On 24/07/07, Louis-David Mitterrand <vindex+lists-pgsql-sql@apartia.org> wrote: On Tue, Jul 24, 2007 at 03:10:44PM +0100, Gregory Stark wrote:
> "Louis-David Mitterrand" <vindex+lists-pgsql-sql@apartia.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.
