Intermediate states as a source of non-deterministic behavior in triggers

When processing triggers, it is important to realize that intermediate states of the database are potential sources of non-deterministic behavior. This is because different intermediate states may be encountered, depending on the particular order in which database items are processed. However, completely ignoring intermediate states would be a mistake, due to the inherent procedural nature of triggers. We examine some of these considerations in the context of the ANSI/ISO draft specifications for SQL3, and suggest methods that deal with these problems