The answer is that the referential integrity constraint doesn't span across subclasses. So your foreign key is valid
onlyfor the root class that it directly references and not its children.
cheers,
thalis
ps check list archives, same question answered last week
On Sun, 24 Jun 2001, Micah Yoder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I [think I] found a bug, and tried to send a report to pgsql-bugs and it
> never showed up there.
>
> The *very brief* version:
>
> I have a hierarchy of tables using Postgres's inheritance feature. In the
> root table I have a serial type which is a primary key. Another table (not
> in the hierarchy) has a foreign key to the primary key of the top table in
> the hierarchy.
>
> When I insert a record with a foreign key that references an object in a
> descendent table, I get a referential integrity error. But when it
> references an item that is simply a member of the top class, no problem - the
> foreign key works then.
>
> If I select * from the top class, both records show up, along with their id
> primary key. So why can't a foreign key refer to the one that is a member of
> a subclass?
>
> I'm using 7.1.2
>
> Thanks,
> Micah
>
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> Micah Yoder Internet Development http://yoderdev.com
>
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