Multiple "before insert" triggers on a table?

First, the platform information: Server is Win2k, database is Oracle 8i (8.1.7). (Shouldn't we all begin our questions like this?) :)

I'm wondering about the real-world (non theoretical!) impact of multiple
"before" triggers on a table. All I can find on the 'net is that multiple
before/after update/insert triggers aren't a good idea, since you can't specify what order they execute in. But what if order doesn't matter?

I have a "before insert" trigger on a table that brings in the next sequence value, and saves it to a field in the table, as a "confirmation number". I'd like to add a second "before insert" trigger that checks to see if a value consists of a single blank character; the space (ASCII character #32). If the space exists, I'd like to set the column to null. The order of these triggers doesn't really matter, as long as they fire. I already have an
"after" trigger, which manipulates another table (upon a successful insert),
so I can't change that after trigger at all.

Is this a good idea or not? I'd rather not alter the original "before" trigger, since it's in production already. I can alter my query, but the original problem still exists- I'd have to alter "future" queries, too. To change the actual SQL insert of the values, I'd have to dive back into my DLL code (Visual C++ 6.0, OLE DB, ATL, COM)- and then this change could affect the whole DLL! But, if creating multiple "before" triggers is very bad in terms of design and performance and accuracy, I might have to go into the DLL.

Thanks for any/all ideas/opinions!!

-Thomas Received on Tue Apr 22 2003 - 11:34:47 CDT