Inheritance

How to Model Inheritance in a Database

Tags:

data modeling
inheritance

Ignacio is a database consultant from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He’s worked for 15 years as a database consultant for IT companies like Informix and IBM. These days, he teaches databases at Sarmiento University and works as a PostgreSQL independent SQL consultant. A proud father of four kids with 54 years in his backpack, Ignacio plays soccer every Saturday afternoon, enjoying every match as if it’s his last one.

Three ways to implement inheritance in a database using the Vertabelo data modeler. Inheritance is a common modeling technique used in modern software development. In data modeling, you can use inheritance in the logical model creation process. However, implementing inheritance in a physical database model is not straightforward; standard SQL does not provide inheritance statements for physical implementation. In this article, we will cover three basic strategies used to implement inheritance in a relational database.