Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Unleashed, Second Edition

AFTER Triggers

An AFTER trigger is the original mechanism that SQL Server created to provide an automated response to data modifications. Prior to the release of SQL Server 2000, the AFTER trigger was the only type of trigger, and the word AFTER was rarely used in its name. Any trigger written for prior versions of SQL Server or documentation referring to these triggers is for AFTER triggers.

SQL Server 2000 has a new type of trigger called an INSTEAD OF trigger. This trigger will be discussed in a later section in this chapter (see the later section titled “INSTEAD OF Triggers”). The introduction of this new trigger and the inclusion of the word AFTER in the name of the old trigger has helped accentuate the behavior of the AFTER trigger—namely ...