PostgreSQL 12.

0 Documentation

The PostgreSQL Global Development Group

PostgreSQL 12.0 Documentation
The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Copyright © 1996-2019 The PostgreSQL Global Development Group

Legal Notice
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Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................................................... xxxi
1. What Is PostgreSQL? ..................................................................................... xxxi
2. A Brief History of PostgreSQL ........................................................................ xxxi
2.1. The Berkeley POSTGRES Project ......................................................... xxxii
2.2. Postgres95 ........................................................................................ xxxii
2.3. PostgreSQL ...................................................................................... xxxiii
3. Conventions ................................................................................................ xxxiii
4. Further Information ...................................................................................... xxxiii
5. Bug Reporting Guidelines ............................................................................. xxxiv
5.1. Identifying Bugs ............................................................................... xxxiv
5.2. What to Report .................................................................................. xxxv
5.3. Where to Report Bugs ....................................................................... xxxvi
I. Tutorial .................................................................................................................... 1
1. Getting Started .................................................................................................. 3
1.1. Installation ............................................................................................. 3
1.2. Architectural Fundamentals ....................................................................... 3
1.3. Creating a Database ................................................................................. 3
1.4. Accessing a Database .............................................................................. 5
2. The SQL Language ............................................................................................ 7
2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 7
2.2. Concepts ................................................................................................ 7
2.3. Creating a New Table .............................................................................. 7
2.4. Populating a Table With Rows .................................................................. 8
2.5. Querying a Table .................................................................................... 9
2.6. Joins Between Tables ............................................................................. 11
2.7. Aggregate Functions .............................................................................. 13
2.8. Updates ............................................................................................... 15
2.9. Deletions .............................................................................................. 15
3. Advanced Features ........................................................................................... 16
3.1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 16
3.2. Views .................................................................................................. 16
3.3. Foreign Keys ........................................................................................ 16
3.4. Transactions ......................................................................................... 17
3.5. Window Functions ................................................................................. 19
3.6. Inheritance ........................................................................................... 22
3.7. Conclusion ........................................................................................... 23
II. The SQL Language ................................................................................................. 24
4. SQL Syntax .................................................................................................... 32
4.1. Lexical Structure ................................................................................... 32
4.2. Value Expressions ................................................................................. 41
4.3. Calling Functions .................................................................................. 55
5. Data Definition ................................................................................................ 58
5.1. Table Basics ......................................................................................... 58
5.2. Default Values ...................................................................................... 59
5.3. Generated Columns ................................................................................ 60
5.4. Constraints ........................................................................................... 61
5.5. System Columns ................................................................................... 69
5.6. Modifying Tables .................................................................................. 69
5.7. Privileges ............................................................................................. 72
5.8. Row Security Policies ............................................................................ 77
5.9. Schemas ............................................................................................... 83
5.10. Inheritance .......................................................................................... 87
5.11. Table Partitioning ................................................................................ 91
5.12. Foreign Data ..................................................................................... 104
5.13. Other Database Objects ....................................................................... 104

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5.14. Dependency Tracking ......................................................................... 105

6. Data Manipulation .......................................................................................... 107
6.1. Inserting Data ..................................................................................... 107
6.2. Updating Data ..................................................................................... 108
6.3. Deleting Data ...................................................................................... 109
6.4. Returning Data From Modified Rows ...................................................... 109
7. Queries ......................................................................................................... 111
7.1. Overview ............................................................................................ 111
7.2. Table Expressions ................................................................................ 111
7.3. Select Lists ......................................................................................... 126
7.4. Combining Queries .............................................................................. 128
7.5. Sorting Rows ...................................................................................... 128
7.6. LIMIT and OFFSET ............................................................................ 129
7.7. VALUES Lists ..................................................................................... 130
7.8. WITH Queries (Common Table Expressions) ............................................ 131
8. Data Types .................................................................................................... 138
8.1. Numeric Types .................................................................................... 139
8.2. Monetary Types ................................................................................... 144
8.3. Character Types ................................................................................... 145
8.4. Binary Data Types ............................................................................... 147
8.5. Date/Time Types ................................................................................. 149
8.6. Boolean Type ...................................................................................... 158
8.7. Enumerated Types ............................................................................... 159
8.8. Geometric Types ................................................................................. 161
8.9. Network Address Types ........................................................................ 163
8.10. Bit String Types ................................................................................ 166
8.11. Text Search Types .............................................................................. 167
8.12. UUID Type ....................................................................................... 169
8.13. XML Type ........................................................................................ 170
8.14. JSON Types ...................................................................................... 172
8.15. Arrays .............................................................................................. 181
8.16. Composite Types ............................................................................... 190
8.17. Range Types ..................................................................................... 197
8.18. Domain Types ................................................................................... 203
8.19. Object Identifier Types ....................................................................... 203
8.20. pg_lsn Type ...................................................................................... 205
8.21. Pseudo-Types .................................................................................... 205
9. Functions and Operators .................................................................................. 207
9.1. Logical Operators ................................................................................ 207
9.2. Comparison Functions and Operators ...................................................... 207
9.3. Mathematical Functions and Operators .................................................... 210
9.4. String Functions and Operators .............................................................. 214
9.5. Binary String Functions and Operators .................................................... 228
9.6. Bit String Functions and Operators ......................................................... 230
9.7. Pattern Matching ................................................................................. 231
9.8. Data Type Formatting Functions ............................................................. 248
9.9. Date/Time Functions and Operators ........................................................ 255
9.10. Enum Support Functions ..................................................................... 269
9.11. Geometric Functions and Operators ....................................................... 269
9.12. Network Address Functions and Operators .............................................. 273
9.13. Text Search Functions and Operators ..................................................... 276
9.14. XML Functions ................................................................................. 282
9.15. JSON Functions and Operators ............................................................. 296
9.16. Sequence Manipulation Functions ......................................................... 312
9.17. Conditional Expressions ...................................................................... 315
9.18. Array Functions and Operators ............................................................. 318
9.19. Range Functions and Operators ............................................................ 321
9.20. Aggregate Functions ........................................................................... 323

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9.21. Window Functions ............................................................................. 330

9.22. Subquery Expressions ......................................................................... 332
9.23. Row and Array Comparisons ............................................................... 335
9.24. Set Returning Functions ...................................................................... 338
9.25. System Information Functions and Operators .......................................... 341
9.26. System Administration Functions .......................................................... 358
9.27. Trigger Functions ............................................................................... 377
9.28. Event Trigger Functions ...................................................................... 378
9.29. Statistics Information Functions ............................................................ 381
10. Type Conversion .......................................................................................... 382
10.1. Overview .......................................................................................... 382
10.2. Operators .......................................................................................... 383
10.3. Functions .......................................................................................... 387
10.4. Value Storage .................................................................................... 391
10.5. UNION, CASE, and Related Constructs .................................................. 391
10.6. SELECT Output Columns .................................................................... 393
11. Indexes ....................................................................................................... 394
11.1. Introduction ....................................................................................... 394
11.2. Index Types ...................................................................................... 395
11.3. Multicolumn Indexes .......................................................................... 397
11.4. Indexes and ORDER BY ..................................................................... 398
11.5. Combining Multiple Indexes ................................................................ 399
11.6. Unique Indexes .................................................................................. 399
11.7. Indexes on Expressions ....................................................................... 400
11.8. Partial Indexes ................................................................................... 400
11.9. Index-Only Scans and Covering Indexes ................................................ 403
11.10. Operator Classes and Operator Families ................................................ 405
11.11. Indexes and Collations ...................................................................... 407
11.12. Examining Index Usage ..................................................................... 407
12. Full Text Search ........................................................................................... 409
12.1. Introduction ....................................................................................... 409
12.2. Tables and Indexes ............................................................................. 413
12.3. Controlling Text Search ...................................................................... 415
12.4. Additional Features ............................................................................ 422
12.5. Parsers ............................................................................................. 427
12.6. Dictionaries ....................................................................................... 429
12.7. Configuration Example ....................................................................... 439
12.8. Testing and Debugging Text Search ...................................................... 440
12.9. GIN and GiST Index Types ................................................................. 445
12.10. psql Support .................................................................................... 445
12.11. Limitations ...................................................................................... 449
13. Concurrency Control ..................................................................................... 450
13.1. Introduction ....................................................................................... 450
13.2. Transaction Isolation ........................................................................... 450
13.3. Explicit Locking ................................................................................ 456
13.4. Data Consistency Checks at the Application Level ................................... 461
13.5. Caveats ............................................................................................. 463
13.6. Locking and Indexes ........................................................................... 463
14. Performance Tips ......................................................................................... 465
14.1. Using EXPLAIN ................................................................................ 465
14.2. Statistics Used by the Planner .............................................................. 476
14.3. Controlling the Planner with Explicit JOIN Clauses ................................. 481
14.4. Populating a Database ......................................................................... 483
14.5. Non-Durable Settings .......................................................................... 486
15. Parallel Query .............................................................................................. 487
15.1. How Parallel Query Works .................................................................. 487
15.2. When Can Parallel Query Be Used? ...................................................... 488
15.3. Parallel Plans ..................................................................................... 489

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15.4. Parallel Safety ................................................................................... 491

III. Server Administration ............................................................................................ 493
16. Installation from Source Code ......................................................................... 499
16.1. Short Version .................................................................................... 499
16.2. Requirements ..................................................................................... 499
16.3. Getting the Source .............................................................................. 501
16.4. Installation Procedure .......................................................................... 501
16.5. Post-Installation Setup ......................................................................... 513
16.6. Supported Platforms ........................................................................... 514
16.7. Platform-Specific Notes ....................................................................... 515
17. Installation from Source Code on Windows ....................................................... 520
17.1. Building with Visual C++ or the Microsoft Windows SDK ........................ 520
18. Server Setup and Operation ............................................................................ 525
18.1. The PostgreSQL User Account ............................................................. 525
18.2. Creating a Database Cluster ................................................................. 525
18.3. Starting the Database Server ................................................................ 527
18.4. Managing Kernel Resources ................................................................. 531
18.5. Shutting Down the Server .................................................................... 540
18.6. Upgrading a PostgreSQL Cluster .......................................................... 541
18.7. Preventing Server Spoofing .................................................................. 543
18.8. Encryption Options ............................................................................. 544
18.9. Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSL .................................................... 545
18.10. Secure TCP/IP Connections with GSSAPI Encryption ............................. 549
18.11. Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSH Tunnels ...................................... 549
18.12. Registering Event Log on Windows ..................................................... 550
19. Server Configuration ..................................................................................... 552
19.1. Setting Parameters .............................................................................. 552
19.2. File Locations .................................................................................... 556
19.3. Connections and Authentication ............................................................ 557
19.4. Resource Consumption ........................................................................ 563
19.5. Write Ahead Log ............................................................................... 569
19.6. Replication ........................................................................................ 578
19.7. Query Planning .................................................................................. 584
19.8. Error Reporting and Logging ............................................................... 591
19.9. Run-time Statistics ............................................................................. 601
19.10. Automatic Vacuuming ....................................................................... 602
19.11. Client Connection Defaults ................................................................. 604
19.12. Lock Management ............................................................................ 613
19.13. Version and Platform Compatibility ..................................................... 614
19.14. Error Handling ................................................................................. 616
19.15. Preset Options .................................................................................. 616
19.16. Customized Options .......................................................................... 618
19.17. Developer Options ............................................................................ 618
19.18. Short Options ................................................................................... 621
20. Client Authentication ..................................................................................... 623
20.1. The pg_hba.conf File ..................................................................... 623
20.2. User Name Maps ............................................................................... 631
20.3. Authentication Methods ....................................................................... 632
20.4. Trust Authentication ........................................................................... 632
20.5. Password Authentication ..................................................................... 633
20.6. GSSAPI Authentication ....................................................................... 634
20.7. SSPI Authentication ............................................................................ 635
20.8. Ident Authentication ........................................................................... 636
20.9. Peer Authentication ............................................................................ 637
20.10. LDAP Authentication ........................................................................ 637
20.11. RADIUS Authentication .................................................................... 640
20.12. Certificate Authentication ................................................................... 641
20.13. PAM Authentication ......................................................................... 641

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20.14. BSD Authentication .......................................................................... 642

20.15. Authentication Problems .................................................................... 642
21. Database Roles ............................................................................................. 643
21.1. Database Roles .................................................................................. 643
21.2. Role Attributes .................................................................................. 644
21.3. Role Membership ............................................................................... 645
21.4. Dropping Roles .................................................................................. 647
21.5. Default Roles .................................................................................... 647
21.6. Function Security ............................................................................... 648
22. Managing Databases ..................................................................................... 650
22.1. Overview .......................................................................................... 650
22.2. Creating a Database ............................................................................ 650
22.3. Template Databases ............................................................................ 651
22.4. Database Configuration ....................................................................... 652
22.5. Destroying a Database ........................................................................ 653
22.6. Tablespaces ....................................................................................... 653
23. Localization ................................................................................................. 656
23.1. Locale Support .................................................................................. 656
23.2. Collation Support ............................................................................... 658
23.3. Character Set Support ......................................................................... 664
24. Routine Database Maintenance Tasks ............................................................... 671
24.1. Routine Vacuuming ............................................................................ 671
24.2. Routine Reindexing ............................................................................ 679
24.3. Log File Maintenance ......................................................................... 679
25. Backup and Restore ...................................................................................... 681
25.1. SQL Dump ....................................................................................... 681
25.2. File System Level Backup ................................................................... 684
25.3. Continuous Archiving and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR) ........................ 685
26. High Availability, Load Balancing, and Replication ............................................ 697
26.1. Comparison of Different Solutions ........................................................ 697
26.2. Log-Shipping Standby Servers .............................................................. 700
26.3. Failover ............................................................................................ 709
26.4. Alternative Method for Log Shipping .................................................... 710
26.5. Hot Standby ...................................................................................... 711
27. Monitoring Database Activity ......................................................................... 719
27.1. Standard Unix Tools ........................................................................... 719
27.2. The Statistics Collector ....................................................................... 720
27.3. Viewing Locks .................................................................................. 752
27.4. Progress Reporting ............................................................................. 753
27.5. Dynamic Tracing ............................................................................... 758
28. Monitoring Disk Usage .................................................................................. 768
28.1. Determining Disk Usage ..................................................................... 768
28.2. Disk Full Failure ................................................................................ 769
29. Reliability and the Write-Ahead Log ................................................................ 770
29.1. Reliability ......................................................................................... 770
29.2. Write-Ahead Logging (WAL) ............................................................... 772
29.3. Asynchronous Commit ........................................................................ 772
29.4. WAL Configuration ............................................................................ 773
29.5. WAL Internals ................................................................................... 776
30. Logical Replication ....................................................................................... 778
30.1. Publication ........................................................................................ 778
30.2. Subscription ...................................................................................... 779
30.3. Conflicts ........................................................................................... 780
30.4. Restrictions ....................................................................................... 780
30.5. Architecture ...................................................................................... 781
30.6. Monitoring ........................................................................................ 782
30.7. Security ............................................................................................ 782
30.8. Configuration Settings ......................................................................... 782

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30.9. Quick Setup ...................................................................................... 782

31. Just-in-Time Compilation (JIT) ....................................................................... 784
31.1. What Is JIT compilation? .................................................................... 784
31.2. When to JIT? .................................................................................... 784
31.3. Configuration .................................................................................... 786
31.4. Extensibility ...................................................................................... 786
32. Regression Tests ........................................................................................... 787
32.1. Running the Tests .............................................................................. 787
32.2. Test Evaluation .................................................................................. 791
32.3. Variant Comparison Files .................................................................... 793
32.4. TAP Tests ......................................................................................... 794
32.5. Test Coverage Examination ................................................................. 794
IV. Client Interfaces ................................................................................................... 796
33. libpq - C Library .......................................................................................... 801
33.1. Database Connection Control Functions ................................................. 801
33.2. Connection Status Functions ................................................................ 815
33.3. Command Execution Functions ............................................................. 821
33.4. Asynchronous Command Processing ...................................................... 837
33.5. Retrieving Query Results Row-by-Row .................................................. 841
33.6. Canceling Queries in Progress .............................................................. 841
33.7. The Fast-Path Interface ....................................................................... 842
33.8. Asynchronous Notification ................................................................... 843
33.9. Functions Associated with the COPY Command ....................................... 844
33.10. Control Functions ............................................................................. 849
33.11. Miscellaneous Functions .................................................................... 850
33.12. Notice Processing ............................................................................. 854
33.13. Event System ................................................................................... 855
33.14. Environment Variables ...................................................................... 861
33.15. The Password File ............................................................................ 863
33.16. The Connection Service File ............................................................... 863
33.17. LDAP Lookup of Connection Parameters .............................................. 864
33.18. SSL Support .................................................................................... 865
33.19. Behavior in Threaded Programs .......................................................... 868
33.20. Building libpq Programs .................................................................... 869
33.21. Example Programs ............................................................................ 870
34. Large Objects .............................................................................................. 882
34.1. Introduction ....................................................................................... 882
34.2. Implementation Features ...................................................................... 882
34.3. Client Interfaces ................................................................................. 882
34.4. Server-Side Functions ......................................................................... 886
34.5. Example Program ............................................................................... 888
35. ECPG - Embedded SQL in C ......................................................................... 894
35.1. The Concept ...................................................................................... 894
35.2. Managing Database Connections ........................................................... 894
35.3. Running SQL Commands .................................................................... 897
35.4. Using Host Variables .......................................................................... 900
35.5. Dynamic SQL ................................................................................... 914
35.6. pgtypes Library .................................................................................. 916
35.7. Using Descriptor Areas ....................................................................... 930
35.8. Error Handling ................................................................................... 943
35.9. Preprocessor Directives ....................................................................... 950
35.10. Processing Embedded SQL Programs ................................................... 952
35.11. Library Functions ............................................................................. 953
35.12. Large Objects .................................................................................. 954
35.13. C++ Applications ............................................................................. 955
35.14. Embedded SQL Commands ................................................................ 959
35.15. Informix Compatibility Mode ............................................................. 983
35.16. Internals .......................................................................................... 998

