update record and return old values

[chiprivers]

I am writing a function to update an existing record and I want to be able to return the values from the updated record prior to the update.

 

ie.

 

A record in table 'employee' has values id = 1, first_name = 'Joe' and last_name = 'Bloggs'

 

The function is passed employee id 1 and new name Tom Cobley so the function will update record 1 with the respective name entries.  Easy enough!

 

However, I want the function to be able to return the old name, Joe Bloggs.

 

Can this be done with a single query which updates the record with the specified values but also returns the old values at the same time or do I have to first query for the values of record 1 and then run a second update query?

[The Little Guy]

No, you need to select it first, and put the results into an array, then update it to the new value and then have the function return the array.

[fenway]

I suppose you could do some magic with triggers and user variables, but why?