Editing PostgreSQL (section)

=== Inheritance ===
Tables can be set to inherit their characteristics from a ''parent'' table. Data in child tables will appear to exist in the parent tables, unless data is selected from the parent table using the ONLY keyword, i.e. {{code|lang="sql" | SELECT * FROM ONLY parent_table;}}. Adding a column in the parent table will cause that column to appear in the child table.

Inheritance can be used to implement table partitioning, using either triggers or rules to direct inserts to the parent table into the proper child tables.

This feature is not fully supported. In particular, table constraints are not currently inheritable. All check constraints and not-null constraints on a parent table are automatically inherited by its children. Other types of constraints (unique, primary key, and foreign key constraints) are not inherited.

Inheritance provides a way to map the features of generalization hierarchies depicted in [[entity–relationship model|entity–relationship diagrams]] (ERDs) directly into the PostgreSQL database.