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36. The Information Schema .............................................................................. 1001

36.1. The Schema ..................................................................................... 1001
36.2. Data Types ...................................................................................... 1001
36.3. information_schema_catalog_name ........................................ 1002
36.4. administrable_role_authorizations .................................... 1002
36.5. applicable_roles ..................................................................... 1002
36.6. attributes ................................................................................. 1003
36.7. character_sets ......................................................................... 1006
36.8. check_constraint_routine_usage .......................................... 1007
36.9. check_constraints ................................................................... 1007
36.10. collations ................................................................................ 1008
36.11. collation_character_set_applicability .......................... 1008
36.12. column_column_usage .............................................................. 1009
36.13. column_domain_usage .............................................................. 1009
36.14. column_options ........................................................................ 1009
36.15. column_privileges .................................................................. 1010
36.16. column_udt_usage .................................................................... 1010
36.17. columns ...................................................................................... 1011
36.18. constraint_column_usage ...................................................... 1015
36.19. constraint_table_usage ........................................................ 1016
36.20. data_type_privileges ............................................................ 1016
36.21. domain_constraints ................................................................ 1017
36.22. domain_udt_usage .................................................................... 1018
36.23. domains ...................................................................................... 1018
36.24. element_types .......................................................................... 1021
36.25. enabled_roles .......................................................................... 1023
36.26. foreign_data_wrapper_options ............................................ 1023
36.27. foreign_data_wrappers .......................................................... 1024
36.28. foreign_server_options ........................................................ 1024
36.29. foreign_servers ...................................................................... 1024
36.30. foreign_table_options .......................................................... 1025
36.31. foreign_tables ........................................................................ 1025
36.32. key_column_usage .................................................................... 1026
36.33. parameters ................................................................................ 1026
36.34. referential_constraints ...................................................... 1029
36.35. role_column_grants ................................................................ 1029
36.36. role_routine_grants .............................................................. 1030
36.37. role_table_grants .................................................................. 1031
36.38. role_udt_grants ...................................................................... 1031
36.39. role_usage_grants .................................................................. 1032
36.40. routine_privileges ................................................................ 1033
36.41. routines .................................................................................... 1033
36.42. schemata .................................................................................... 1038
36.43. sequences .................................................................................. 1039
36.44. sql_features ............................................................................ 1040
36.45. sql_implementation_info ...................................................... 1040
36.46. sql_languages .......................................................................... 1041
36.47. sql_packages ............................................................................ 1041
36.48. sql_parts .................................................................................. 1042
36.49. sql_sizing ................................................................................ 1042
36.50. sql_sizing_profiles .............................................................. 1043
36.51. table_constraints .................................................................. 1043
36.52. table_privileges .................................................................... 1044
36.53. tables ........................................................................................ 1045
36.54. transforms ................................................................................ 1045
36.55. triggered_update_columns .................................................... 1046
36.56. triggers .................................................................................... 1047
36.57. udt_privileges ........................................................................ 1048

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36.58. usage_privileges .................................................................... 1049

36.59. user_defined_types ................................................................ 1049
36.60. user_mapping_options ............................................................ 1051
36.61. user_mappings .......................................................................... 1052
36.62. view_column_usage .................................................................. 1052
36.63. view_routine_usage ................................................................ 1053
36.64. view_table_usage .................................................................... 1053
36.65. views .......................................................................................... 1054
V. Server Programming ............................................................................................. 1055
37. Extending SQL ........................................................................................... 1060
37.1. How Extensibility Works ................................................................... 1060
37.2. The PostgreSQL Type System ............................................................ 1060
37.3. User-Defined Functions ..................................................................... 1062
37.4. User-Defined Procedures ................................................................... 1062
37.5. Query Language (SQL) Functions ....................................................... 1062
37.6. Function Overloading ........................................................................ 1078
37.7. Function Volatility Categories ............................................................. 1079
37.8. Procedural Language Functions ........................................................... 1081
37.9. Internal Functions ............................................................................. 1081
37.10. C-Language Functions ..................................................................... 1081
37.11. Function Optimization Information .................................................... 1102
37.12. User-Defined Aggregates ................................................................. 1103
37.13. User-Defined Types ........................................................................ 1110
37.14. User-Defined Operators ................................................................... 1114
37.15. Operator Optimization Information .................................................... 1115
37.16. Interfacing Extensions to Indexes ....................................................... 1119
37.17. Packaging Related Objects into an Extension ....................................... 1132
37.18. Extension Building Infrastructure ....................................................... 1139
38. Triggers ..................................................................................................... 1143
38.1. Overview of Trigger Behavior ............................................................ 1143
38.2. Visibility of Data Changes ................................................................. 1146
38.3. Writing Trigger Functions in C ........................................................... 1146
38.4. A Complete Trigger Example ............................................................. 1149
39. Event Triggers ............................................................................................ 1153
39.1. Overview of Event Trigger Behavior .................................................... 1153
39.2. Event Trigger Firing Matrix ............................................................... 1154
39.3. Writing Event Trigger Functions in C .................................................. 1159
39.4. A Complete Event Trigger Example .................................................... 1160
39.5. A Table Rewrite Event Trigger Example .............................................. 1161
40. The Rule System ........................................................................................ 1163
40.1. The Query Tree ................................................................................ 1163
40.2. Views and the Rule System ................................................................ 1164
40.3. Materialized Views ........................................................................... 1171
40.4. Rules on INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE ........................................... 1174
40.5. Rules and Privileges .......................................................................... 1185
40.6. Rules and Command Status ................................................................ 1187
40.7. Rules Versus Triggers ....................................................................... 1187
41. Procedural Languages .................................................................................. 1190
41.1. Installing Procedural Languages .......................................................... 1190
42. PL/pgSQL - SQL Procedural Language .......................................................... 1193
42.1. Overview ........................................................................................ 1193
42.2. Structure of PL/pgSQL ...................................................................... 1194
42.3. Declarations ..................................................................................... 1196
42.4. Expressions ..................................................................................... 1201
42.5. Basic Statements .............................................................................. 1202
42.6. Control Structures ............................................................................. 1209
42.7. Cursors ........................................................................................... 1224
42.8. Transaction Management ................................................................... 1230

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42.9. Errors and Messages ......................................................................... 1231

42.10. Trigger Functions ............................................................................ 1233
42.11. PL/pgSQL under the Hood ............................................................... 1242
42.12. Tips for Developing in PL/pgSQL ..................................................... 1245
42.13. Porting from Oracle PL/SQL ............................................................ 1249
43. PL/Tcl - Tcl Procedural Language ................................................................. 1259
43.1. Overview ........................................................................................ 1259
43.2. PL/Tcl Functions and Arguments ........................................................ 1259
43.3. Data Values in PL/Tcl ....................................................................... 1261
43.4. Global Data in PL/Tcl ....................................................................... 1261
43.5. Database Access from PL/Tcl ............................................................. 1262
43.6. Trigger Functions in PL/Tcl ............................................................... 1264
43.7. Event Trigger Functions in PL/Tcl ....................................................... 1266
43.8. Error Handling in PL/Tcl ................................................................... 1266
43.9. Explicit Subtransactions in PL/Tcl ....................................................... 1267
43.10. Transaction Management .................................................................. 1268
43.11. PL/Tcl Configuration ....................................................................... 1269
43.12. Tcl Procedure Names ...................................................................... 1269
44. PL/Perl - Perl Procedural Language ................................................................ 1270
44.1. PL/Perl Functions and Arguments ....................................................... 1270
44.2. Data Values in PL/Perl ...................................................................... 1274
44.3. Built-in Functions ............................................................................. 1274
44.4. Global Values in PL/Perl ................................................................... 1279
44.5. Trusted and Untrusted PL/Perl ............................................................ 1280
44.6. PL/Perl Triggers ............................................................................... 1281
44.7. PL/Perl Event Triggers ...................................................................... 1283
44.8. PL/Perl Under the Hood .................................................................... 1283
45. PL/Python - Python Procedural Language ........................................................ 1286
45.1. Python 2 vs. Python 3 ....................................................................... 1286
45.2. PL/Python Functions ......................................................................... 1287
45.3. Data Values ..................................................................................... 1288
45.4. Sharing Data .................................................................................... 1294
45.5. Anonymous Code Blocks ................................................................... 1294
45.6. Trigger Functions ............................................................................. 1294
45.7. Database Access ............................................................................... 1295
45.8. Explicit Subtransactions ..................................................................... 1299
45.9. Transaction Management ................................................................... 1300
45.10. Utility Functions ............................................................................. 1301
45.11. Environment Variables ..................................................................... 1302
46. Server Programming Interface ....................................................................... 1304
46.1. Interface Functions ........................................................................... 1304
46.2. Interface Support Functions ................................................................ 1338
46.3. Memory Management ....................................................................... 1347
46.4. Transaction Management ................................................................... 1357
46.5. Visibility of Data Changes ................................................................. 1360
46.6. Examples ........................................................................................ 1360
47. Background Worker Processes ...................................................................... 1364
48. Logical Decoding ........................................................................................ 1367
48.1. Logical Decoding Examples ............................................................... 1367
48.2. Logical Decoding Concepts ................................................................ 1369
48.3. Streaming Replication Protocol Interface .............................................. 1371
48.4. Logical Decoding SQL Interface ......................................................... 1371
48.5. System Catalogs Related to Logical Decoding ....................................... 1371
48.6. Logical Decoding Output Plugins ........................................................ 1371
48.7. Logical Decoding Output Writers ........................................................ 1376
48.8. Synchronous Replication Support for Logical Decoding ........................... 1376
49. Replication Progress Tracking ....................................................................... 1377
VI. Reference .......................................................................................................... 1378

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I. SQL Commands ............................................................................................ 1383

ABORT .................................................................................................. 1387
ALTER AGGREGATE ............................................................................. 1388
ALTER COLLATION .............................................................................. 1390
ALTER CONVERSION ............................................................................ 1392
ALTER DATABASE ................................................................................ 1394
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES .............................................................. 1397
ALTER DOMAIN .................................................................................... 1400
ALTER EVENT TRIGGER ....................................................................... 1404
ALTER EXTENSION ............................................................................... 1405
ALTER FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER ........................................................ 1409
ALTER FOREIGN TABLE ....................................................................... 1411
ALTER FUNCTION ................................................................................. 1416
ALTER GROUP ...................................................................................... 1420
ALTER INDEX ....................................................................................... 1422
ALTER LANGUAGE ............................................................................... 1425
ALTER LARGE OBJECT ......................................................................... 1426
ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW ............................................................... 1427
ALTER OPERATOR ................................................................................ 1429
ALTER OPERATOR CLASS .................................................................... 1431
ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY .................................................................. 1432
ALTER POLICY ..................................................................................... 1436
ALTER PROCEDURE .............................................................................. 1438
ALTER PUBLICATION ........................................................................... 1441
ALTER ROLE ......................................................................................... 1443
ALTER ROUTINE ................................................................................... 1447
ALTER RULE ......................................................................................... 1449
ALTER SCHEMA ................................................................................... 1450
ALTER SEQUENCE ................................................................................ 1451
ALTER SERVER ..................................................................................... 1454
ALTER STATISTICS ............................................................................... 1456
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION .......................................................................... 1457
ALTER SYSTEM .................................................................................... 1459
ALTER TABLE ....................................................................................... 1461
ALTER TABLESPACE ............................................................................ 1477
ALTER TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION .............................................. 1479
ALTER TEXT SEARCH DICTIONARY ..................................................... 1481
ALTER TEXT SEARCH PARSER ............................................................. 1483
ALTER TEXT SEARCH TEMPLATE ........................................................ 1484
ALTER TRIGGER ................................................................................... 1485
ALTER TYPE ......................................................................................... 1487
ALTER USER ......................................................................................... 1491
ALTER USER MAPPING ......................................................................... 1492
ALTER VIEW ......................................................................................... 1493
ANALYZE .............................................................................................. 1495
BEGIN ................................................................................................... 1498
CALL ..................................................................................................... 1500
CHECKPOINT ........................................................................................ 1501
CLOSE ................................................................................................... 1502
CLUSTER .............................................................................................. 1503
COMMENT ............................................................................................ 1505
COMMIT ................................................................................................ 1510
COMMIT PREPARED ............................................................................. 1511
COPY .................................................................................................... 1512
CREATE ACCESS METHOD ................................................................... 1522
CREATE AGGREGATE ........................................................................... 1523
CREATE CAST ....................................................................................... 1531
CREATE COLLATION ............................................................................ 1535

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CREATE CONVERSION .......................................................................... 1538

CREATE DATABASE ............................................................................. 1540
CREATE DOMAIN ................................................................................. 1543
CREATE EVENT TRIGGER ..................................................................... 1546
CREATE EXTENSION ............................................................................ 1548
CREATE FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER ...................................................... 1550
CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ..................................................................... 1552
CREATE FUNCTION .............................................................................. 1556
CREATE GROUP .................................................................................... 1564
CREATE INDEX ..................................................................................... 1565
CREATE LANGUAGE ............................................................................. 1573
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW ............................................................. 1576
CREATE OPERATOR .............................................................................. 1578
CREATE OPERATOR CLASS .................................................................. 1581
CREATE OPERATOR FAMILY ................................................................ 1584
CREATE POLICY ................................................................................... 1585
CREATE PROCEDURE ........................................................................... 1591
CREATE PUBLICATION ......................................................................... 1594
CREATE ROLE ...................................................................................... 1596
CREATE RULE ...................................................................................... 1601
CREATE SCHEMA ................................................................................. 1604
CREATE SEQUENCE .............................................................................. 1607
CREATE SERVER .................................................................................. 1611
CREATE STATISTICS ............................................................................. 1613
CREATE SUBSCRIPTION ....................................................................... 1616
CREATE TABLE .................................................................................... 1619
CREATE TABLE AS ............................................................................... 1640
CREATE TABLESPACE .......................................................................... 1643
CREATE TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION ............................................ 1645
CREATE TEXT SEARCH DICTIONARY ................................................... 1646
CREATE TEXT SEARCH PARSER ........................................................... 1648
CREATE TEXT SEARCH TEMPLATE ...................................................... 1650
CREATE TRANSFORM ........................................................................... 1651
CREATE TRIGGER ................................................................................. 1653
CREATE TYPE ....................................................................................... 1660
CREATE USER ....................................................................................... 1669
CREATE USER MAPPING ....................................................................... 1670
CREATE VIEW ...................................................................................... 1672
DEALLOCATE ....................................................................................... 1677
DECLARE .............................................................................................. 1678
DELETE ................................................................................................. 1681
DISCARD ............................................................................................... 1684
DO ........................................................................................................ 1685
DROP ACCESS METHOD ....................................................................... 1687
DROP AGGREGATE ............................................................................... 1688
DROP CAST ........................................................................................... 1690
DROP COLLATION ................................................................................ 1691
DROP CONVERSION .............................................................................. 1692
DROP DATABASE ................................................................................. 1693
DROP DOMAIN ...................................................................................... 1694
DROP EVENT TRIGGER ......................................................................... 1695
DROP EXTENSION ................................................................................. 1696
DROP FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER .......................................................... 1697
DROP FOREIGN TABLE ......................................................................... 1698
DROP FUNCTION .................................................................................. 1699
DROP GROUP ........................................................................................ 1701
DROP INDEX ......................................................................................... 1702
DROP LANGUAGE ................................................................................. 1704

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DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW ................................................................. 1705

DROP OPERATOR .................................................................................. 1706
DROP OPERATOR CLASS ...................................................................... 1708
DROP OPERATOR FAMILY .................................................................... 1710
DROP OWNED ....................................................................................... 1712
DROP POLICY ....................................................................................... 1713
DROP PROCEDURE ............................................................................... 1714
DROP PUBLICATION ............................................................................. 1716
DROP ROLE .......................................................................................... 1717
DROP ROUTINE ..................................................................................... 1718
DROP RULE .......................................................................................... 1719
DROP SCHEMA ..................................................................................... 1720
DROP SEQUENCE .................................................................................. 1721
DROP SERVER ...................................................................................... 1722
DROP STATISTICS ................................................................................. 1723
DROP SUBSCRIPTION ............................................................................ 1724
DROP TABLE ........................................................................................ 1726
DROP TABLESPACE .............................................................................. 1727
DROP TEXT SEARCH CONFIGURATION ................................................ 1728
DROP TEXT SEARCH DICTIONARY ....................................................... 1729
DROP TEXT SEARCH PARSER ............................................................... 1730
DROP TEXT SEARCH TEMPLATE .......................................................... 1731
DROP TRANSFORM ............................................................................... 1732
DROP TRIGGER ..................................................................................... 1733
DROP TYPE ........................................................................................... 1734
DROP USER ........................................................................................... 1735
DROP USER MAPPING ........................................................................... 1736
DROP VIEW .......................................................................................... 1737
END ...................................................................................................... 1738
EXECUTE .............................................................................................. 1739
EXPLAIN ............................................................................................... 1740
FETCH ................................................................................................... 1745
GRANT .................................................................................................. 1749
IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA .................................................................. 1754
INSERT .................................................................................................. 1756
LISTEN .................................................................................................. 1763
LOAD .................................................................................................... 1765
LOCK .................................................................................................... 1766
MOVE ................................................................................................... 1769
NOTIFY ................................................................................................. 1771
PREPARE ............................................................................................... 1774
PREPARE TRANSACTION ...................................................................... 1777
REASSIGN OWNED ............................................................................... 1779
REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW ........................................................... 1780
REINDEX ............................................................................................... 1782
RELEASE SAVEPOINT ........................................................................... 1786
RESET ................................................................................................... 1788
REVOKE ................................................................................................ 1789
ROLLBACK ........................................................................................... 1793
ROLLBACK PREPARED ......................................................................... 1794
ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT .................................................................. 1795
SAVEPOINT ........................................................................................... 1797
SECURITY LABEL ................................................................................. 1799
SELECT ................................................................................................. 1802
SELECT INTO ........................................................................................ 1823
SET ....................................................................................................... 1825
SET CONSTRAINTS ............................................................................... 1828
SET ROLE ............................................................................................. 1829

