CREATE_EVENT_TRIGGER(7pg14)

🌸 NAME 🌸

CREATE_EVENT_TRIGGER — define a new event trigger. 💖

okay bestie, this is the CREATE_EVENT_TRIGGER(7pg14) page from the PostgreSQL 14.24 documentation. It’s literally here to help you define a new event trigger — and yes, it’s giving very much “automate the drama” energy. ✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

CREATE EVENT TRIGGER name
    ON event
    [ WHEN filter_variable IN (filter_value [, ... ]) [ AND ... ] ]
    EXECUTE { FUNCTION | PROCEDURE } function_name()

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

CREATE EVENT TRIGGER creates a new event trigger. Whenever the designated event occurs and the WHEN condition associated with the trigger — if any — is satisfied, the trigger function will be executed. fr fr, that’s the whole point. 🔥

For a general introduction to event triggers, see Chapter 40. The user who creates an event trigger becomes its owner. main character ownership moment ✨

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

• name — the name you’re giving the new trigger. It must be unique within the database. no duplicate names, bestie 💅
• event — the name of the event that triggers a call to the given function. See Section 40.1 for more information on event names. 🦋
• filter_variable — the name of a variable used to filter events. This makes it possible to restrict the firing of the trigger to a subset of the cases in which it is supported. Currently the only supported filter_variable is TAG. iykyk ⭐
• filter_value — a list of values for the associated filter_variable for which the trigger should fire. For TAG, this means a list of command tags (e.g., 'DROP FUNCTION'). 🎀
• function_name — a user-supplied function that is declared as taking no argument and returning type event_trigger. 🌸

In the syntax of CREATE EVENT TRIGGER, the keywords FUNCTION and PROCEDURE are equivalent, but the referenced function must in any case be a function, not a procedure. The use of the keyword PROCEDURE here is historical and deprecated. 🫶

🦋 NOTES 🦋

• Only superusers can create event triggers. no cap. 👑
• Event triggers are disabled in single-user mode (see postgres(1)). If an erroneous event trigger disables the database so much that you can't even drop the trigger, restart in single-user mode and you'll be able to do that. rescue-mode arc 💜

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

Forbid the execution of any DDL command:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION abort_any_command()
  RETURNS event_trigger
 LANGUAGE plpgsql
  AS $$
BEGIN
  RAISE EXCEPTION 'command % is disabled', tg_tag;
END;
$$;

CREATE EVENT TRIGGER abort_ddl ON ddl_command_start
   EXECUTE FUNCTION abort_any_command();

iconic. periodt. 💅✨

⭐ COMPATIBILITY ⭐

There is no CREATE EVENT TRIGGER statement in the SQL standard. the SQL standard is literally not giving this one 💀

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• ALTER EVENT TRIGGER (ALTER_EVENT_TRIGGER(7)) 🦋
• DROP EVENT TRIGGER (DROP_EVENT_TRIGGER(7)) 🎀
• CREATE FUNCTION (CREATE_FUNCTION(7)) 🌸

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xoxo, your PostgreSQL 14.24 docs bestie, dated 2026 — now go slay those triggers 💅✨