Re: Duplicate Key Values

>Postgresql does not assume / default to inheritance. In text-mode clients where you type >in "raw" SQL, you have to explicitly add an explicit "INHERITS <parent_table>" clause to the >"CREATE TABLE foo" statement.

>Are you creating the tables via PgAdmin point-and-click?

I am using PgAdmin 4 v9.1.

I think the problem may also be related to the fact that I had node_id and node_type were in both tables from an earlier design and Postgres would not let me delete node_type from the dataset table.

As an experiment, I created a simple version of the same tables from scratch without node_type in the dataset table. So far, no dups are appearing.

Best regards,
Mark Brady
amazon.com/author/markjbrady<https://amazon.com/author/markjbrady>
________________________________
From: Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr(at)gmail(dot)com>
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2025 11:05 AM
To: pgsql-general <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Duplicate Key Values

Postgresql does not assume / default to inheritance. In text-mode clients where you type in "raw" SQL, you have to explicitly add an explicit "INHERITS <parent_table>" clause to the "CREATE TABLE foo" statement.

Are you creating the tables via PgAdmin point-and-click?

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025 at 10:56 AM mark bradley <markbradyju(at)outlook(dot)com<mailto:markbradyju(at)outlook(dot)com>> wrote:
>Mark, to illustrate:

>create table node (node_id integer primary key, fld1 varchar);
>create table node_1 (node_id integer primary key, node_1_fld boolean)
>inherits ( node);
>NOTICE: merging column "node_id" with inherited definition

>insert into node values (1, 'dog');
>insert into node_1 values (1, 'cat', 'f');

>select * from node;
> node_id | fld1
>---------+------
> 1 | dog
> 1 | cat

That would make sense except that I never explicitly use the inherits option in the node_1 (my dataset) table. Postgres seems to be assuming that.

Also, the second column in node and in dataset are two different columns. However, Postgres insists on the node_type attribute being included (last column) in table dataset and won't let me delete it. This is redundant because every dataset is a dataset type of node.

[cid:ii_19590066a3fcb971f162]
[cid:ii_19590066a3fcb971f163]
...
[cid:ii_19590066a3fcb971f164]
The reason for the current design is that I also have a dataflow table as shown below.

A dataflow record describes the flow of data between two nodes. Now, if there are 3 types of node: dataset, processing, and user, then there are 9 types of dataflow. Hence, 9 tables are needed to represent the dataflows instead of 1. In the below, source_id and destination_id are both node_ids. If I want to know if a node is a dataset, processing node, or a user, I just look that up in the nodes table.

[cid:ii_19590066a3ecb971f161]

So, I think the crux of the problem is that Postgres assumes that inheritance is declared when it is not.

More answers to your questions coming.

Best regards,
Mark Brady
amazon.com/author/markjbrady<https://amazon.com/author/markjbrady>

________________________________
From: Adrian Klaver <adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com<mailto:adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com>>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2025 12:01 PM
To: mark bradley <markbradyju(at)outlook(dot)com<mailto:markbradyju(at)outlook(dot)com>>
Cc: pgsql-general <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org<mailto:pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>>
Subject: Re: Duplicate Key Values

On 3/12/25 08:46, Adrian Klaver wrote:
> On 3/11/25 13:24, Adrian Klaver wrote:
>> On 3/11/25 12:55, mark bradley wrote:
>>> It happened again. Now there are no sequences (although there once
>>> was).
>>
>> Read my previous post and provide the information requested.
>>
>
> Mark sent me the below, which answers some of the questions, namely
> there is inheritance going on:

Mark, to illustrate:

create table node (node_id integer primary key, fld1 varchar);
create table node_1 (node_id integer primary key, node_1_fld boolean)
inherits ( node);
NOTICE: merging column "node_id" with inherited definition

insert into node values (1, 'dog');
insert into node_1 values (1, 'cat', 'f');

select * from node;
node_id | fld1
---------+------
1 | dog
1 | cat

This is explained here:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-createtable.html

INHERITS ( parent_table [, ... ] )

"... , and by default the data of the child table is included in scans
of the parent(s)."

This explains why you see duplicates of node_id.

Though if you try to enter a duplicate value in to a particular table
you get:

insert into node_1 values (1, 'test', 't');
ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique constraint "node_1_pkey"
DETAIL: Key (node_id)=(1) already exists.

This still does not explain why REINDEX TABLE node; caused data to
disappear?

> > Did you ever run VALIDATE CONSTRAINT against them?
> Here is the run

As error notes VALIDATE CONSTRAINT only works on FK and check
constraints. You would need to run against the FK constraints that where
marked NOT VALID e.g "dataset" on the dataset table.

Honestly, I think you need rework your data model. Not sure what the
inheritance is getting you. Seems simpler to just have the node table
not be inherited and just use FK relationships back to it.

>
> Universal Metadata Schema=# ALTER TABLE node VALID
> ATE CONSTRAINT node_id;
> ERROR: constraint "node_id" of relation "node" is
> not a foreign key or check constraint
> Universal Metadata Schema=#
>
> Universal Metadata Schema=# ALTER TABLE dataset VA
> LIDATE CONSTRAINT node_id;
> ALTER TABLE
> Universal Metadata Schema=#
>
>
>
>
>

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com<mailto:adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com>

--
Death to <Redacted>, and butter sauce.
Don't boil me, I'm still alive.
<Redacted> lobster!