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SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION ............................................................ 1831

SET TRANSACTION ............................................................................... 1833
SHOW ................................................................................................... 1836
START TRANSACTION .......................................................................... 1838
TRUNCATE ........................................................................................... 1839
UNLISTEN ............................................................................................. 1841
UPDATE ................................................................................................ 1843
VACUUM .............................................................................................. 1848
VALUES ................................................................................................ 1852
II. PostgreSQL Client Applications ..................................................................... 1855
clusterdb ................................................................................................. 1856
createdb .................................................................................................. 1859
createuser ................................................................................................ 1862
dropdb .................................................................................................... 1866
dropuser .................................................................................................. 1869
ecpg ....................................................................................................... 1872
pg_basebackup ......................................................................................... 1874
pgbench .................................................................................................. 1881
pg_config ................................................................................................ 1897
pg_dump ................................................................................................. 1900
pg_dumpall ............................................................................................. 1913
pg_isready ............................................................................................... 1920
pg_receivewal .......................................................................................... 1922
pg_recvlogical ......................................................................................... 1926
pg_restore ............................................................................................... 1930
psql ........................................................................................................ 1939
reindexdb ................................................................................................ 1979
vacuumdb ............................................................................................... 1982
III. PostgreSQL Server Applications .................................................................... 1987
initdb ..................................................................................................... 1988
pg_archivecleanup .................................................................................... 1992
pg_checksums .......................................................................................... 1994
pg_controldata ......................................................................................... 1996
pg_ctl ..................................................................................................... 1997
pg_resetwal ............................................................................................. 2003
pg_rewind ............................................................................................... 2007
pg_test_fsync ........................................................................................... 2010
pg_test_timing ......................................................................................... 2011
pg_upgrade .............................................................................................. 2015
pg_waldump ............................................................................................ 2023
postgres .................................................................................................. 2026
postmaster ............................................................................................... 2033
VII. Internals ........................................................................................................... 2034
50. Overview of PostgreSQL Internals ................................................................. 2040
50.1. The Path of a Query ......................................................................... 2040
50.2. How Connections Are Established ....................................................... 2040
50.3. The Parser Stage .............................................................................. 2041
50.4. The PostgreSQL Rule System ............................................................. 2042
50.5. Planner/Optimizer ............................................................................. 2042
50.6. Executor ......................................................................................... 2044
51. System Catalogs ......................................................................................... 2045
51.1. Overview ........................................................................................ 2045
51.2. pg_aggregate ............................................................................. 2047
51.3. pg_am ........................................................................................... 2049
51.4. pg_amop ....................................................................................... 2049
51.5. pg_amproc ................................................................................... 2050
51.6. pg_attrdef ................................................................................. 2051
51.7. pg_attribute ............................................................................. 2051

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51.8. pg_authid ................................................................................... 2055

51.9. pg_auth_members ....................................................................... 2056
51.10. pg_cast ...................................................................................... 2056
51.11. pg_class .................................................................................... 2057
51.12. pg_collation ............................................................................ 2061
51.13. pg_constraint .......................................................................... 2062
51.14. pg_conversion .......................................................................... 2065
51.15. pg_database .............................................................................. 2065
51.16. pg_db_role_setting ................................................................ 2067
51.17. pg_default_acl ........................................................................ 2067
51.18. pg_depend .................................................................................. 2068
51.19. pg_description ........................................................................ 2070
51.20. pg_enum ...................................................................................... 2071
51.21. pg_event_trigger .................................................................... 2071
51.22. pg_extension ............................................................................ 2072
51.23. pg_foreign_data_wrapper ...................................................... 2072
51.24. pg_foreign_server .................................................................. 2073
51.25. pg_foreign_table .................................................................... 2074
51.26. pg_index .................................................................................... 2074
51.27. pg_inherits .............................................................................. 2077
51.28. pg_init_privs .......................................................................... 2077
51.29. pg_language .............................................................................. 2078
51.30. pg_largeobject ........................................................................ 2079
51.31. pg_largeobject_metadata ...................................................... 2080
51.32. pg_namespace ............................................................................ 2080
51.33. pg_opclass ................................................................................ 2080
51.34. pg_operator .............................................................................. 2081
51.35. pg_opfamily .............................................................................. 2082
51.36. pg_partitioned_table ............................................................ 2082
51.37. pg_pltemplate .......................................................................... 2083
51.38. pg_policy .................................................................................. 2084
51.39. pg_proc ...................................................................................... 2085
51.40. pg_publication ........................................................................ 2089
51.41. pg_publication_rel ................................................................ 2090
51.42. pg_range .................................................................................... 2090
51.43. pg_replication_origin .......................................................... 2090
51.44. pg_rewrite ................................................................................ 2091
51.45. pg_seclabel .............................................................................. 2092
51.46. pg_sequence .............................................................................. 2092
51.47. pg_shdepend .............................................................................. 2093
51.48. pg_shdescription .................................................................... 2094
51.49. pg_shseclabel .......................................................................... 2094
51.50. pg_statistic ............................................................................ 2095
51.51. pg_statistic_ext .................................................................... 2097
51.52. pg_statistic_ext_data .......................................................... 2098
51.53. pg_subscription ...................................................................... 2098
51.54. pg_subscription_rel .............................................................. 2099
51.55. pg_tablespace .......................................................................... 2100
51.56. pg_transform ............................................................................ 2100
51.57. pg_trigger ................................................................................ 2101
51.58. pg_ts_config ............................................................................ 2102
51.59. pg_ts_config_map .................................................................... 2103
51.60. pg_ts_dict ................................................................................ 2103
51.61. pg_ts_parser ............................................................................ 2104
51.62. pg_ts_template ........................................................................ 2104
51.63. pg_type ...................................................................................... 2105
51.64. pg_user_mapping ...................................................................... 2111
51.65. System Views ................................................................................ 2111

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51.66. pg_available_extensions ...................................................... 2113

51.67. pg_available_extension_versions ...................................... 2113
51.68. pg_config .................................................................................. 2113
51.69. pg_cursors ................................................................................ 2114
51.70. pg_file_settings .................................................................... 2115
51.71. pg_group .................................................................................... 2115
51.72. pg_hba_file_rules .................................................................. 2116
51.73. pg_indexes ................................................................................ 2116
51.74. pg_locks .................................................................................... 2117
51.75. pg_matviews .............................................................................. 2120
51.76. pg_policies .............................................................................. 2120
51.77. pg_prepared_statements ........................................................ 2121
51.78. pg_prepared_xacts .................................................................. 2122
51.79. pg_publication_tables .......................................................... 2122
51.80. pg_replication_origin_status ............................................ 2123
51.81. pg_replication_slots ............................................................ 2123
51.82. pg_roles .................................................................................... 2124
51.83. pg_rules .................................................................................... 2125
51.84. pg_seclabels ............................................................................ 2126
51.85. pg_sequences ............................................................................ 2127
51.86. pg_settings .............................................................................. 2127
51.87. pg_shadow .................................................................................. 2129
51.88. pg_stats .................................................................................... 2130
51.89. pg_stats_ext ............................................................................ 2133
51.90. pg_tables .................................................................................. 2134
51.91. pg_timezone_abbrevs .............................................................. 2135
51.92. pg_timezone_names .................................................................. 2135
51.93. pg_user ...................................................................................... 2135
51.94. pg_user_mappings .................................................................... 2136
51.95. pg_views .................................................................................... 2137
52. Frontend/Backend Protocol ........................................................................... 2138
52.1. Overview ........................................................................................ 2138
52.2. Message Flow .................................................................................. 2139
52.3. SASL Authentication ........................................................................ 2152
52.4. Streaming Replication Protocol ........................................................... 2154
52.5. Logical Streaming Replication Protocol ................................................ 2160
52.6. Message Data Types ......................................................................... 2161
52.7. Message Formats .............................................................................. 2162
52.8. Error and Notice Message Fields ......................................................... 2179
52.9. Logical Replication Message Formats .................................................. 2181
52.10. Summary of Changes since Protocol 2.0 ............................................. 2185
53. PostgreSQL Coding Conventions ................................................................... 2187
53.1. Formatting ....................................................................................... 2187
53.2. Reporting Errors Within the Server ...................................................... 2187
53.3. Error Message Style Guide ................................................................. 2190
53.4. Miscellaneous Coding Conventions ...................................................... 2194
54. Native Language Support ............................................................................. 2197
54.1. For the Translator ............................................................................. 2197
54.2. For the Programmer .......................................................................... 2199
55. Writing a Procedural Language Handler .......................................................... 2203
56. Writing a Foreign Data Wrapper .................................................................... 2206
56.1. Foreign Data Wrapper Functions ......................................................... 2206
56.2. Foreign Data Wrapper Callback Routines .............................................. 2206
56.3. Foreign Data Wrapper Helper Functions ............................................... 2220
56.4. Foreign Data Wrapper Query Planning ................................................. 2221
56.5. Row Locking in Foreign Data Wrappers ............................................... 2223
57. Writing a Table Sampling Method ................................................................. 2225
57.1. Sampling Method Support Functions .................................................... 2225

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58. Writing a Custom Scan Provider .................................................................... 2228

58.1. Creating Custom Scan Paths ............................................................... 2228
58.2. Creating Custom Scan Plans ............................................................... 2229
58.3. Executing Custom Scans .................................................................... 2230
59. Genetic Query Optimizer .............................................................................. 2233
59.1. Query Handling as a Complex Optimization Problem .............................. 2233
59.2. Genetic Algorithms ........................................................................... 2233
59.3. Genetic Query Optimization (GEQO) in PostgreSQL .............................. 2234
59.4. Further Reading ............................................................................... 2235
60. Table Access Method Interface Definition ....................................................... 2237
61. Index Access Method Interface Definition ....................................................... 2238
61.1. Basic API Structure for Indexes .......................................................... 2238
61.2. Index Access Method Functions .......................................................... 2240
61.3. Index Scanning ................................................................................ 2246
61.4. Index Locking Considerations ............................................................. 2247
61.5. Index Uniqueness Checks .................................................................. 2248
61.6. Index Cost Estimation Functions ......................................................... 2249
62. Generic WAL Records ................................................................................. 2253
63. B-Tree Indexes ........................................................................................... 2255
63.1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 2255
63.2. Behavior of B-Tree Operator Classes ................................................... 2255
63.3. B-Tree Support Functions .................................................................. 2256
63.4. Implementation ................................................................................ 2257
64. GiST Indexes ............................................................................................. 2258
64.1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 2258
64.2. Built-in Operator Classes ................................................................... 2258
64.3. Extensibility .................................................................................... 2259
64.4. Implementation ................................................................................ 2268
64.5. Examples ........................................................................................ 2268
65. SP-GiST Indexes ........................................................................................ 2270
65.1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 2270
65.2. Built-in Operator Classes ................................................................... 2270
65.3. Extensibility .................................................................................... 2271
65.4. Implementation ................................................................................ 2279
65.5. Examples ........................................................................................ 2280
66. GIN Indexes .............................................................................................. 2281
66.1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 2281
66.2. Built-in Operator Classes ................................................................... 2281
66.3. Extensibility .................................................................................... 2281
66.4. Implementation ................................................................................ 2284
66.5. GIN Tips and Tricks ......................................................................... 2285
66.6. Limitations ...................................................................................... 2286
66.7. Examples ........................................................................................ 2286
67. BRIN Indexes ............................................................................................ 2287
67.1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 2287
67.2. Built-in Operator Classes ................................................................... 2288
67.3. Extensibility .................................................................................... 2289
68. Database Physical Storage ............................................................................ 2292
68.1. Database File Layout ........................................................................ 2292
68.2. TOAST ........................................................................................... 2294
68.3. Free Space Map ............................................................................... 2297
68.4. Visibility Map .................................................................................. 2297
68.5. The Initialization Fork ....................................................................... 2297
68.6. Database Page Layout ....................................................................... 2298
69. System Catalog Declarations and Initial Contents ............................................. 2302
69.1. System Catalog Declaration Rules ....................................................... 2302
69.2. System Catalog Initial Data ................................................................ 2303
69.3. BKI File Format ............................................................................... 2308

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69.4. BKI Commands ............................................................................... 2308

69.5. Structure of the Bootstrap BKI File ..................................................... 2309
69.6. BKI Example ................................................................................... 2310
70. How the Planner Uses Statistics .................................................................... 2311
70.1. Row Estimation Examples ................................................................. 2311
70.2. Multivariate Statistics Examples .......................................................... 2316
70.3. Planner Statistics and Security ............................................................ 2320
VIII. Appendixes ...................................................................................................... 2321
A. PostgreSQL Error Codes ............................................................................... 2327
B. Date/Time Support ....................................................................................... 2336
B.1. Date/Time Input Interpretation ............................................................. 2336
B.2. Handling of Invalid or Ambiguous Timestamps ....................................... 2337
B.3. Date/Time Key Words ........................................................................ 2338
B.4. Date/Time Configuration Files ............................................................. 2339
B.5. History of Units ................................................................................ 2340
C. SQL Key Words .......................................................................................... 2342
D. SQL Conformance ....................................................................................... 2367
D.1. Supported Features ............................................................................ 2368
D.2. Unsupported Features ......................................................................... 2384
D.3. XML Limits and Conformance to SQL/XML ......................................... 2398
E. Release Notes .............................................................................................. 2401
E.1. Release 12 ........................................................................................ 2401
E.2. Prior Releases ................................................................................... 2422
F. Additional Supplied Modules .......................................................................... 2423
F.1. adminpack ........................................................................................ 2424
F.2. amcheck ........................................................................................... 2425
F.3. auth_delay ........................................................................................ 2428
F.4. auto_explain ...................................................................................... 2428
F.5. bloom .............................................................................................. 2431
F.6. btree_gin .......................................................................................... 2434
F.7. btree_gist .......................................................................................... 2435
F.8. citext ............................................................................................... 2436
F.9. cube ................................................................................................. 2438
F.10. dblink ............................................................................................. 2443
F.11. dict_int ........................................................................................... 2474
F.12. dict_xsyn ........................................................................................ 2475
F.13. earthdistance .................................................................................... 2476
F.14. file_fdw .......................................................................................... 2478
F.15. fuzzystrmatch .................................................................................. 2480
F.16. hstore ............................................................................................. 2483
F.17. intagg ............................................................................................. 2489
F.18. intarray ........................................................................................... 2491
F.19. isn ................................................................................................. 2493
F.20. lo ................................................................................................... 2497
F.21. ltree ............................................................................................... 2498
F.22. pageinspect ...................................................................................... 2504
F.23. passwordcheck ................................................................................. 2511
F.24. pg_buffercache ................................................................................. 2512
F.25. pgcrypto ......................................................................................... 2514
F.26. pg_freespacemap .............................................................................. 2525
F.27. pg_prewarm .................................................................................... 2526
F.28. pgrowlocks ...................................................................................... 2527
F.29. pg_stat_statements ............................................................................ 2529
F.30. pgstattuple ....................................................................................... 2535
F.31. pg_trgm .......................................................................................... 2539
F.32. pg_visibility .................................................................................... 2545
F.33. postgres_fdw ................................................................................... 2546
F.34. seg ................................................................................................. 2552

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F.35. sepgsql ........................................................................................... 2555

F.36. spi ................................................................................................. 2563
F.37. sslinfo ............................................................................................ 2564
F.38. tablefunc ......................................................................................... 2566
F.39. tcn ................................................................................................. 2575
F.40. test_decoding ................................................................................... 2577
F.41. tsm_system_rows ............................................................................. 2577
F.42. tsm_system_time .............................................................................. 2577
F.43. unaccent ......................................................................................... 2578
F.44. uuid-ossp ........................................................................................ 2580
F.45. xml2 .............................................................................................. 2582
G. Additional Supplied Programs ........................................................................ 2587
G.1. Client Applications ............................................................................ 2587
G.2. Server Applications ............................................................................ 2594
H. External Projects .......................................................................................... 2599
H.1. Client Interfaces ................................................................................ 2599
H.2. Administration Tools .......................................................................... 2599
H.3. Procedural Languages ........................................................................ 2600
H.4. Extensions ........................................................................................ 2600
I. The Source Code Repository ........................................................................... 2601
I.1. Getting the Source via Git .................................................................... 2601
J. Documentation ............................................................................................. 2602
J.1. DocBook ........................................................................................... 2602
J.2. Tool Sets .......................................................................................... 2602
J.3. Building the Documentation ................................................................. 2604
J.4. Documentation Authoring .................................................................... 2605
J.5. Style Guide ....................................................................................... 2606
K. PostgreSQL Limits ....................................................................................... 2608
L. Acronyms ................................................................................................... 2609
Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 2615
Index ...................................................................................................................... 2617

xx
List of Figures
9.1. XSLT Stylesheet for Converting SQL/XML Output to HTML ..................................... 296
59.1. Structured Diagram of a Genetic Algorithm .......................................................... 2234
66.1. GIN Internals ................................................................................................... 2284
68.1. Page Layout .................................................................................................... 2300

