persisted in the table which can be checked for the input data stream such as this code to describe decoding can be made conditional.  

Are there any techniques possible in which we can set some parameter or session context variable in application code level to determine the input data source, which can then be checked within the trigger function code at the very first and thus will avoid querying the "CODE" table every time the trigger executes?


Existing sample trigger code:-

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION code_to_desc( )
RETURNS trigger
LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS $function$
declare code_description code.code%TYPE;
 begin
     select currency_description_text into code_description
     from code
    where code = new.code_input;

  IF FOUND THEN NEW.code_input := code_description; 
  END IF;  

    return NEW;
 end;
$function$;

Regards
Yudhi

Re: Context variable in application and trigger code

From
Adrian Klaver
Date:
On 9/28/24 14:37, yudhi s wrote:
> Hi,
> We have a trigger function called from a trigger which executes before 
> inserting rows in the table (say TAB1). This trigger function does some 
> conversion of code to description and persists the description in the 
> table in respective columns. We want to keep this trigger as light as 
> possible as there will be 100's million rows inserted into this table 
> from multiple input sources and the conversion should only happen  the 
> inserts which happen from a specific input data stream.
> 
> There are 4-5 different input sources which will ingest data into this 
> table (some are using file based processing framework and some are using 
> other streaming technology). Say for example we want this description to 
> only be fetched for input source - 1, but not others. We don't have any 
> such column persisted in the table which can be checked for the input 
> data stream such as this code to describe decoding can be made conditional.
> 
> Are there any techniques possible in which we can set some parameter or 
> session context variable in application code level to determine the 
> input data source, which can then be checked within the trigger function 
> code at the very first and thus will avoid querying the "CODE" table 
> every time the trigger executes?

There is:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/runtime-config-logging.html#GUC-APPLICATION-NAME

Though if you have multiple inputs happening concurrently I am not sure 
how you would sort out which is supplying the data for a given trigger 
instance. Also, by this time you are basically done anyway so I don't 
see how would save enough time.

Seems to me this calls for either doing the conversion in the 
application or include a throw way field in the stream data that 
indicates it is coming from the stream or stream to an intake table and 
then convert when transferring to final table.


> 
> 
> *Existing sample trigger code:-*
> 
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION code_to_desc( )
> RETURNS trigger
> LANGUAGE plpgsql
> AS $function$
> declare code_description code.code%TYPE;
>   begin
>       select currency_description_text into code_description
>       from code
>      where code = new.code_input;
> 
>    IF FOUND THEN NEW.code_input := code_description;
> END IF;
> 
>      return NEW;
>   end;
> $function$;
> 
> Regards
> Yudhi

-- 
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com