Introduction

Now Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is integrated with Microsoft .NET Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR), so we can use any .NET Framework language to create database objects. The CLR provides the execution environment for all the server side objects that are created using a .NET language. This means the database developers can now perform tasks that were impossible or difficult to achieve with T-SQL alone. Especially when working with large amounts of server code, developers can easily organize and maintain their code investments.

This article covers different types of triggers supported by Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with basic ideas about them with an example. It then describes the step-by-step approach to create a CLR trigger (a DML type).

What is Trigger?

A trigger is a Database object just like a stored procedure or we can say it is a special kind of Stored procedure which fires after (/before) a specified language event executes. More specifically, it is for the object which is attached to a Table or View or Database schemas for tracking the operations on them. The main difference between a trigger and a stored procedure is that the former is attached to a table or view and is fired only when an INSERT, UPDATE, and/or DELETE occurs, while a stored procedure executes at any time when it is called. 

Types of Triggers

There are some added types in SQL Server 2005 for triggering actions:

1.    DML Triggers