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4.1. Backslash Escape Sequences ................................................................................... 35
4.2. Operator Precedence (highest to lowest) .................................................................... 40
5.1. ACL Privilege Abbreviations ................................................................................... 75
5.2. Summary of Access Privileges ................................................................................. 75
8.1. Data Types ......................................................................................................... 138
8.2. Numeric Types .................................................................................................... 139
8.3. Monetary Types .................................................................................................. 144
8.4. Character Types .................................................................................................. 145
8.5. Special Character Types ........................................................................................ 147
8.6. Binary Data Types ............................................................................................... 147
8.7. bytea Literal Escaped Octets ............................................................................... 148
8.8. bytea Output Escaped Octets ............................................................................... 149
8.9. Date/Time Types ................................................................................................. 149
8.10. Date Input ......................................................................................................... 151
8.11. Time Input ........................................................................................................ 151
8.12. Time Zone Input ................................................................................................ 152
8.13. Special Date/Time Inputs ..................................................................................... 153
8.14. Date/Time Output Styles ..................................................................................... 154
8.15. Date Order Conventions ...................................................................................... 154
8.16. ISO 8601 Interval Unit Abbreviations .................................................................... 156
8.17. Interval Input ..................................................................................................... 157
8.18. Interval Output Style Examples ............................................................................ 158
8.19. Boolean Data Type ............................................................................................. 158
8.20. Geometric Types ................................................................................................ 161
8.21. Network Address Types ...................................................................................... 164
8.22. cidr Type Input Examples ................................................................................. 164
8.23. JSON Primitive Types and Corresponding PostgreSQL Types .................................... 173
8.24. jsonpath Variables ......................................................................................... 180
8.25. jsonpath Accessors ........................................................................................ 180
8.26. Object Identifier Types ....................................................................................... 204
8.27. Pseudo-Types .................................................................................................... 205
9.1. Comparison Operators .......................................................................................... 207
9.2. Comparison Predicates .......................................................................................... 208
9.3. Comparison Functions .......................................................................................... 210
9.4. Mathematical Operators ........................................................................................ 210
9.5. Mathematical Functions ........................................................................................ 211
9.6. Random Functions ............................................................................................... 213
9.7. Trigonometric Functions ....................................................................................... 213
9.8. Hyperbolic Functions ........................................................................................... 214
9.9. SQL String Functions and Operators ....................................................................... 214
9.10. Other String Functions ........................................................................................ 216
9.11. Built-in Conversions ........................................................................................... 223
9.12. SQL Binary String Functions and Operators ........................................................... 228
9.13. Other Binary String Functions .............................................................................. 229
9.14. Bit String Operators ........................................................................................... 231
9.15. Regular Expression Match Operators ..................................................................... 234
9.16. Regular Expression Atoms ................................................................................... 238
9.17. Regular Expression Quantifiers ............................................................................. 239
9.18. Regular Expression Constraints ............................................................................ 240
9.19. Regular Expression Character-Entry Escapes ........................................................... 241
9.20. Regular Expression Class-Shorthand Escapes .......................................................... 242
9.21. Regular Expression Constraint Escapes .................................................................. 243
9.22. Regular Expression Back References ..................................................................... 243
9.23. ARE Embedded-Option Letters ............................................................................ 244
9.24. Formatting Functions .......................................................................................... 248

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9.25. Template Patterns for Date/Time Formatting ........................................................... 249

9.26. Template Pattern Modifiers for Date/Time Formatting .............................................. 250
9.27. Template Patterns for Numeric Formatting ............................................................. 253
9.28. Template Pattern Modifiers for Numeric Formatting ................................................. 254
9.29. to_char Examples ........................................................................................... 254
9.30. Date/Time Operators ........................................................................................... 255
9.31. Date/Time Functions ........................................................................................... 256
9.32. AT TIME ZONE Variants ................................................................................. 266
9.33. Enum Support Functions ..................................................................................... 269
9.34. Geometric Operators ........................................................................................... 270
9.35. Geometric Functions ........................................................................................... 271
9.36. Geometric Type Conversion Functions ................................................................... 272
9.37. cidr and inet Operators .................................................................................. 274
9.38. cidr and inet Functions .................................................................................. 274
9.39. macaddr Functions ........................................................................................... 275
9.40. macaddr8 Functions ......................................................................................... 276
9.41. Text Search Operators ......................................................................................... 276
9.42. Text Search Functions ......................................................................................... 277
9.43. Text Search Debugging Functions ......................................................................... 281
9.44. json and jsonb Operators ................................................................................ 297
9.45. Additional jsonb Operators ................................................................................ 298
9.46. JSON Creation Functions .................................................................................... 299
9.47. JSON Processing Functions ................................................................................. 301
9.48. jsonpath Operators and Methods ...................................................................... 310
9.49. jsonpath Filter Expression Elements .................................................................. 311
9.50. Sequence Functions ............................................................................................ 313
9.51. Array Operators ................................................................................................. 318
9.52. Array Functions ................................................................................................. 319
9.53. Range Operators ................................................................................................ 321
9.54. Range Functions ................................................................................................ 322
9.55. General-Purpose Aggregate Functions .................................................................... 323
9.56. Aggregate Functions for Statistics ......................................................................... 326
9.57. Ordered-Set Aggregate Functions .......................................................................... 327
9.58. Hypothetical-Set Aggregate Functions ................................................................... 329
9.59. Grouping Operations ........................................................................................... 330
9.60. General-Purpose Window Functions ...................................................................... 330
9.61. Series Generating Functions ................................................................................. 338
9.62. Subscript Generating Functions ............................................................................ 339
9.63. Session Information Functions .............................................................................. 341
9.64. Access Privilege Inquiry Functions ........................................................................ 344
9.65. aclitem Operators ........................................................................................... 347
9.66. aclitem Functions ........................................................................................... 347
9.67. Schema Visibility Inquiry Functions ...................................................................... 348
9.68. System Catalog Information Functions ................................................................... 349
9.69. Index Column Properties ..................................................................................... 352
9.70. Index Properties ................................................................................................. 352
9.71. Index Access Method Properties ........................................................................... 353
9.72. Object Information and Addressing Functions ......................................................... 354
9.73. Comment Information Functions ........................................................................... 355
9.74. Transaction IDs and Snapshots ............................................................................. 355
9.75. Snapshot Components ......................................................................................... 356
9.76. Committed Transaction Information ...................................................................... 357
9.77. Control Data Functions ....................................................................................... 357
9.78. pg_control_checkpoint Columns ................................................................ 357
9.79. pg_control_system Columns ........................................................................ 358
9.80. pg_control_init Columns ............................................................................ 358
9.81. pg_control_recovery Columns .................................................................... 358
9.82. Configuration Settings Functions .......................................................................... 359

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9.83. Server Signaling Functions .................................................................................. 359

9.84. Backup Control Functions ................................................................................... 360
9.85. Recovery Information Functions ........................................................................... 363
9.86. Recovery Control Functions ................................................................................. 364
9.87. Snapshot Synchronization Functions ...................................................................... 365
9.88. Replication SQL Functions .................................................................................. 365
9.89. Database Object Size Functions ............................................................................ 369
9.90. Database Object Location Functions ...................................................................... 371
9.91. Collation Management Functions .......................................................................... 372
9.92. Partitioning Information Functions ........................................................................ 372
9.93. Index Maintenance Functions ............................................................................... 373
9.94. Generic File Access Functions .............................................................................. 374
9.95. Advisory Lock Functions ..................................................................................... 375
9.96. Table Rewrite Information ................................................................................... 380
12.1. Default Parser's Token Types ............................................................................... 428
13.1. Transaction Isolation Levels ................................................................................. 451
13.2. Conflicting Lock Modes ...................................................................................... 458
13.3. Conflicting Row-Level Locks ............................................................................... 459
18.1. System V IPC Parameters .................................................................................... 531
18.2. SSL Server File Usage ........................................................................................ 547
19.1. Message Severity Levels ..................................................................................... 595
19.2. Short Option Key ............................................................................................... 621
21.1. Default Roles .................................................................................................... 647
23.1. PostgreSQL Character Sets .................................................................................. 665
23.2. Client/Server Character Set Conversions ................................................................ 668
26.1. High Availability, Load Balancing, and Replication Feature Matrix ............................. 699
27.1. Dynamic Statistics Views .................................................................................... 721
27.2. Collected Statistics Views .................................................................................... 722
27.3. pg_stat_activity View ............................................................................... 724
27.4. wait_event Description .................................................................................. 727
27.5. pg_stat_replication View ......................................................................... 738
27.6. pg_stat_wal_receiver View ....................................................................... 741
27.7. pg_stat_subscription View ....................................................................... 742
27.8. pg_stat_ssl View ......................................................................................... 742
27.9. pg_stat_gssapi View ................................................................................... 743
27.10. pg_stat_archiver View ............................................................................. 743
27.11. pg_stat_bgwriter View ............................................................................. 744
27.12. pg_stat_database View ............................................................................. 745
27.13. pg_stat_database_conflicts View ......................................................... 746
27.14. pg_stat_all_tables View ......................................................................... 747
27.15. pg_stat_all_indexes View ....................................................................... 748
27.16. pg_statio_all_tables View ..................................................................... 749
27.17. pg_statio_all_indexes View ................................................................... 749
27.18. pg_statio_all_sequences View ............................................................... 750
27.19. pg_stat_user_functions View ................................................................. 750
27.20. Additional Statistics Functions ............................................................................ 750
27.21. Per-Backend Statistics Functions ......................................................................... 752
27.22. pg_stat_progress_create_index View ................................................... 753
27.23. CREATE INDEX Phases ................................................................................... 754
27.24. pg_stat_progress_vacuum View ............................................................... 755
27.25. VACUUM Phases ............................................................................................ 756
27.26. pg_stat_progress_cluster View ............................................................. 757
27.27. CLUSTER and VACUUM FULL Phases .............................................................. 758
27.28. Built-in DTrace Probes ...................................................................................... 759
27.29. Defined Types Used in Probe Parameters ............................................................. 765
33.1. SSL Mode Descriptions ....................................................................................... 867
33.2. Libpq/Client SSL File Usage ................................................................................ 867
34.1. SQL-Oriented Large Object Functions ................................................................... 886

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35.1. Mapping Between PostgreSQL Data Types and C Variable Types ............................... 902
35.2. Valid Input Formats for PGTYPESdate_from_asc .............................................. 920
35.3. Valid Input Formats for PGTYPESdate_fmt_asc ................................................ 922
35.4. Valid Input Formats for rdefmtdate .................................................................. 923
35.5. Valid Input Formats for PGTYPEStimestamp_from_asc .................................... 924
36.1. information_schema_catalog_name Columns ........................................... 1002
36.2. administrable_role_authorizations Columns ....................................... 1002
36.3. applicable_roles Columns ........................................................................ 1003
36.4. attributes Columns .................................................................................... 1003
36.5. character_sets Columns ............................................................................ 1006
36.6. check_constraint_routine_usage Columns ............................................. 1007
36.7. check_constraints Columns ...................................................................... 1008
36.8. collations Columns .................................................................................... 1008
36.9. collation_character_set_applicability Columns ............................... 1008
36.10. column_column_usage Columns ................................................................. 1009
36.11. column_domain_usage Columns ................................................................. 1009
36.12. column_options Columns ........................................................................... 1010
36.13. column_privileges Columns ..................................................................... 1010
36.14. column_udt_usage Columns ....................................................................... 1011
36.15. columns Columns ......................................................................................... 1011
36.16. constraint_column_usage Columns ......................................................... 1015
36.17. constraint_table_usage Columns ........................................................... 1016
36.18. data_type_privileges Columns ............................................................... 1017
36.19. domain_constraints Columns ................................................................... 1017
36.20. domain_udt_usage Columns ....................................................................... 1018
36.21. domains Columns ......................................................................................... 1018
36.22. element_types Columns ............................................................................. 1021
36.23. enabled_roles Columns ............................................................................. 1023
36.24. foreign_data_wrapper_options Columns ............................................... 1023
36.25. foreign_data_wrappers Columns ............................................................. 1024
36.26. foreign_server_options Columns ........................................................... 1024
36.27. foreign_servers Columns ......................................................................... 1025
36.28. foreign_table_options Columns ............................................................. 1025
36.29. foreign_tables Columns ........................................................................... 1025
36.30. key_column_usage Columns ....................................................................... 1026
36.31. parameters Columns ................................................................................... 1027
36.32. referential_constraints Columns ......................................................... 1029
36.33. role_column_grants Columns ................................................................... 1030
36.34. role_routine_grants Columns ................................................................. 1030
36.35. role_table_grants Columns ..................................................................... 1031
36.36. role_udt_grants Columns ......................................................................... 1032
36.37. role_usage_grants Columns ..................................................................... 1032
36.38. routine_privileges Columns ................................................................... 1033
36.39. routines Columns ....................................................................................... 1033
36.40. schemata Columns ....................................................................................... 1038
36.41. sequences Columns ..................................................................................... 1039
36.42. sql_features Columns ............................................................................... 1040
36.43. sql_implementation_info Columns ......................................................... 1040
36.44. sql_languages Columns ............................................................................. 1041
36.45. sql_packages Columns ............................................................................... 1042
36.46. sql_parts Columns ..................................................................................... 1042
36.47. sql_sizing Columns ................................................................................... 1042
36.48. sql_sizing_profiles Columns ................................................................. 1043
36.49. table_constraints Columns ..................................................................... 1043
36.50. table_privileges Columns ....................................................................... 1044
36.51. tables Columns ........................................................................................... 1045
36.52. transforms Columns ................................................................................... 1046
36.53. triggered_update_columns Columns ....................................................... 1046

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36.54. triggers Columns ....................................................................................... 1047

36.55. udt_privileges Columns ........................................................................... 1048
36.56. usage_privileges Columns ....................................................................... 1049
36.57. user_defined_types Columns ................................................................... 1050
36.58. user_mapping_options Columns ............................................................... 1051
36.59. user_mappings Columns ............................................................................. 1052
36.60. view_column_usage Columns ..................................................................... 1052
36.61. view_routine_usage Columns ................................................................... 1053
36.62. view_table_usage Columns ....................................................................... 1053
36.63. views Columns ............................................................................................. 1054
37.1. Equivalent C Types for Built-in SQL Types .......................................................... 1084
37.2. B-Tree Strategies .............................................................................................. 1120
37.3. Hash Strategies ................................................................................................ 1120
37.4. GiST Two-Dimensional “R-tree” Strategies ........................................................... 1120
37.5. SP-GiST Point Strategies ................................................................................... 1121
37.6. GIN Array Strategies ........................................................................................ 1121
37.7. BRIN Minmax Strategies ................................................................................... 1121
37.8. B-Tree Support Functions .................................................................................. 1122
37.9. Hash Support Functions ..................................................................................... 1122
37.10. GiST Support Functions ................................................................................... 1122
37.11. SP-GiST Support Functions .............................................................................. 1123
37.12. GIN Support Functions .................................................................................... 1123
37.13. BRIN Support Functions .................................................................................. 1124
39.1. Event Trigger Support by Command Tag .............................................................. 1154
42.1. Available Diagnostics Items ............................................................................... 1208
42.2. Error Diagnostics Items ..................................................................................... 1222
256. Policies Applied by Command Type ..................................................................... 1588
257. Automatic Variables .......................................................................................... 1888
258. pgbench Operators by Increasing Precedence ......................................................... 1890
259. pgbench Functions ............................................................................................. 1891
51.1. System Catalogs ............................................................................................... 2045
51.2. pg_aggregate Columns ................................................................................ 2047
51.3. pg_am Columns .............................................................................................. 2049
51.4. pg_amop Columns .......................................................................................... 2049
51.5. pg_amproc Columns ...................................................................................... 2050
51.6. pg_attrdef Columns .................................................................................... 2051
51.7. pg_attribute Columns ................................................................................ 2051
51.8. pg_authid Columns ...................................................................................... 2055
51.9. pg_auth_members Columns .......................................................................... 2056
51.10. pg_cast Columns ......................................................................................... 2056
51.11. pg_class Columns ....................................................................................... 2057
51.12. pg_collation Columns ............................................................................... 2061
51.13. pg_constraint Columns ............................................................................. 2062
51.14. pg_conversion Columns ............................................................................. 2065
51.15. pg_database Columns ................................................................................. 2065
51.16. pg_db_role_setting Columns ................................................................... 2067
51.17. pg_default_acl Columns ........................................................................... 2067
51.18. pg_depend Columns ..................................................................................... 2068
51.19. pg_description Columns ........................................................................... 2070
51.20. pg_enum Columns ......................................................................................... 2071
51.21. pg_event_trigger Columns ....................................................................... 2071
51.22. pg_extension Columns ............................................................................... 2072
51.23. pg_foreign_data_wrapper Columns ......................................................... 2073
51.24. pg_foreign_server Columns ..................................................................... 2073
51.25. pg_foreign_table Columns ....................................................................... 2074
51.26. pg_index Columns ....................................................................................... 2074
51.27. pg_inherits Columns ................................................................................. 2077
51.28. pg_init_privs Columns ............................................................................. 2078

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51.29. pg_language Columns ................................................................................. 2078

