Re: DEFAULT Constraint based on table type?

On Mon, 2005-11-28 at 14:22 -0600, Announce wrote:
> Lets say I have the following tables.
>
> CREATE TABLE animals(id primary key, name varchar, type varchar);
> CREATE TABLE dogs (breed varchar) INHERITS (animals);
> CREATE TABLE birds (bool hasFeathers) INHERITS (animals);
>
> Is there a way I can specify a default on the child table that will populate
> the 'type' column? For example, if I am inserting a row in table DOGS, I
> would always want the default value for column TYPE to be 'DOG'. If I am
> inserting into BIRDS.... type 'BIRD'.
>
> I know that I could add individual triggers on each table that set the TYPE
> field to a default value on insert but I wanted a more simple solution like
> setting a DEFAULT table-constraint.
>
> Also, In java, this could be done on a parent object by overriding a
> constructor or method, using the Class object or instanceof. Is there
> anyway for a table to "know" it's "class" in this scenario?

SELECT tableoid::regproc, * from animals;

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Oliver Elphick olly(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk
Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
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