Re: Why is MySQL more chosen over PostgreSQL?

From: Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Curt Sampson <cjs(at)cynic(dot)net>
Cc: Christopher Kings-Lynne <chriskl(at)familyhealth(dot)com(dot)au>, Hannu Krosing <hannu(at)tm(dot)ee>, Hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Why is MySQL more chosen over PostgreSQL?
Date: 2002-07-31 03:11:14
Message-ID: 200207310311.g6V3BEG23450@candle.pha.pa.us
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Curt Sampson wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Jul 2002, Christopher Kings-Lynne wrote:
>
> > > I highly doubt that. Relating two tables to each other via a key, and
> > > joining them together, allows you to do everything that inheritance
> > > allows you to do, but also more. If you have difficulty with keys and
> > > joins, well, you really probably want to stop and fix that problem
> > > before you do more work on a relational database....
> >
> > I'm still not convinced of this. For example, my friend has a hardware
> > e-store and every different class of hardware has different properties. ie
> > modems have baud and network cards have speed and video cards have ram. He
> > simply just has a 'products' table from which he extends
> > 'networkcard_products', etc. with the additional fields. Easy.
>
> And what's the problem with networkcard_products being a separate table
> that shares a key with the products table?
>
> CREATE TABLE products (product_id int, ...)
> CREATE TABLE networkcard_products_data (product_id int, ...)
> CREATE VIEW networkcard_products AS
> SELECT products.product_id, ...
> FROM products
> JOINT networkcard_products_data USING (product_id)
>
> What functionality does table inheritance offer that this traditional
> relational method of doing things doesn't?

You can add children without modifying your code. It is classic C++
inheritance; parent table accesses work with the new child tables
automatically.

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us | (610) 853-3000
+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue
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