refint

refint : functions for implementing referential integrity (obsolete)

Overview

ID	Extension	Package	Version	Category	License	Language
4880	refint	refint	`1.0`	FUNC	PostgreSQL	C

Attribute	Has Binary	Has Library	Need Load	Has DDL	Relocatable	Trusted
--s-d--	No	Yes	No	Yes	no	no

Relationships
See Also	pg_idkit pgx_ulid pg_uuidv7 permuteseq pg_hashids sequential_uuids topn quantile

Packages

PG18	PG17	PG16	PG15	PG14
1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0

This is a built-in contrib extension ship with the PostgreSQL kernel

Install

Create this extension with:

CREATE EXTENSION refint;

Usage

refint: referential integrity trigger functions

Provides trigger functions for implementing referential integrity checks (largely superseded by built-in foreign key constraints).

CREATE EXTENSION refint;

Trigger Functions

Function	Description
`check_primary_key()`	Check referencing table – ensures referenced row exists
`check_foreign_key()`	Check referenced table – handles cascading actions on delete/update

check_primary_key

Trigger on the referencing table (AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE). Parameters: referencing column name(s), referenced table name, referenced column name(s).

CREATE TRIGGER check_fk
  AFTER INSERT OR UPDATE ON orders
  FOR EACH ROW
  EXECUTE FUNCTION check_primary_key('customer_id', 'customers', 'id');

check_foreign_key

Trigger on the referenced table (AFTER DELETE OR UPDATE). Parameters: number of referencing tables, action (cascade, restrict, or setnull), primary key column(s), then referencing table and column pairs.

CREATE TRIGGER check_ref
  AFTER DELETE OR UPDATE ON customers
  FOR EACH ROW
  EXECUTE FUNCTION check_foreign_key(1, 'cascade', 'id', 'orders', 'customer_id');

Last updated on 2026-03-12

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