51.30. pg_largeobject Columns ........................................................................... 2079
51.31. pg_largeobject_metadata Columns ......................................................... 2080
51.32. pg_namespace Columns ............................................................................... 2080
51.33. pg_opclass Columns ................................................................................... 2080
51.34. pg_operator Columns ................................................................................. 2081
51.35. pg_opfamily Columns ................................................................................. 2082
51.36. pg_partitioned_table Columns ............................................................... 2082
51.37. pg_pltemplate Columns ............................................................................. 2084
51.38. pg_policy Columns ..................................................................................... 2084
51.39. pg_proc Columns ......................................................................................... 2085
51.40. pg_publication Columns ........................................................................... 2089
51.41. pg_publication_rel Columns ................................................................... 2090
51.42. pg_range Columns ....................................................................................... 2090
51.43. pg_replication_origin Columns ............................................................. 2091
51.44. pg_rewrite Columns ................................................................................... 2091
51.45. pg_seclabel Columns ................................................................................. 2092
51.46. pg_sequence Columns ................................................................................. 2092
51.47. pg_shdepend Columns ................................................................................. 2093
51.48. pg_shdescription Columns ....................................................................... 2094
51.49. pg_shseclabel Columns ............................................................................. 2095
51.50. pg_statistic Columns ............................................................................... 2096
51.51. pg_statistic_ext Columns ....................................................................... 2097
51.52. pg_statistic_ext_data Columns ............................................................. 2098
51.53. pg_subscription Columns ......................................................................... 2099
51.54. pg_subscription_rel Columns ................................................................. 2099
51.55. pg_tablespace Columns ............................................................................. 2100
51.56. pg_transform Columns ............................................................................... 2100
51.57. pg_trigger Columns ................................................................................... 2101
51.58. pg_ts_config Columns ............................................................................... 2103
51.59. pg_ts_config_map Columns ....................................................................... 2103
51.60. pg_ts_dict Columns ................................................................................... 2103
51.61. pg_ts_parser Columns ............................................................................... 2104
51.62. pg_ts_template Columns ........................................................................... 2104
51.63. pg_type Columns ......................................................................................... 2105
51.64. typcategory Codes .................................................................................... 2111
51.65. pg_user_mapping Columns ......................................................................... 2111
51.66. System Views ................................................................................................ 2112
51.67. pg_available_extensions Columns ......................................................... 2113
51.68. pg_available_extension_versions Columns ......................................... 2113
51.69. pg_config Columns ..................................................................................... 2114
51.70. pg_cursors Columns ................................................................................... 2114
51.71. pg_file_settings Columns ....................................................................... 2115
51.72. pg_group Columns ....................................................................................... 2115
51.73. pg_hba_file_rules Columns ..................................................................... 2116
51.74. pg_indexes Columns ................................................................................... 2116
51.75. pg_locks Columns ....................................................................................... 2117
51.76. pg_matviews Columns ................................................................................. 2120
51.77. pg_policies Columns ................................................................................. 2120
51.78. pg_prepared_statements Columns ........................................................... 2121
51.79. pg_prepared_xacts Columns ..................................................................... 2122
51.80. pg_publication_tables Columns ............................................................. 2122
51.81. pg_replication_origin_status Columns ............................................... 2123
51.82. pg_replication_slots Columns ............................................................... 2123
51.83. pg_roles Columns ....................................................................................... 2125
51.84. pg_rules Columns ....................................................................................... 2126
51.85. pg_seclabels Columns ............................................................................... 2126
51.86. pg_sequences Columns ............................................................................... 2127

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51.87. pg_settings Columns ................................................................................. 2127

51.88. pg_shadow Columns ..................................................................................... 2130
51.89. pg_stats Columns ....................................................................................... 2130
51.90. pg_stats_ext Columns ............................................................................... 2133
51.91. pg_tables Columns ..................................................................................... 2134
51.92. pg_timezone_abbrevs Columns ................................................................. 2135
51.93. pg_timezone_names Columns ..................................................................... 2135
51.94. pg_user Columns ......................................................................................... 2136
51.95. pg_user_mappings Columns ....................................................................... 2136
51.96. pg_views Columns ....................................................................................... 2137
64.1. Built-in GiST Operator Classes ........................................................................... 2258
65.1. Built-in SP-GiST Operator Classes ...................................................................... 2270
66.1. Built-in GIN Operator Classes ............................................................................ 2281
67.1. Built-in BRIN Operator Classes .......................................................................... 2288
67.2. Function and Support Numbers for Minmax Operator Classes ................................... 2290
67.3. Function and Support Numbers for Inclusion Operator Classes ................................. 2290
68.1. Contents of PGDATA ......................................................................................... 2292
68.2. Page Layout .................................................................................................... 2298
68.3. PageHeaderData Layout ..................................................................................... 2299
68.4. HeapTupleHeaderData Layout ............................................................................ 2300
A.1. PostgreSQL Error Codes ..................................................................................... 2327
B.1. Month Names ................................................................................................... 2338
B.2. Day of the Week Names ..................................................................................... 2338
B.3. Date/Time Field Modifiers .................................................................................. 2338
C.1. SQL Key Words ................................................................................................ 2342
F.1. adminpack Functions ....................................................................................... 2424
F.2. Cube External Representations ............................................................................. 2438
F.3. Cube Operators .................................................................................................. 2439
F.4. Cube Functions .................................................................................................. 2440
F.5. Cube-Based Earthdistance Functions ..................................................................... 2477
F.6. Point-Based Earthdistance Operators ..................................................................... 2478
F.7. hstore Operators ............................................................................................. 2484
F.8. hstore Functions ............................................................................................. 2485
F.9. intarray Functions ......................................................................................... 2491
F.10. intarray Operators ....................................................................................... 2491
F.11. isn Data Types ............................................................................................... 2493
F.12. isn Functions ................................................................................................. 2495
F.13. ltree Operators ............................................................................................. 2499
F.14. ltree Functions ............................................................................................. 2501
F.15. pg_buffercache Columns ............................................................................ 2512
F.16. Supported Algorithms for crypt() ................................................................... 2515
F.17. Iteration Counts for crypt() ........................................................................... 2516
F.18. Hash Algorithm Speeds ..................................................................................... 2516
F.19. Summary of Functionality with and without OpenSSL ............................................ 2523
F.20. pgrowlocks Output Columns .......................................................................... 2528
F.21. pg_stat_statements Columns .................................................................... 2529
F.22. pgstattuple Output Columns ........................................................................ 2535
F.23. pgstattuple_approx Output Columns .......................................................... 2538
F.24. pg_trgm Functions ......................................................................................... 2539
F.25. pg_trgm Operators ......................................................................................... 2541
F.26. seg External Representations ............................................................................. 2553
F.27. Examples of Valid seg Input ............................................................................. 2553
F.28. Seg GiST Operators .......................................................................................... 2554
F.29. Sepgsql Functions ............................................................................................ 2561
F.30. tablefunc Functions ..................................................................................... 2566
F.31. connectby Parameters ................................................................................... 2573
F.32. Functions for UUID Generation .......................................................................... 2580
F.33. Functions Returning UUID Constants .................................................................. 2581

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F.34. Functions ........................................................................................................ 2582

F.35. xpath_table Parameters ............................................................................... 2583
H.1. Externally Maintained Client Interfaces ................................................................. 2599
H.2. Externally Maintained Procedural Languages ......................................................... 2600
K.1. PostgreSQL Limitations ...................................................................................... 2608

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8.1. Using the Character Types .................................................................................... 146
8.2. Using the boolean Type ..................................................................................... 159
8.3. Using the Bit String Types .................................................................................... 166
10.1. Factorial Operator Type Resolution ....................................................................... 384
10.2. String Concatenation Operator Type Resolution ....................................................... 385
10.3. Absolute-Value and Negation Operator Type Resolution ........................................... 385
10.4. Array Inclusion Operator Type Resolution .............................................................. 386
10.5. Custom Operator on a Domain Type ..................................................................... 386
10.6. Rounding Function Argument Type Resolution ....................................................... 389
10.7. Variadic Function Resolution ............................................................................... 389
10.8. Substring Function Type Resolution ...................................................................... 390
10.9. character Storage Type Conversion .................................................................. 391
10.10. Type Resolution with Underspecified Types in a Union ........................................... 392
10.11. Type Resolution in a Simple Union ..................................................................... 392
10.12. Type Resolution in a Transposed Union ............................................................... 392
10.13. Type Resolution in a Nested Union ..................................................................... 393
11.1. Setting up a Partial Index to Exclude Common Values .............................................. 401
11.2. Setting up a Partial Index to Exclude Uninteresting Values ........................................ 401
11.3. Setting up a Partial Unique Index ......................................................................... 402
20.1. Example pg_hba.conf Entries .......................................................................... 629
20.2. An Example pg_ident.conf File ..................................................................... 632
33.1. libpq Example Program 1 .................................................................................... 871
33.2. libpq Example Program 2 .................................................................................... 873
33.3. libpq Example Program 3 .................................................................................... 876
34.1. Large Objects with libpq Example Program ............................................................ 888
35.1. Example SQLDA Program .................................................................................. 940
35.2. ECPG Program Accessing Large Objects ............................................................... 954
41.1. Manual Installation of PL/Perl ............................................................................ 1191
42.1. Quoting Values in Dynamic Queries .................................................................... 1206
42.2. Exceptions with UPDATE/INSERT ...................................................................... 1221
42.3. A PL/pgSQL Trigger Function ............................................................................ 1235
42.4. A PL/pgSQL Trigger Function for Auditing .......................................................... 1236
42.5. A PL/pgSQL View Trigger Function for Auditing .................................................. 1237
42.6. A PL/pgSQL Trigger Function for Maintaining a Summary Table ............................. 1238
42.7. Auditing with Transition Tables .......................................................................... 1240
42.8. A PL/pgSQL Event Trigger Function ................................................................... 1242
42.9. Porting a Simple Function from PL/SQL to PL/pgSQL ............................................ 1250
42.10. Porting a Function that Creates Another Function from PL/SQL to PL/pgSQL ............ 1251
42.11. Porting a Procedure With String Manipulation and OUT Parameters from PL/SQL to
PL/pgSQL ............................................................................................................... 1252
42.12. Porting a Procedure from PL/SQL to PL/pgSQL .................................................. 1254
F.1. Create a Foreign Table for PostgreSQL CSV Logs ................................................... 2479

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This book is the official documentation of PostgreSQL. It has been written by the PostgreSQL devel-
opers and other volunteers in parallel to the development of the PostgreSQL software. It describes all
the functionality that the current version of PostgreSQL officially supports.

To make the large amount of information about PostgreSQL manageable, this book has been organized
in several parts. Each part is targeted at a different class of users, or at users in different stages of their
PostgreSQL experience:

• Part I is an informal introduction for new users.

• Part II documents the SQL query language environment, including data types and functions, as well
as user-level performance tuning. Every PostgreSQL user should read this.

• Part III describes the installation and administration of the server. Everyone who runs a PostgreSQL
server, be it for private use or for others, should read this part.

• Part IV describes the programming interfaces for PostgreSQL client programs.

• Part V contains information for advanced users about the extensibility capabilities of the server.
Topics include user-defined data types and functions.

• Part VI contains reference information about SQL commands, client and server programs. This part
supports the other parts with structured information sorted by command or program.

• Part VII contains assorted information that might be of use to PostgreSQL developers.

1. What Is PostgreSQL?
PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system (ORDBMS) based on POSTGRES,
Version 4.21, developed at the University of California at Berkeley Computer Science Department.
POSTGRES pioneered many concepts that only became available in some commercial database sys-
tems much later.

PostgreSQL is an open-source descendant of this original Berkeley code. It supports a large part of
the SQL standard and offers many modern features:

• complex queries
• foreign keys
• triggers
• updatable views
• transactional integrity
• multiversion concurrency control

Also, PostgreSQL can be extended by the user in many ways, for example by adding new

• data types
• functions
• operators
• aggregate functions
• index methods
• procedural languages

And because of the liberal license, PostgreSQL can be used, modified, and distributed by anyone free
of charge for any purpose, be it private, commercial, or academic.

2. A Brief History of PostgreSQL

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The object-relational database management system now known as PostgreSQL is derived from the
POSTGRES package written at the University of California at Berkeley. With over two decades of de-
velopment behind it, PostgreSQL is now the most advanced open-source database available anywhere.

2.1. The Berkeley POSTGRES Project

The POSTGRES project, led by Professor Michael Stonebraker, was sponsored by the Defense Ad-
vanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Army Research Office (ARO), the National Science
Foundation (NSF), and ESL, Inc. The implementation of POSTGRES began in 1986. The initial con-
cepts for the system were presented in [ston86], and the definition of the initial data model appeared
in [rowe87]. The design of the rule system at that time was described in [ston87a]. The rationale and
architecture of the storage manager were detailed in [ston87b].

POSTGRES has undergone several major releases since then. The first “demoware” system became
operational in 1987 and was shown at the 1988 ACM-SIGMOD Conference. Version 1, described in
[ston90a], was released to a few external users in June 1989. In response to a critique of the first rule
system ([ston89]), the rule system was redesigned ([ston90b]), and Version 2 was released in June
1990 with the new rule system. Version 3 appeared in 1991 and added support for multiple storage
managers, an improved query executor, and a rewritten rule system. For the most part, subsequent
releases until Postgres95 (see below) focused on portability and reliability.

POSTGRES has been used to implement many different research and production applications. These
include: a financial data analysis system, a jet engine performance monitoring package, an aster-
oid tracking database, a medical information database, and several geographic information systems.
POSTGRES has also been used as an educational tool at several universities. Finally, Illustra Infor-
mation Technologies (later merged into Informix2, which is now owned by IBM3) picked up the code
and commercialized it. In late 1992, POSTGRES became the primary data manager for the Sequoia
2000 scientific computing project4.

The size of the external user community nearly doubled during 1993. It became increasingly obvious
that maintenance of the prototype code and support was taking up large amounts of time that should
have been devoted to database research. In an effort to reduce this support burden, the Berkeley POST-
GRES project officially ended with Version 4.2.

2.2. Postgres95
In 1994, Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen added an SQL language interpreter to POSTGRES. Under a new
name, Postgres95 was subsequently released to the web to find its own way in the world as an open-
source descendant of the original POSTGRES Berkeley code.

Postgres95 code was completely ANSI C and trimmed in size by 25%. Many internal changes im-
proved performance and maintainability. Postgres95 release 1.0.x ran about 30-50% faster on the Wis-
consin Benchmark compared to POSTGRES, Version 4.2. Apart from bug fixes, the following were
the major enhancements:

• The query language PostQUEL was replaced with SQL (implemented in the server). (Interface li-
brary libpq was named after PostQUEL.) Subqueries were not supported until PostgreSQL (see be-
low), but they could be imitated in Postgres95 with user-defined SQL functions. Aggregate func-
tions were re-implemented. Support for the GROUP BY query clause was also added.

• A new program (psql) was provided for interactive SQL queries, which used GNU Readline. This
largely superseded the old monitor program.

• A new front-end library, libpgtcl, supported Tcl-based clients. A sample shell, pgtclsh, pro-
vided new Tcl commands to interface Tcl programs with the Postgres95 server.
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 Preface

• The large-object interface was overhauled. The inversion large objects were the only mechanism
for storing large objects. (The inversion file system was removed.)

• The instance-level rule system was removed. Rules were still available as rewrite rules.

• A short tutorial introducing regular SQL features as well as those of Postgres95 was distributed
with the source code

• GNU make (instead of BSD make) was used for the build. Also, Postgres95 could be compiled with
an unpatched GCC (data alignment of doubles was fixed).

2.3. PostgreSQL
By 1996, it became clear that the name “Postgres95” would not stand the test of time. We chose a new
name, PostgreSQL, to reflect the relationship between the original POSTGRES and the more recent
versions with SQL capability. At the same time, we set the version numbering to start at 6.0, putting
the numbers back into the sequence originally begun by the Berkeley POSTGRES project.

Many people continue to refer to PostgreSQL as “Postgres” (now rarely in all capital letters) because
of tradition or because it is easier to pronounce. This usage is widely accepted as a nickname or alias.

The emphasis during development of Postgres95 was on identifying and understanding existing prob-
lems in the server code. With PostgreSQL, the emphasis has shifted to augmenting features and capa-
bilities, although work continues in all areas.

Details about what has happened in PostgreSQL since then can be found in Appendix E.

3. Conventions
The following conventions are used in the synopsis of a command: brackets ([ and ]) indicate optional
parts. (In the synopsis of a Tcl command, question marks (?) are used instead, as is usual in Tcl.)
Braces ({ and }) and vertical lines (|) indicate that you must choose one alternative. Dots (...) mean
that the preceding element can be repeated.

Where it enhances the clarity, SQL commands are preceded by the prompt =>, and shell commands
are preceded by the prompt $. Normally, prompts are not shown, though.

An administrator is generally a person who is in charge of installing and running the server. A user
could be anyone who is using, or wants to use, any part of the PostgreSQL system. These terms
should not be interpreted too narrowly; this book does not have fixed presumptions about system
administration procedures.

4. Further Information
Besides the documentation, that is, this book, there are other resources about PostgreSQL:

Wiki

The PostgreSQL wiki5 contains the project's FAQ6 (Frequently Asked Questions) list, TODO7
list, and detailed information about many more topics.

Web Site

The PostgreSQL web site8 carries details on the latest release and other information to make your
work or play with PostgreSQL more productive.
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 Preface

Mailing Lists

The mailing lists are a good place to have your questions answered, to share experiences with
other users, and to contact the developers. Consult the PostgreSQL web site for details.

Yourself!

