Is there a way to avoid duplicating the definition of a foreign key?

I was wondering about this example

CREATE TABLE cities (
        city     varchar(80) primary key,
        location point
);

CREATE TABLE weather (
        city      varchar(80) references cities(city),
        temp_lo   int,
        temp_hi   int,
        prcp      real,
        date      date
);

The definition of city as varchar(80) is duplicated here. Is there a PostgreSQL syntax that allows not to duplicate varchar(80), only basing itself on references cities(city) so as to create the weather table?

There is no way to do that. And, frankly, I don't see the need.

Remember that referenced and referencing column don't have to share the same data type. They just have to have an = operator defined between them.

If your aim is to shorten the syntax, you could omit the column (or column list) of the referenced column(s) if it's the PK:

CREATE TABLE weather (
    city      text references cities,
    temp_lo   int,
    ...

Data type in the example is compatible but not the same (textvs. varchar(80)), referenced column is assumed to be the primary key of the table cities.

I quote the manual on CREATE TABLE:


If refcolumn is omitted, the primary key of the reftable is used

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#33624, answer score: 6