Inheritance in Postgresql ?

[ABBAS SHAKEEL <shakeel.abbas.qau@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello

I am not an expert for database but rarely design database for Web and IVR applications.

Today I wonder if there is any practical advantage of inheritance of Tables.

Lets take the same example that is commonly referred.

CREATE TABLE cities (
    name            text,
    population      float,
    altitude        int     -- in feet
);

CREATE TABLE capitals (
    state           char(2)
) INHERITS (cities);

Capital table inherit attributes from Cities but no data. I am confused with concept of inheritance in postgres.

In These tables what i was supposing is inheritence as that in JAVA. but its seems to be  a different scene.

Can some one Please compare inheritence in JAVA and Postgresql OR make me clear about for what inheritance is introduced in Postgres.

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Best Regards
Shakeel Abbas