Trigger to fire only if a condition is met in SQL Server

Question

I hope this is a simple enough question for any SQL people out there...

We have a table which hold system configuration data, and this is tied to a history table via

Answer 1

Your where clause should have worked. I am at a loss as to why it didn't. Let me show you how I would have figured out the problem with the where clause as it might help you for the future.

When I create triggers, I start at the query window by creating a temp table called #inserted (and or #deleted) with all the columns of the table. Then I popultae it with typical values (Always multiple records and I try to hit the test cases in the values)

Then I write my triggers logic and I can test without it actually being in a trigger. In a case like your where clause not doing what was expected, I could easily test by commenting out the insert to see what the select was returning. I would then probably be easily able to see what the problem was. I assure you that where clasues do work in triggers if they are written correctly.

Once I know that the code works properly for all the cases, I global replace #inserted with inserted and add the create trigger code around it and voila, a tested trigger.

AS I said in a comment, I have a concern that the solution you picked will not work properly in a multiple record insert or update. Triggers should always be written to account for that as you cannot predict if and when they will happen (and they do happen eventually to pretty much every table.)