Re: BUG #19064: Trigger allows creation with invalid column references but fails at runtime

Anthony Sotolongo <asotolongo@gmail.com>

From: Anthony Sotolongo <asotolongo@gmail.com>
To: Rahila Syed <rahilasyed90@gmail.com>
Cc: ketan.bhatiya@lenditt.com, pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
Date: 2025-09-26T13:35:50Z
Lists: pgsql-bugs
From my point of view, this extension can help detect these types of
problems:

https://github.com/okbob/plpgsql_check

Regards

El vie, 26 sept 2025 a las 10:00, Rahila Syed (<rahilasyed90@gmail.com>)
escribió:

> Hi
>
>
>
>> Suggestion / Proposed Improvement
>> PostgreSQL should validate column references at trigger creation time, not
>> just at runtime.
>> If a column does not exist in the target table (Orders in this example),
>> trigger creation should fail immediately with a clear error message.
>>
>>
> This behaviour is by design in PostgreSQL. The CreateTrigger() is
> responsible
> for creating a dependency between trigger and its underlying pl/pgsql
> function.
> The pl/pgsql function is only parsed when it is executed for the first
> time.
>
> This approach allows for flexibility, such as adding columns to a table
> after a trigger
> has been created. On the other hand, if a column existing at the time of
> trigger creation
> is later removed, validating at creation time would not offer much
> advantage in these
> situations.
>
> Thank you,
> Rahila Syed
>