SQLAlchemy, using the same model with multiple tables

Question

I have data for a particular entity partitioned across multiple identical tables, often separated chronologically or by numeric range. For instance, I may have a table called mytable for current data, a mytable_2013 for last year's data, mytable_2012, and so on.

Only the current table is ever written to. The others are only consulted. With SQLAlchemy, is there any way I can specify the table to query from when using the declarative model?

Answer 1

Use mixins and change table names by an object property.

class Node(Base):
  __tablename__ = 'node'
  nid = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
  uuid = Column(String(128))
  vid = Column(Integer)

class Node1(Node):
  __tablename__ = 'node_1'

class Node2(Node):
  __tablename__ = 'node_2'

Answer 2

As requested, re-posting as answer:

Please take a look at this answer to Mapping lots of similar tables in SQLAlchemy in the Concrete Table Inheritance section.
In your case you can query MyTable only when working with the current data, and do a polymorphic search on all tables when you need the whole history.