Re: searching multiple tables

[Richard Broersma Jr <rabroersma(at)yahoo(dot)com>]

> I want to search many tables for certain data. The tables all have 
> exactly the same columns. In searching the archives, I noticed that the 
> exact table name seemed to be required for the select ... from .. 
> command, but we are talking about 20,000 tables or more. Specifiying 
> each table would be extremely inconvenient. And we may want to search 
> all the tables. Some of the columns are time, latitude and longitude.  
> We want to be able to search on time and/or lat and lon. Time will be 
> unique, but the lats and lons may repeat. Based on these search 
> criteria, we will pull out other data (columns) from the table(s).
> 
> I have been reading the documentation manuals for postgresql 7.4 and 
> browsing the archives, but have not found an answer to this question. 
> Can anyone help me?

I am not sure if your tables partations were created using inheritance.  But if they were, you
would only have to "select * from parenttable;" and it would pull all of the data from all of its
children.  While this would work,  I would expect that the query would run slow.  Or at least as
fast as a series on UNION All to combine all table data.

Regards,

Richard