Comparison of AFTER and INSTEAD OF triggers.

Function AFTER trigger INSTEAD OF trigger
Applicability Tables Tables and views
Quantity per table or view Multiple per triggering action (UPDATE, DELETE, and INSERT) One per triggering action (UPDATE, DELETE, and INSERT)
Cascading references No restrictions apply Are not allowed on tables that are targets of cascaded referential integrity constraints.
Execution After:
  • Constraint processing
  • Declarative referential actions
  • inserted and deleted tables creation
  • The triggering action
Before:
  • Constraint processing

In place of:

  • The triggering action

After:

  • inserted and deleted tables creation
Order of execution First and last execution may be specified Not applicable
text, ntext, and image column references in inserted and deleted tables Not allowed Allowed
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