Re: is there a 'table' data type in pg?

On 24/07/07, Louis-David Mitterrand <vindex+lists-pgsql-sql(at)apartia(dot)org>
wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2007 at 03:10:44PM +0100, Gregory Stark wrote:
> > "Louis-David Mitterrand" <vindex+lists-pgsql-sql(at)apartia(dot)org> writes:
> >
> > > Can I use a another column to store the type of the id_subject (ie:
> the
> > > tabled it belongs to) ? Then I would be able to query that table for
> > > additional info to print alongside the forum posts.
> >
> > There are ways to identifier tables in Postgres but there's no way to
> run a
> > query against a table using them.
>
> Bummer, I suspected as much.
>
> > I would strongly recommend you define your own list of "object_types",
> > probably even have an object_type table with a primary key, a
> description
> > column, and a table_name column. Then you can in your application
> construct
> > the appropriate query depending on the object_type.
>
> Good fallback solution.
>
> > One alternative you could do is have a set-returning plpgsql function
> which
> > has a big if statement and performs the right kind of query. I think the
> > records would have to all be the same -- they can't be different kinds
> of
> > records depending on the type of object.
>
> Will look at that one, always willing to dig deeper into pg's more
> complex ways :)
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 6: explain analyze is your friend
>

The words table partitioning spring to mind.

you could build a view of all the sub tables and then select by
tablename='whatever'

You may also want to look into inheritance....

Only some ideas

Peter.