PostgreSQL is an open-source project. As such, it depends on the user community for ongoing
support. As you begin to use PostgreSQL, you will rely on others for help, either through the
documentation or through the mailing lists. Consider contributing your knowledge back. Read
the mailing lists and answer questions. If you learn something which is not in the documentation,
write it up and contribute it. If you add features to the code, contribute them.

5. Bug Reporting Guidelines

When you find a bug in PostgreSQL we want to hear about it. Your bug reports play an important part
in making PostgreSQL more reliable because even the utmost care cannot guarantee that every part
of PostgreSQL will work on every platform under every circumstance.

The following suggestions are intended to assist you in forming bug reports that can be handled in an
effective fashion. No one is required to follow them but doing so tends to be to everyone's advantage.

We cannot promise to fix every bug right away. If the bug is obvious, critical, or affects a lot of users,
chances are good that someone will look into it. It could also happen that we tell you to update to
a newer version to see if the bug happens there. Or we might decide that the bug cannot be fixed
before some major rewrite we might be planning is done. Or perhaps it is simply too hard and there are
more important things on the agenda. If you need help immediately, consider obtaining a commercial
support contract.

5.1. Identifying Bugs

Before you report a bug, please read and re-read the documentation to verify that you can really do
whatever it is you are trying. If it is not clear from the documentation whether you can do something
or not, please report that too; it is a bug in the documentation. If it turns out that a program does
something different from what the documentation says, that is a bug. That might include, but is not
limited to, the following circumstances:

• A program terminates with a fatal signal or an operating system error message that would point to
a problem in the program. (A counterexample might be a “disk full” message, since you have to
fix that yourself.)

• A program produces the wrong output for any given input.

• A program refuses to accept valid input (as defined in the documentation).

• A program accepts invalid input without a notice or error message. But keep in mind that your idea
of invalid input might be our idea of an extension or compatibility with traditional practice.

• PostgreSQL fails to compile, build, or install according to the instructions on supported platforms.

Here “program” refers to any executable, not only the backend process.

Being slow or resource-hogging is not necessarily a bug. Read the documentation or ask on one of
the mailing lists for help in tuning your applications. Failing to comply to the SQL standard is not
necessarily a bug either, unless compliance for the specific feature is explicitly claimed.

Before you continue, check on the TODO list and in the FAQ to see if your bug is already known.
If you cannot decode the information on the TODO list, report your problem. The least we can do is
make the TODO list clearer.

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 Preface

5.2. What to Report

The most important thing to remember about bug reporting is to state all the facts and only facts. Do
not speculate what you think went wrong, what “it seemed to do”, or which part of the program has a
fault. If you are not familiar with the implementation you would probably guess wrong and not help
us a bit. And even if you are, educated explanations are a great supplement to but no substitute for
facts. If we are going to fix the bug we still have to see it happen for ourselves first. Reporting the
bare facts is relatively straightforward (you can probably copy and paste them from the screen) but
all too often important details are left out because someone thought it does not matter or the report
would be understood anyway.

The following items should be contained in every bug report:

• The exact sequence of steps from program start-up necessary to reproduce the problem. This should
be self-contained; it is not enough to send in a bare SELECT statement without the preceding CRE-
ATE TABLE and INSERT statements, if the output should depend on the data in the tables. We
do not have the time to reverse-engineer your database schema, and if we are supposed to make up
our own data we would probably miss the problem.

The best format for a test case for SQL-related problems is a file that can be run through the psql
frontend that shows the problem. (Be sure to not have anything in your ~/.psqlrc start-up file.)
An easy way to create this file is to use pg_dump to dump out the table declarations and data needed
to set the scene, then add the problem query. You are encouraged to minimize the size of your
example, but this is not absolutely necessary. If the bug is reproducible, we will find it either way.

If your application uses some other client interface, such as PHP, then please try to isolate the
offending queries. We will probably not set up a web server to reproduce your problem. In any case
remember to provide the exact input files; do not guess that the problem happens for “large files”
or “midsize databases”, etc. since this information is too inexact to be of use.

• The output you got. Please do not say that it “didn't work” or “crashed”. If there is an error message,
show it, even if you do not understand it. If the program terminates with an operating system error,
say which. If nothing at all happens, say so. Even if the result of your test case is a program crash
or otherwise obvious it might not happen on our platform. The easiest thing is to copy the output
from the terminal, if possible.

Note
If you are reporting an error message, please obtain the most verbose form of the
message. In psql, say \set VERBOSITY verbose beforehand. If you are ex-
tracting the message from the server log, set the run-time parameter log_error_ver-
bosity to verbose so that all details are logged.

Note
In case of fatal errors, the error message reported by the client might not contain all
the information available. Please also look at the log output of the database server. If
you do not keep your server's log output, this would be a good time to start doing so.

• The output you expected is very important to state. If you just write “This command gives me that
output.” or “This is not what I expected.”, we might run it ourselves, scan the output, and think it
looks OK and is exactly what we expected. We should not have to spend the time to decode the
exact semantics behind your commands. Especially refrain from merely saying that “This is not
what SQL says/Oracle does.” Digging out the correct behavior from SQL is not a fun undertaking,

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 Preface

nor do we all know how all the other relational databases out there behave. (If your problem is a
program crash, you can obviously omit this item.)

• Any command line options and other start-up options, including any relevant environment variables
or configuration files that you changed from the default. Again, please provide exact information.
If you are using a prepackaged distribution that starts the database server at boot time, you should
try to find out how that is done.

• Anything you did at all differently from the installation instructions.

• The PostgreSQL version. You can run the command SELECT version(); to find out the version
of the server you are connected to. Most executable programs also support a --version option;
at least postgres --version and psql --version should work. If the function or the
options do not exist then your version is more than old enough to warrant an upgrade. If you run a
prepackaged version, such as RPMs, say so, including any subversion the package might have. If
you are talking about a Git snapshot, mention that, including the commit hash.

If your version is older than 12.0 we will almost certainly tell you to upgrade. There are many bug
fixes and improvements in each new release, so it is quite possible that a bug you have encountered
in an older release of PostgreSQL has already been fixed. We can only provide limited support
for sites using older releases of PostgreSQL; if you require more than we can provide, consider
acquiring a commercial support contract.

• Platform information. This includes the kernel name and version, C library, processor, memory
information, and so on. In most cases it is sufficient to report the vendor and version, but do not
assume everyone knows what exactly “Debian” contains or that everyone runs on x86_64. If you
have installation problems then information about the toolchain on your machine (compiler, make,
and so on) is also necessary.

Do not be afraid if your bug report becomes rather lengthy. That is a fact of life. It is better to report
everything the first time than us having to squeeze the facts out of you. On the other hand, if your
input files are huge, it is fair to ask first whether somebody is interested in looking into it. Here is an
article9 that outlines some more tips on reporting bugs.

Do not spend all your time to figure out which changes in the input make the problem go away. This
will probably not help solving it. If it turns out that the bug cannot be fixed right away, you will still
have time to find and share your work-around. Also, once again, do not waste your time guessing why
the bug exists. We will find that out soon enough.

When writing a bug report, please avoid confusing terminology. The software package in total is
called “PostgreSQL”, sometimes “Postgres” for short. If you are specifically talking about the backend
process, mention that, do not just say “PostgreSQL crashes”. A crash of a single backend process
is quite different from crash of the parent “postgres” process; please don't say “the server crashed”
when you mean a single backend process went down, nor vice versa. Also, client programs such as the
interactive frontend “psql” are completely separate from the backend. Please try to be specific about
whether the problem is on the client or server side.

5.3. Where to Report Bugs

In general, send bug reports to the bug report mailing list at <[email protected]
gresql.org>. You are requested to use a descriptive subject for your email message, perhaps parts
of the error message.

Another method is to fill in the bug report web-form available at the project's web site10. Entering
a bug report this way causes it to be mailed to the <[email protected]>
mailing list.
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If your bug report has security implications and you'd prefer that it not become immediately visible
in public archives, don't send it to pgsql-bugs. Security issues can be reported privately to <se-
[email protected]>.

Do not send bug reports to any of the user mailing lists, such as <[email protected]
gresql.org> or <[email protected]>. These mailing lists are for
answering user questions, and their subscribers normally do not wish to receive bug reports. More
importantly, they are unlikely to fix them.

Also, please do not send reports to the developers' mailing list <[email protected]
gresql.org>. This list is for discussing the development of PostgreSQL, and it would be nice if we
could keep the bug reports separate. We might choose to take up a discussion about your bug report
on pgsql-hackers, if the problem needs more review.

If you have a problem with the documentation, the best place to report it is the documentation mailing
list <[email protected]>. Please be specific about what part of the docu-
mentation you are unhappy with.

If your bug is a portability problem on a non-supported platform, send mail to <pgsql-hacker-

[email protected]>, so we (and you) can work on porting PostgreSQL to your platform.

Note
Due to the unfortunate amount of spam going around, all of the above lists will be
moderated unless you are subscribed. That means there will be some delay before the
email is delivered. If you wish to subscribe to the lists, please visit https://lists.post-
gresql.org/ for instructions.

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 Part I. Tutorial
Welcome to the PostgreSQL Tutorial. The following few chapters are intended to give a simple introduction to
PostgreSQL, relational database concepts, and the SQL language to those who are new to any one of these aspects.
We only assume some general knowledge about how to use computers. No particular Unix or programming ex-
perience is required. This part is mainly intended to give you some hands-on experience with important aspects
of the PostgreSQL system. It makes no attempt to be a complete or thorough treatment of the topics it covers.

After you have worked through this tutorial you might want to move on to reading Part II to gain a more formal
knowledge of the SQL language, or Part IV for information about developing applications for PostgreSQL. Those
who set up and manage their own server should also read Part III.
Table of Contents
1. Getting Started .......................................................................................................... 3
1.1. Installation ..................................................................................................... 3
1.2. Architectural Fundamentals ............................................................................... 3
1.3. Creating a Database ......................................................................................... 3
1.4. Accessing a Database ...................................................................................... 5
2. The SQL Language .................................................................................................... 7
2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 7
2.2. Concepts ........................................................................................................ 7
2.3. Creating a New Table ...................................................................................... 7
2.4. Populating a Table With Rows .......................................................................... 8
2.5. Querying a Table ............................................................................................ 9
2.6. Joins Between Tables ..................................................................................... 11
2.7. Aggregate Functions ...................................................................................... 13
2.8. Updates ....................................................................................................... 15
2.9. Deletions ...................................................................................................... 15
3. Advanced Features ................................................................................................... 16
3.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 16
3.2. Views .......................................................................................................... 16
3.3. Foreign Keys ................................................................................................ 16
3.4. Transactions ................................................................................................. 17
3.5. Window Functions ......................................................................................... 19
3.6. Inheritance ................................................................................................... 22
3.7. Conclusion ................................................................................................... 23

2
Chapter 1. Getting Started
1.1. Installation
Before you can use PostgreSQL you need to install it, of course. It is possible that PostgreSQL is
already installed at your site, either because it was included in your operating system distribution
or because the system administrator already installed it. If that is the case, you should obtain infor-
mation from the operating system documentation or your system administrator about how to access
PostgreSQL.

If you are not sure whether PostgreSQL is already available or whether you can use it for your exper-
imentation then you can install it yourself. Doing so is not hard and it can be a good exercise. Post-
greSQL can be installed by any unprivileged user; no superuser (root) access is required.

If you are installing PostgreSQL yourself, then refer to Chapter 16 for instructions on installation,
and return to this guide when the installation is complete. Be sure to follow closely the section about
setting up the appropriate environment variables.

If your site administrator has not set things up in the default way, you might have some more work to
do. For example, if the database server machine is a remote machine, you will need to set the PGHOST
environment variable to the name of the database server machine. The environment variable PGPORT
might also have to be set. The bottom line is this: if you try to start an application program and it
complains that it cannot connect to the database, you should consult your site administrator or, if
that is you, the documentation to make sure that your environment is properly set up. If you did not
understand the preceding paragraph then read the next section.

1.2. Architectural Fundamentals

Before we proceed, you should understand the basic PostgreSQL system architecture. Understanding
how the parts of PostgreSQL interact will make this chapter somewhat clearer.

In database jargon, PostgreSQL uses a client/server model. A PostgreSQL session consists of the
following cooperating processes (programs):

• A server process, which manages the database files, accepts connections to the database from client
applications, and performs database actions on behalf of the clients. The database server program
is called postgres.

• The user's client (frontend) application that wants to perform database operations. Client applica-
tions can be very diverse in nature: a client could be a text-oriented tool, a graphical application, a
web server that accesses the database to display web pages, or a specialized database maintenance
tool. Some client applications are supplied with the PostgreSQL distribution; most are developed
by users.

As is typical of client/server applications, the client and the server can be on different hosts. In that
case they communicate over a TCP/IP network connection. You should keep this in mind, because
the files that can be accessed on a client machine might not be accessible (or might only be accessible
using a different file name) on the database server machine.

The PostgreSQL server can handle multiple concurrent connections from clients. To achieve this it
starts (“forks”) a new process for each connection. From that point on, the client and the new serv-
er process communicate without intervention by the original postgres process. Thus, the master
server process is always running, waiting for client connections, whereas client and associated server
processes come and go. (All of this is of course invisible to the user. We only mention it here for
completeness.)

1.3. Creating a Database

3
 Getting Started

The first test to see whether you can access the database server is to try to create a database. A running
PostgreSQL server can manage many databases. Typically, a separate database is used for each project
or for each user.

Possibly, your site administrator has already created a database for your use. In that case you can omit
this step and skip ahead to the next section.

To create a new database, in this example named mydb, you use the following command:

$ createdb mydb

If this produces no response then this step was successful and you can skip over the remainder of
this section.

If you see a message similar to:

createdb: command not found

then PostgreSQL was not installed properly. Either it was not installed at all or your shell's search path
was not set to include it. Try calling the command with an absolute path instead:

$ /usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb mydb

The path at your site might be different. Contact your site administrator or check the installation in-
structions to correct the situation.

Another response could be this:

createdb: could not connect to database postgres: could not connect

to server: No such file or directory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PGSQL.5432"?

This means that the server was not started, or it was not started where createdb expected it. Again,
check the installation instructions or consult the administrator.

Another response could be this:

createdb: could not connect to database postgres: FATAL: role

"joe" does not exist

where your own login name is mentioned. This will happen if the administrator has not created a
PostgreSQL user account for you. (PostgreSQL user accounts are distinct from operating system user
accounts.) If you are the administrator, see Chapter 21 for help creating accounts. You will need to
become the operating system user under which PostgreSQL was installed (usually postgres) to
create the first user account. It could also be that you were assigned a PostgreSQL user name that is
different from your operating system user name; in that case you need to use the -U switch or set the
PGUSER environment variable to specify your PostgreSQL user name.

If you have a user account but it does not have the privileges required to create a database, you will
see the following:

createdb: database creation failed: ERROR: permission denied to

create database

4
 Getting Started

Not every user has authorization to create new databases. If PostgreSQL refuses to create databases
for you then the site administrator needs to grant you permission to create databases. Consult your
site administrator if this occurs. If you installed PostgreSQL yourself then you should log in for the
purposes of this tutorial under the user account that you started the server as. 1

You can also create databases with other names. PostgreSQL allows you to create any number of
databases at a given site. Database names must have an alphabetic first character and are limited to
63 bytes in length. A convenient choice is to create a database with the same name as your current
user name. Many tools assume that database name as the default, so it can save you some typing. To
create that database, simply type:

$ createdb

If you do not want to use your database anymore you can remove it. For example, if you are the owner
(creator) of the database mydb, you can destroy it using the following command:

$ dropdb mydb

(For this command, the database name does not default to the user account name. You always need to
specify it.) This action physically removes all files associated with the database and cannot be undone,
so this should only be done with a great deal of forethought.

More about createdb and dropdb can be found in createdb and dropdb respectively.

1.4. Accessing a Database

Once you have created a database, you can access it by:

• Running the PostgreSQL interactive terminal program, called psql, which allows you to interac-
tively enter, edit, and execute SQL commands.
• Using an existing graphical frontend tool like pgAdmin or an office suite with ODBC or JDBC
support to create and manipulate a database. These possibilities are not covered in this tutorial.
• Writing a custom application, using one of the several available language bindings. These possibil-
ities are discussed further in Part IV.

You probably want to start up psql to try the examples in this tutorial. It can be activated for the
mydb database by typing the command:

$ psql mydb

If you do not supply the database name then it will default to your user account name. You already
discovered this scheme in the previous section using createdb.

In psql, you will be greeted with the following message:

psql (12.0)
Type "help" for help.

mydb=>

The last line could also be:

1
As an explanation for why this works: PostgreSQL user names are separate from operating system user accounts. When you connect to a
database, you can choose what PostgreSQL user name to connect as; if you don't, it will default to the same name as your current operating
system account. As it happens, there will always be a PostgreSQL user account that has the same name as the operating system user that started
the server, and it also happens that that user always has permission to create databases. Instead of logging in as that user you can also specify
the -U option everywhere to select a PostgreSQL user name to connect as.

5
 Getting Started

mydb=#

That would mean you are a database superuser, which is most likely the case if you installed the
PostgreSQL instance yourself. Being a superuser means that you are not subject to access controls.
For the purposes of this tutorial that is not important.

If you encounter problems starting psql then go back to the previous section. The diagnostics of
createdb and psql are similar, and if the former worked the latter should work as well.

