Hi all, I have a quick question...
In function definitions one can dereference the type of some
relation's column using the %TYPE syntax. This is a very useful
feature that helps prevent type mismatch problems in databases that
are frequently changing (for example in a scientific environment
where tables are being added often, and the re-use of an already
defined function is then simple).
It would also be useful to have the same functionality in the CREATE
TABLE statement, in particular when defining a FOREIGN KEY
constraint. For example, something along these lines:
CREATE TABLE foo (attribute_1 other_table.attribute_pk%TYPE
REFERENCES other_table.attribute_pk);
or the even simpler:
CREATE TABLE foo (attribute_1 REFERENCES other_table.attribute_pk);
However, this doesn't seem possible. Now, under the assumption that
many people have encountered this in the past, I'm curious about the
different solutions/workarounds most have employed successfully.
Thanks for any insight on this,
Murat
