PLSQL :NEW and :OLD

Question

Can anyone help me understand when to use :NEW and :OLD in PLSQL blocks, I\'m finding it very difficult to understand their usage.

Answer 1

:old and :new are pseudorecords referred to access row level data when using row level trigger.

• :old - refers to Old Value
• :new - refers to New value

For Below operation, respective old and new values:

1. INSERT- :old.value= NULL, :new value= post insert value
2. DELETE- :old.value= Pre Delete value, :new value= null
3. UPDATE- :old.value= Pre update value, :new value= Post Update value

Eg:

CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER get_dept
  BEFORE DELETE OR INSERT OR UPDATE ON employees
  FOR EACH ROW
BEGIN
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT('Old Dept= ' || :OLD.dept|| ', ');
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT('New Dept= ' || :NEW.dept );
END;

Triggering Statement:

UPDATE employees
SET dept ='Accounts'
WHERE empno IN (101 ,105);