The last line printed out by psql is the prompt, and it indicates that psql is listening to you and that
you can type SQL queries into a work space maintained by psql. Try out these commands:

mydb=> SELECT version();

version
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PostgreSQL 12.0 on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian
4.9.2-10) 4.9.2, 64-bit
(1 row)

mydb=> SELECT current_date;

date
------------
2016-01-07
(1 row)

mydb=> SELECT 2 + 2;
?column?
----------
4
(1 row)

The psql program has a number of internal commands that are not SQL commands. They begin with
the backslash character, “\”. For example, you can get help on the syntax of various PostgreSQL SQL
commands by typing:

mydb=> \h

To get out of psql, type:

mydb=> \q

and psql will quit and return you to your command shell. (For more internal commands, type \? at
the psql prompt.) The full capabilities of psql are documented in psql. In this tutorial we will not
use these features explicitly, but you can use them yourself when it is helpful.

6
Chapter 2. The SQL Language
2.1. Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of how to use SQL to perform simple operations. This tutorial is
only intended to give you an introduction and is in no way a complete tutorial on SQL. Numerous
books have been written on SQL, including [melt93] and [date97]. You should be aware that some
PostgreSQL language features are extensions to the standard.

In the examples that follow, we assume that you have created a database named mydb, as described
in the previous chapter, and have been able to start psql.

Examples in this manual can also be found in the PostgreSQL source distribution in the directory
src/tutorial/. (Binary distributions of PostgreSQL might not compile these files.) To use those
files, first change to that directory and run make:

$ cd ..../src/tutorial
$ make

This creates the scripts and compiles the C files containing user-defined functions and types. Then,
to start the tutorial, do the following:

$ cd ..../tutorial
$ psql -s mydb

...

mydb=> \i basics.sql

The \i command reads in commands from the specified file. psql's -s option puts you in single step
mode which pauses before sending each statement to the server. The commands used in this section
are in the file basics.sql.

2.2. Concepts
PostgreSQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS). That means it is a system for
managing data stored in relations. Relation is essentially a mathematical term for table. The notion
of storing data in tables is so commonplace today that it might seem inherently obvious, but there
are a number of other ways of organizing databases. Files and directories on Unix-like operating sys-
tems form an example of a hierarchical database. A more modern development is the object-oriented
database.

Each table is a named collection of rows. Each row of a given table has the same set of named
columns, and each column is of a specific data type. Whereas columns have a fixed order in each row,
it is important to remember that SQL does not guarantee the order of the rows within the table in any
way (although they can be explicitly sorted for display).

Tables are grouped into databases, and a collection of databases managed by a single PostgreSQL
server instance constitutes a database cluster.

2.3. Creating a New Table

You can create a new table by specifying the table name, along with all column names and their types:

7
 The SQL Language

CREATE TABLE weather (

city varchar(80),
temp_lo int, -- low temperature
temp_hi int, -- high temperature
prcp real, -- precipitation
date date
);

You can enter this into psql with the line breaks. psql will recognize that the command is not
terminated until the semicolon.

White space (i.e., spaces, tabs, and newlines) can be used freely in SQL commands. That means you
can type the command aligned differently than above, or even all on one line. Two dashes (“--”)
introduce comments. Whatever follows them is ignored up to the end of the line. SQL is case insen-
sitive about key words and identifiers, except when identifiers are double-quoted to preserve the case
(not done above).

varchar(80) specifies a data type that can store arbitrary character strings up to 80 characters
in length. int is the normal integer type. real is a type for storing single precision floating-point
numbers. date should be self-explanatory. (Yes, the column of type date is also named date. This
might be convenient or confusing — you choose.)

PostgreSQL supports the standard SQL types int, smallint, real, double precision,
char(N), varchar(N), date, time, timestamp, and interval, as well as other types of
general utility and a rich set of geometric types. PostgreSQL can be customized with an arbitrary
number of user-defined data types. Consequently, type names are not key words in the syntax, except
where required to support special cases in the SQL standard.

The second example will store cities and their associated geographical location:

CREATE TABLE cities (

name varchar(80),
location point
);

The point type is an example of a PostgreSQL-specific data type.

Finally, it should be mentioned that if you don't need a table any longer or want to recreate it differently
you can remove it using the following command:

DROP TABLE tablename;

2.4. Populating a Table With Rows

The INSERT statement is used to populate a table with rows:

INSERT INTO weather VALUES ('San Francisco', 46, 50, 0.25,

'1994-11-27');

Note that all data types use rather obvious input formats. Constants that are not simple numeric values
usually must be surrounded by single quotes ('), as in the example. The date type is actually quite
flexible in what it accepts, but for this tutorial we will stick to the unambiguous format shown here.

The point type requires a coordinate pair as input, as shown here:

8
 The SQL Language

INSERT INTO cities VALUES ('San Francisco', '(-194.0, 53.0)');

The syntax used so far requires you to remember the order of the columns. An alternative syntax allows
you to list the columns explicitly:

INSERT INTO weather (city, temp_lo, temp_hi, prcp, date)

VALUES ('San Francisco', 43, 57, 0.0, '1994-11-29');

You can list the columns in a different order if you wish or even omit some columns, e.g., if the
precipitation is unknown:

INSERT INTO weather (date, city, temp_hi, temp_lo)

VALUES ('1994-11-29', 'Hayward', 54, 37);

Many developers consider explicitly listing the columns better style than relying on the order implic-
itly.

Please enter all the commands shown above so you have some data to work with in the following
sections.

You could also have used COPY to load large amounts of data from flat-text files. This is usually
faster because the COPY command is optimized for this application while allowing less flexibility than
INSERT. An example would be:

COPY weather FROM '/home/user/weather.txt';

where the file name for the source file must be available on the machine running the backend process,
not the client, since the backend process reads the file directly. You can read more about the COPY
command in COPY.

2.5. Querying a Table

To retrieve data from a table, the table is queried. An SQL SELECT statement is used to do this. The
statement is divided into a select list (the part that lists the columns to be returned), a table list (the
part that lists the tables from which to retrieve the data), and an optional qualification (the part that
specifies any restrictions). For example, to retrieve all the rows of table weather, type:

SELECT * FROM weather;

Here * is a shorthand for “all columns”. 1 So the same result would be had with:

SELECT city, temp_lo, temp_hi, prcp, date FROM weather;

The output should be:

city | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date

---------------+---------+---------+------+------------
San Francisco | 46 | 50 | 0.25 | 1994-11-27
San Francisco | 43 | 57 | 0 | 1994-11-29
Hayward | 37 | 54 | | 1994-11-29
(3 rows)
1
While SELECT * is useful for off-the-cuff queries, it is widely considered bad style in production code, since adding a column to the table
would change the results.

9
 The SQL Language

You can write expressions, not just simple column references, in the select list. For example, you can
do:

SELECT city, (temp_hi+temp_lo)/2 AS temp_avg, date FROM weather;

This should give:

city | temp_avg | date

---------------+----------+------------
San Francisco | 48 | 1994-11-27
San Francisco | 50 | 1994-11-29
Hayward | 45 | 1994-11-29
(3 rows)

Notice how the AS clause is used to relabel the output column. (The AS clause is optional.)

A query can be “qualified” by adding a WHERE clause that specifies which rows are wanted. The
WHERE clause contains a Boolean (truth value) expression, and only rows for which the Boolean
expression is true are returned. The usual Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) are allowed in the
qualification. For example, the following retrieves the weather of San Francisco on rainy days:

SELECT * FROM weather

WHERE city = 'San Francisco' AND prcp > 0.0;

Result:

city | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date

---------------+---------+---------+------+------------
San Francisco | 46 | 50 | 0.25 | 1994-11-27
(1 row)

You can request that the results of a query be returned in sorted order:

SELECT * FROM weather

ORDER BY city;

city | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date

---------------+---------+---------+------+------------
Hayward | 37 | 54 | | 1994-11-29
San Francisco | 43 | 57 | 0 | 1994-11-29
San Francisco | 46 | 50 | 0.25 | 1994-11-27

In this example, the sort order isn't fully specified, and so you might get the San Francisco rows in
either order. But you'd always get the results shown above if you do:

SELECT * FROM weather

ORDER BY city, temp_lo;

You can request that duplicate rows be removed from the result of a query:

SELECT DISTINCT city

FROM weather;

10
 The SQL Language

city
---------------
Hayward
San Francisco
(2 rows)

Here again, the result row ordering might vary. You can ensure consistent results by using DISTINCT
and ORDER BY together: 2

SELECT DISTINCT city

FROM weather
ORDER BY city;

2.6. Joins Between Tables

Thus far, our queries have only accessed one table at a time. Queries can access multiple tables at
once, or access the same table in such a way that multiple rows of the table are being processed at the
same time. A query that accesses multiple rows of the same or different tables at one time is called a
join query. As an example, say you wish to list all the weather records together with the location of
the associated city. To do that, we need to compare the city column of each row of the weather
table with the name column of all rows in the cities table, and select the pairs of rows where these
values match.

Note
This is only a conceptual model. The join is usually performed in a more efficient
manner than actually comparing each possible pair of rows, but this is invisible to the
user.

This would be accomplished by the following query:

SELECT *
FROM weather, cities
WHERE city = name;

city | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date | name

| location
---------------+---------+---------+------+------------
+---------------+-----------
San Francisco | 46 | 50 | 0.25 | 1994-11-27 | San
Francisco | (-194,53)
San Francisco | 43 | 57 | 0 | 1994-11-29 | San
Francisco | (-194,53)
(2 rows)

Observe two things about the result set:

• There is no result row for the city of Hayward. This is because there is no matching entry in the
cities table for Hayward, so the join ignores the unmatched rows in the weather table. We
will see shortly how this can be fixed.
2
In some database systems, including older versions of PostgreSQL, the implementation of DISTINCT automatically orders the rows and
so ORDER BY is unnecessary. But this is not required by the SQL standard, and current PostgreSQL does not guarantee that DISTINCT
causes the rows to be ordered.

11
 The SQL Language

• There are two columns containing the city name. This is correct because the lists of columns from
the weather and cities tables are concatenated. In practice this is undesirable, though, so you
will probably want to list the output columns explicitly rather than using *:

SELECT city, temp_lo, temp_hi, prcp, date, location

FROM weather, cities
WHERE city = name;

Exercise: Attempt to determine the semantics of this query when the WHERE clause is omitted.

Since the columns all had different names, the parser automatically found which table they belong
to. If there were duplicate column names in the two tables you'd need to qualify the column names
to show which one you meant, as in:

SELECT weather.city, weather.temp_lo, weather.temp_hi,

weather.prcp, weather.date, cities.location
FROM weather, cities
WHERE cities.name = weather.city;

It is widely considered good style to qualify all column names in a join query, so that the query won't
fail if a duplicate column name is later added to one of the tables.

Join queries of the kind seen thus far can also be written in this alternative form:

SELECT *
FROM weather INNER JOIN cities ON (weather.city = cities.name);

This syntax is not as commonly used as the one above, but we show it here to help you understand
the following topics.

Now we will figure out how we can get the Hayward records back in. What we want the query to do
is to scan the weather table and for each row to find the matching cities row(s). If no matching
row is found we want some “empty values” to be substituted for the cities table's columns. This
kind of query is called an outer join. (The joins we have seen so far are inner joins.) The command
looks like this:

SELECT *
FROM weather LEFT OUTER JOIN cities ON (weather.city =
cities.name);

city | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date | name

| location
---------------+---------+---------+------+------------
+---------------+-----------
Hayward | 37 | 54 | | 1994-11-29 |
|
San Francisco | 46 | 50 | 0.25 | 1994-11-27 | San
Francisco | (-194,53)
San Francisco | 43 | 57 | 0 | 1994-11-29 | San
Francisco | (-194,53)
(3 rows)

This query is called a left outer join because the table mentioned on the left of the join operator will
have each of its rows in the output at least once, whereas the table on the right will only have those
rows output that match some row of the left table. When outputting a left-table row for which there is
no right-table match, empty (null) values are substituted for the right-table columns.

12
 The SQL Language

Exercise: There are also right outer joins and full outer joins. Try to find out what those do.

We can also join a table against itself. This is called a self join. As an example, suppose we wish to
find all the weather records that are in the temperature range of other weather records. So we need to
compare the temp_lo and temp_hi columns of each weather row to the temp_lo and tem-
p_hi columns of all other weather rows. We can do this with the following query:

SELECT W1.city, W1.temp_lo AS low, W1.temp_hi AS high,

W2.city, W2.temp_lo AS low, W2.temp_hi AS high
FROM weather W1, weather W2
WHERE W1.temp_lo < W2.temp_lo
AND W1.temp_hi > W2.temp_hi;

city | low | high | city | low | high

---------------+-----+------+---------------+-----+------
San Francisco | 43 | 57 | San Francisco | 46 | 50
Hayward | 37 | 54 | San Francisco | 46 | 50
(2 rows)

Here we have relabeled the weather table as W1 and W2 to be able to distinguish the left and right side
of the join. You can also use these kinds of aliases in other queries to save some typing, e.g.:

SELECT *
FROM weather w, cities c
WHERE w.city = c.name;

You will encounter this style of abbreviating quite frequently.

2.7. Aggregate Functions

Like most other relational database products, PostgreSQL supports aggregate functions. An aggregate
function computes a single result from multiple input rows. For example, there are aggregates to com-
pute the count, sum, avg (average), max (maximum) and min (minimum) over a set of rows.

As an example, we can find the highest low-temperature reading anywhere with:

SELECT max(temp_lo) FROM weather;

max
-----
46
(1 row)

If we wanted to know what city (or cities) that reading occurred in, we might try:

SELECT city FROM weather WHERE temp_lo = max(temp_lo); WRONG

but this will not work since the aggregate max cannot be used in the WHERE clause. (This restriction
exists because the WHERE clause determines which rows will be included in the aggregate calculation;
so obviously it has to be evaluated before aggregate functions are computed.) However, as is often the
case the query can be restated to accomplish the desired result, here by using a subquery:

SELECT city FROM weather

13
 The SQL Language

WHERE temp_lo = (SELECT max(temp_lo) FROM weather);

city
---------------
San Francisco
(1 row)

This is OK because the subquery is an independent computation that computes its own aggregate
separately from what is happening in the outer query.

Aggregates are also very useful in combination with GROUP BY clauses. For example, we can get
the maximum low temperature observed in each city with:

SELECT city, max(temp_lo)

FROM weather
GROUP BY city;

city | max
---------------+-----
Hayward | 37
San Francisco | 46
(2 rows)

which gives us one output row per city. Each aggregate result is computed over the table rows matching
that city. We can filter these grouped rows using HAVING:

SELECT city, max(temp_lo)

FROM weather
GROUP BY city
HAVING max(temp_lo) < 40;

city | max
---------+-----
Hayward | 37
(1 row)

which gives us the same results for only the cities that have all temp_lo values below 40. Finally,
if we only care about cities whose names begin with “S”, we might do:

SELECT city, max(temp_lo)

FROM weather
WHERE city LIKE 'S%' -- 1
GROUP BY city
HAVING max(temp_lo) < 40;

1 The LIKE operator does pattern matching and is explained in Section 9.7.

It is important to understand the interaction between aggregates and SQL's WHERE and HAVING claus-
es. The fundamental difference between WHERE and HAVING is this: WHERE selects input rows before
groups and aggregates are computed (thus, it controls which rows go into the aggregate computation),
whereas HAVING selects group rows after groups and aggregates are computed. Thus, the WHERE
clause must not contain aggregate functions; it makes no sense to try to use an aggregate to determine
which rows will be inputs to the aggregates. On the other hand, the HAVING clause always contains
aggregate functions. (Strictly speaking, you are allowed to write a HAVING clause that doesn't use

14
 The SQL Language

aggregates, but it's seldom useful. The same condition could be used more efficiently at the WHERE
stage.)

In the previous example, we can apply the city name restriction in WHERE, since it needs no aggregate.
This is more efficient than adding the restriction to HAVING, because we avoid doing the grouping
and aggregate calculations for all rows that fail the WHERE check.

2.8. Updates
You can update existing rows using the UPDATE command. Suppose you discover the temperature
readings are all off by 2 degrees after November 28. You can correct the data as follows:

UPDATE weather
SET temp_hi = temp_hi - 2, temp_lo = temp_lo - 2
WHERE date > '1994-11-28';

Look at the new state of the data:

SELECT * FROM weather;

city | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date

---------------+---------+---------+------+------------
San Francisco | 46 | 50 | 0.25 | 1994-11-27
San Francisco | 41 | 55 | 0 | 1994-11-29
Hayward | 35 | 52 | | 1994-11-29
(3 rows)

2.9. Deletions
Rows can be removed from a table using the DELETE command. Suppose you are no longer interested
in the weather of Hayward. Then you can do the following to delete those rows from the table:

DELETE FROM weather WHERE city = 'Hayward';

All weather records belonging to Hayward are removed.

SELECT * FROM weather;

city | temp_lo | temp_hi | prcp | date

---------------+---------+---------+------+------------
San Francisco | 46 | 50 | 0.25 | 1994-11-27
San Francisco | 41 | 55 | 0 | 1994-11-29
(2 rows)

One should be wary of statements of the form

DELETE FROM tablename;

Without a qualification, DELETE will remove all rows from the given table, leaving it empty. The
system will not request confirmation before doing this!

15
Chapter 3. Advanced Features
3.1. Introduction
In the previous chapter we have covered the basics of using SQL to store and access your data in
PostgreSQL. We will now discuss some more advanced features of SQL that simplify management
and prevent loss or corruption of your data. Finally, we will look at some PostgreSQL extensions.

This chapter will on occasion refer to examples found in Chapter 2 to change or improve them, so
it will be useful to have read that chapter. Some examples from this chapter can also be found in
advanced.sql in the tutorial directory. This file also contains some sample data to load, which is
not repeated here. (Refer to Section 2.1 for how to use the file.)

