Propose: enum with all registered table names? - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Dmitry Koterov
Subject Propose: enum with all registered table names?
Date
Msg-id d7df81620811200852r1c9c011bn7d25d28b9796408@mail.gmail.com
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Responses Re: Propose: enum with all registered table names?
Re: Propose: enum with all registered table names?
List pgsql-general
Hello.

Sometimes I want to save in a table reference to another table's name.
E.g. I am creating an accounting system which (on triggers) logs which record is changed and in which table:

CREATE TABLE log(
  tbl XXX,
  id INTEGER,
  blahblah
);

Nowadays XXX may be:
1) Table name. But it is quite inefficient by disk usage. Another bad thing: if I rename a table, I have to rename all rows in log table.
2) Table OID. It is very bad for pg_dump: after the restoration log table will be unusable.
3) ENUM with all table names. But I have to add an element to ENUM each time I create a new table, and, if I rename a table, I have to rename an ENUM element too.

So it would be very useful if Postgres has a special, system ENUM (e.g. pg_catalog.table_names_enum) which holds names of all tables in the database (format: schema.table), and their elements are automatically renamed when a table is renamed.

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