Re: Arrays and foreign keys

Don Baccus <dhogaza@pacifier.com>

From: Don Baccus <dhogaza@pacifier.com>
To: Chris Bitmead <chrisb@nimrod.itg.telstra.com.au>, Stephan Szabo <sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com>
Cc: "Timothy H. Keitt" <keitt@nceas.ucsb.edu>, Kaare Rasmussen <kar@webline.dk>, pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Date: 2000-08-10T01:03:17Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
At 10:57 AM 8/10/00 +1000, Chris Bitmead wrote:
>Stephan Szabo wrote:
>> > This is an interesting point. Originally postgres integrity rules were
>> > based on a very general rules system where many things were possible to
>> > specify. I'm curious about the more recent addition of referential
>> > integrity to postgres (I know little about it), why it is such a
>> > specific solution and is not based on the more general postgres rules
>> > system?
>> 
>> Because unfortunately the SQL spec for referential integrity cannot really
>> be implemented in the current rules system (or at least not in a way that
>> is terribly nice). 
>
>So it wasn't feasible to extend the current rules system to support
>these oddities, instead of implementing the specific solution?

Since Jan apparently knows more about the current rules system than anyone
else on the planet (he's done a lot of work in that area in the past), and
since he designed the RI system, my guess is that the simple answer to your
question is "yes".



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza@pacifier.com>
  Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
  Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
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