How to issue a DML with WHERE clause comparing a value which is trigger generated in table?

Question

Suppose I have a table with CREATE,

CREATE TABLE TEST (
    year int,
    month int, 
    date int, 
    hr int, 
    min int, 
    sec int, 
    timestamp timestamp,
    value double
);

CREATE FUNCTION timestamp_insert() RETURNS trigger
LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS $$

    DECLARE datestr TEXT ;
    DECLARE timestr TEXT ;
    begin
        datestr :=  new.year || '-' || new.month || '-' || new.date || ' ' ||  new.hour || ':' || new.min || ':' || new.sec;+ 
        new.timestamp := datestr :: TIMESTAMP                                                                      
        return new;
    end;
$$
CREATE TRIGGER timestamp_insert BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON TEST FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE timestamp_insert();

Now I want to update a certain row based on the timestamp currently on the table and that from a new set of data. Something like,

UPDATE TEST SET value = ? WHERE timestamp < "generated timestamp from a new set of (year, month, date, ...)"

Is it possible to do something like this in SQL or do I need to programmatically genrate the timestamp and then simply pass that value in SQL?

Answer 1

There is a function named make_timestamp() that you can use for this. It also makes your trigger function a lot shorter:

CREATE FUNCTION timestamp_insert() 
  RETURNS trigger
  LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS 
$$
begin
    new.timestamp := make_timestamp(new.year, new.month, new.date, new.hour, new.min, new.sec);
    return new;
end;
$$

The same function can be used in the UPDATE as well

UPDATE TEST 
   SET value = ? 
WHERE timestamp < make_timestamp(year, month, date, hour, min, sec);

---

If you are using Postgres 12, you don't need the trigger as it now supports generated/calculated columns:

CREATE TABLE TEST 
(
  year int,
  month int, 
  date int, 
  hr int, 
  min int, 
  sec int, 
  ts timestamp generated always as (make_timestamp(year, month, date, hr, min, sec)) stored,
  value double precision
);