3.2. Views
Refer back to the queries in Section 2.6. Suppose the combined listing of weather records and city
location is of particular interest to your application, but you do not want to type the query each time
you need it. You can create a view over the query, which gives a name to the query that you can refer
to like an ordinary table:

CREATE VIEW myview AS

SELECT city, temp_lo, temp_hi, prcp, date, location
FROM weather, cities
WHERE city = name;

SELECT * FROM myview;

Making liberal use of views is a key aspect of good SQL database design. Views allow you to en-
capsulate the details of the structure of your tables, which might change as your application evolves,
behind consistent interfaces.

Views can be used in almost any place a real table can be used. Building views upon other views is
not uncommon.

3.3. Foreign Keys

Recall the weather and cities tables from Chapter 2. Consider the following problem: You want
to make sure that no one can insert rows in the weather table that do not have a matching entry
in the cities table. This is called maintaining the referential integrity of your data. In simplistic
database systems this would be implemented (if at all) by first looking at the cities table to check
if a matching record exists, and then inserting or rejecting the new weather records. This approach
has a number of problems and is very inconvenient, so PostgreSQL can do this for you.

The new declaration of the tables would look like this:

CREATE TABLE cities (

city varchar(80) primary key,
location point
);

CREATE TABLE weather (

city varchar(80) references cities(city),
temp_lo int,

16
 Advanced Features

temp_hi int,
prcp real,
date date
);

Now try inserting an invalid record:

INSERT INTO weather VALUES ('Berkeley', 45, 53, 0.0, '1994-11-28');

ERROR: insert or update on table "weather" violates foreign key

constraint "weather_city_fkey"
DETAIL: Key (city)=(Berkeley) is not present in table "cities".

The behavior of foreign keys can be finely tuned to your application. We will not go beyond this simple
example in this tutorial, but just refer you to Chapter 5 for more information. Making correct use of
foreign keys will definitely improve the quality of your database applications, so you are strongly
encouraged to learn about them.

3.4. Transactions
Transactions are a fundamental concept of all database systems. The essential point of a transaction is
that it bundles multiple steps into a single, all-or-nothing operation. The intermediate states between
the steps are not visible to other concurrent transactions, and if some failure occurs that prevents the
transaction from completing, then none of the steps affect the database at all.

For example, consider a bank database that contains balances for various customer accounts, as well as
total deposit balances for branches. Suppose that we want to record a payment of $100.00 from Alice's
account to Bob's account. Simplifying outrageously, the SQL commands for this might look like:

UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - 100.00

WHERE name = 'Alice';
UPDATE branches SET balance = balance - 100.00
WHERE name = (SELECT branch_name FROM accounts WHERE name =
'Alice');
UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance + 100.00
WHERE name = 'Bob';
UPDATE branches SET balance = balance + 100.00
WHERE name = (SELECT branch_name FROM accounts WHERE name =
'Bob');

The details of these commands are not important here; the important point is that there are several
separate updates involved to accomplish this rather simple operation. Our bank's officers will want to
be assured that either all these updates happen, or none of them happen. It would certainly not do for
a system failure to result in Bob receiving $100.00 that was not debited from Alice. Nor would Alice
long remain a happy customer if she was debited without Bob being credited. We need a guarantee
that if something goes wrong partway through the operation, none of the steps executed so far will
take effect. Grouping the updates into a transaction gives us this guarantee. A transaction is said to be
atomic: from the point of view of other transactions, it either happens completely or not at all.

We also want a guarantee that once a transaction is completed and acknowledged by the database
system, it has indeed been permanently recorded and won't be lost even if a crash ensues shortly
thereafter. For example, if we are recording a cash withdrawal by Bob, we do not want any chance that
the debit to his account will disappear in a crash just after he walks out the bank door. A transactional
database guarantees that all the updates made by a transaction are logged in permanent storage (i.e.,
on disk) before the transaction is reported complete.

17
 Advanced Features

Another important property of transactional databases is closely related to the notion of atomic up-
dates: when multiple transactions are running concurrently, each one should not be able to see the
incomplete changes made by others. For example, if one transaction is busy totalling all the branch
balances, it would not do for it to include the debit from Alice's branch but not the credit to Bob's
branch, nor vice versa. So transactions must be all-or-nothing not only in terms of their permanent
effect on the database, but also in terms of their visibility as they happen. The updates made so far by
an open transaction are invisible to other transactions until the transaction completes, whereupon all
the updates become visible simultaneously.

In PostgreSQL, a transaction is set up by surrounding the SQL commands of the transaction with
BEGIN and COMMIT commands. So our banking transaction would actually look like:

BEGIN;
UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - 100.00
WHERE name = 'Alice';
-- etc etc
COMMIT;

If, partway through the transaction, we decide we do not want to commit (perhaps we just noticed that
Alice's balance went negative), we can issue the command ROLLBACK instead of COMMIT, and all
our updates so far will be canceled.

PostgreSQL actually treats every SQL statement as being executed within a transaction. If you do not
issue a BEGIN command, then each individual statement has an implicit BEGIN and (if successful)
COMMIT wrapped around it. A group of statements surrounded by BEGIN and COMMIT is sometimes
called a transaction block.

Note
Some client libraries issue BEGIN and COMMIT commands automatically, so that you
might get the effect of transaction blocks without asking. Check the documentation
for the interface you are using.

It's possible to control the statements in a transaction in a more granular fashion through the use of
savepoints. Savepoints allow you to selectively discard parts of the transaction, while committing the
rest. After defining a savepoint with SAVEPOINT, you can if needed roll back to the savepoint with
ROLLBACK TO. All the transaction's database changes between defining the savepoint and rolling
back to it are discarded, but changes earlier than the savepoint are kept.

After rolling back to a savepoint, it continues to be defined, so you can roll back to it several times.
Conversely, if you are sure you won't need to roll back to a particular savepoint again, it can be
released, so the system can free some resources. Keep in mind that either releasing or rolling back to
a savepoint will automatically release all savepoints that were defined after it.

All this is happening within the transaction block, so none of it is visible to other database sessions.
When and if you commit the transaction block, the committed actions become visible as a unit to other
sessions, while the rolled-back actions never become visible at all.

Remembering the bank database, suppose we debit $100.00 from Alice's account, and credit Bob's
account, only to find later that we should have credited Wally's account. We could do it using save-
points like this:

BEGIN;
UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - 100.00
WHERE name = 'Alice';
SAVEPOINT my_savepoint;

18
 Advanced Features

UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance + 100.00

WHERE name = 'Bob';
-- oops ... forget that and use Wally's account
ROLLBACK TO my_savepoint;
UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance + 100.00
WHERE name = 'Wally';
COMMIT;

This example is, of course, oversimplified, but there's a lot of control possible in a transaction block
through the use of savepoints. Moreover, ROLLBACK TO is the only way to regain control of a
transaction block that was put in aborted state by the system due to an error, short of rolling it back
completely and starting again.

3.5. Window Functions

A window function performs a calculation across a set of table rows that are somehow related to the
current row. This is comparable to the type of calculation that can be done with an aggregate function.
However, window functions do not cause rows to become grouped into a single output row like non-
window aggregate calls would. Instead, the rows retain their separate identities. Behind the scenes,
the window function is able to access more than just the current row of the query result.

Here is an example that shows how to compare each employee's salary with the average salary in his
or her department:

SELECT depname, empno, salary, avg(salary) OVER (PARTITION BY

depname) FROM empsalary;

depname | empno | salary | avg

-----------+-------+--------+-----------------------
develop | 11 | 5200 | 5020.0000000000000000
develop | 7 | 4200 | 5020.0000000000000000
develop | 9 | 4500 | 5020.0000000000000000
develop | 8 | 6000 | 5020.0000000000000000
develop | 10 | 5200 | 5020.0000000000000000
personnel | 5 | 3500 | 3700.0000000000000000
personnel | 2 | 3900 | 3700.0000000000000000
sales | 3 | 4800 | 4866.6666666666666667
sales | 1 | 5000 | 4866.6666666666666667
sales | 4 | 4800 | 4866.6666666666666667
(10 rows)

The first three output columns come directly from the table empsalary, and there is one output row
for each row in the table. The fourth column represents an average taken across all the table rows
that have the same depname value as the current row. (This actually is the same function as the
non-window avg aggregate, but the OVER clause causes it to be treated as a window function and
computed across the window frame.)

A window function call always contains an OVER clause directly following the window function's
name and argument(s). This is what syntactically distinguishes it from a normal function or non-
window aggregate. The OVER clause determines exactly how the rows of the query are split up for
processing by the window function. The PARTITION BY clause within OVER divides the rows into
groups, or partitions, that share the same values of the PARTITION BY expression(s). For each row,
the window function is computed across the rows that fall into the same partition as the current row.

You can also control the order in which rows are processed by window functions using ORDER BY
within OVER. (The window ORDER BY does not even have to match the order in which the rows are
output.) Here is an example:

19
 Advanced Features

SELECT depname, empno, salary,

rank() OVER (PARTITION BY depname ORDER BY salary DESC)
FROM empsalary;

depname | empno | salary | rank

-----------+-------+--------+------
develop | 8 | 6000 | 1
develop | 10 | 5200 | 2
develop | 11 | 5200 | 2
develop | 9 | 4500 | 4
develop | 7 | 4200 | 5
personnel | 2 | 3900 | 1
personnel | 5 | 3500 | 2
sales | 1 | 5000 | 1
sales | 4 | 4800 | 2
sales | 3 | 4800 | 2
(10 rows)

As shown here, the rank function produces a numerical rank for each distinct ORDER BY value in
the current row's partition, using the order defined by the ORDER BY clause. rank needs no explicit
parameter, because its behavior is entirely determined by the OVER clause.

The rows considered by a window function are those of the “virtual table” produced by the query's
FROM clause as filtered by its WHERE, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses if any. For example, a row
removed because it does not meet the WHERE condition is not seen by any window function. A query
can contain multiple window functions that slice up the data in different ways using different OVER
clauses, but they all act on the same collection of rows defined by this virtual table.

We already saw that ORDER BY can be omitted if the ordering of rows is not important. It is also
possible to omit PARTITION BY, in which case there is a single partition containing all rows.

There is another important concept associated with window functions: for each row, there is a set of
rows within its partition called its window frame. Some window functions act only on the rows of the
window frame, rather than of the whole partition. By default, if ORDER BY is supplied then the frame
consists of all rows from the start of the partition up through the current row, plus any following rows
that are equal to the current row according to the ORDER BY clause. When ORDER BY is omitted the
default frame consists of all rows in the partition. 1 Here is an example using sum:

SELECT salary, sum(salary) OVER () FROM empsalary;

salary | sum
--------+-------
5200 | 47100
5000 | 47100
3500 | 47100
4800 | 47100
3900 | 47100
4200 | 47100
4500 | 47100
4800 | 47100
6000 | 47100
5200 | 47100
(10 rows)
1
There are options to define the window frame in other ways, but this tutorial does not cover them. See Section 4.2.8 for details.

20
 Advanced Features

Above, since there is no ORDER BY in the OVER clause, the window frame is the same as the partition,
which for lack of PARTITION BY is the whole table; in other words each sum is taken over the
whole table and so we get the same result for each output row. But if we add an ORDER BY clause,
we get very different results:

SELECT salary, sum(salary) OVER (ORDER BY salary) FROM empsalary;

salary | sum
--------+-------
3500 | 3500
3900 | 7400
4200 | 11600
4500 | 16100
4800 | 25700
4800 | 25700
5000 | 30700
5200 | 41100
5200 | 41100
6000 | 47100
(10 rows)

Here the sum is taken from the first (lowest) salary up through the current one, including any duplicates
of the current one (notice the results for the duplicated salaries).

Window functions are permitted only in the SELECT list and the ORDER BY clause of the query.
They are forbidden elsewhere, such as in GROUP BY, HAVING and WHERE clauses. This is because
they logically execute after the processing of those clauses. Also, window functions execute after
non-window aggregate functions. This means it is valid to include an aggregate function call in the
arguments of a window function, but not vice versa.

If there is a need to filter or group rows after the window calculations are performed, you can use a
sub-select. For example:

SELECT depname, empno, salary, enroll_date

FROM
(SELECT depname, empno, salary, enroll_date,
rank() OVER (PARTITION BY depname ORDER BY salary DESC,
empno) AS pos
FROM empsalary
) AS ss
WHERE pos < 3;

The above query only shows the rows from the inner query having rank less than 3.

When a query involves multiple window functions, it is possible to write out each one with a separate
OVER clause, but this is duplicative and error-prone if the same windowing behavior is wanted for
several functions. Instead, each windowing behavior can be named in a WINDOW clause and then
referenced in OVER. For example:

SELECT sum(salary) OVER w, avg(salary) OVER w

FROM empsalary
WINDOW w AS (PARTITION BY depname ORDER BY salary DESC);

More details about window functions can be found in Section 4.2.8, Section 9.21, Section 7.2.5, and
the SELECT reference page.

21
 Advanced Features

3.6. Inheritance
Inheritance is a concept from object-oriented databases. It opens up interesting new possibilities of
database design.

Let's create two tables: A table cities and a table capitals. Naturally, capitals are also cities,
so you want some way to show the capitals implicitly when you list all cities. If you're really clever
you might invent some scheme like this:

CREATE TABLE capitals (

name text,
population real,
altitude int, -- (in ft)
state char(2)
);

CREATE TABLE non_capitals (

name text,
population real,
altitude int -- (in ft)
);

CREATE VIEW cities AS

SELECT name, population, altitude FROM capitals
UNION
SELECT name, population, altitude FROM non_capitals;

This works OK as far as querying goes, but it gets ugly when you need to update several rows, for
one thing.

A better solution is this:

CREATE TABLE cities (

name text,
population real,
altitude int -- (in ft)
);

CREATE TABLE capitals (

state char(2)
) INHERITS (cities);

In this case, a row of capitals inherits all columns (name, population, and altitude) from
its parent, cities. The type of the column name is text, a native PostgreSQL type for variable
length character strings. State capitals have an extra column, state, that shows their state. In Post-
greSQL, a table can inherit from zero or more other tables.

For example, the following query finds the names of all cities, including state capitals, that are located
at an altitude over 500 feet:

SELECT name, altitude

FROM cities
WHERE altitude > 500;

which returns:

22
 Advanced Features

name | altitude
-----------+----------
Las Vegas | 2174
Mariposa | 1953
Madison | 845
(3 rows)

On the other hand, the following query finds all the cities that are not state capitals and are situated
at an altitude over 500 feet:

SELECT name, altitude

FROM ONLY cities
WHERE altitude > 500;

name | altitude
-----------+----------
Las Vegas | 2174
Mariposa | 1953
(2 rows)

Here the ONLY before cities indicates that the query should be run over only the cities table, and
not tables below cities in the inheritance hierarchy. Many of the commands that we have already
discussed — SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE — support this ONLY notation.

Note
Although inheritance is frequently useful, it has not been integrated with unique con-
straints or foreign keys, which limits its usefulness. See Section 5.10 for more detail.

3.7. Conclusion
PostgreSQL has many features not touched upon in this tutorial introduction, which has been oriented
toward newer users of SQL. These features are discussed in more detail in the remainder of this book.

If you feel you need more introductory material, please visit the PostgreSQL web site2 for links to
more resources.

2
https://www.postgresql.org

23
 Part II. The SQL Language
This part describes the use of the SQL language in PostgreSQL. We start with describing the general syntax of
SQL, then explain how to create the structures to hold data, how to populate the database, and how to query it. The
middle part lists the available data types and functions for use in SQL commands. The rest treats several aspects
that are important for tuning a database for optimal performance.

The information in this part is arranged so that a novice user can follow it start to end to gain a full understanding
of the topics without having to refer forward too many times. The chapters are intended to be self-contained, so
that advanced users can read the chapters individually as they choose. The information in this part is presented in
a narrative fashion in topical units. Readers looking for a complete description of a particular command should
see Part VI.

Readers of this part should know how to connect to a PostgreSQL database and issue SQL commands. Readers
that are unfamiliar with these issues are encouraged to read Part I first. SQL commands are typically entered using
the PostgreSQL interactive terminal psql, but other programs that have similar functionality can be used as well.
Table of Contents
4. SQL Syntax ............................................................................................................ 32
4.1. Lexical Structure ........................................................................................... 32
4.1.1. Identifiers and Key Words .................................................................... 32
4.1.2. Constants ........................................................................................... 34
4.1.3. Operators ........................................................................................... 38
4.1.4. Special Characters ............................................................................... 39
4.1.5. Comments ......................................................................................... 39
4.1.6. Operator Precedence ............................................................................ 40
4.2. Value Expressions ......................................................................................... 41
4.2.1. Column References ............................................................................. 42
4.2.2. Positional Parameters ........................................................................... 42
4.2.3. Subscripts .......................................................................................... 42
4.2.4. Field Selection .................................................................................... 43
4.2.5. Operator Invocations ........................................................................... 43
4.2.6. Function Calls .................................................................................... 44
4.2.7. Aggregate Expressions ......................................................................... 44
4.2.8. Window Function Calls ........................................................................ 46
4.2.9. Type Casts ......................................................................................... 49
4.2.10. Collation Expressions ......................................................................... 50
4.2.11. Scalar Subqueries .............................................................................. 51
4.2.12. Array Constructors ............................................................................ 51
4.2.13. Row Constructors .............................................................................. 52
4.2.14. Expression Evaluation Rules ............................................................... 54
4.3. Calling Functions .......................................................................................... 55
4.3.1. Using Positional Notation ..................................................................... 56
4.3.2. Using Named Notation ......................................................................... 56
4.3.3. Using Mixed Notation ......................................................................... 57
5. Data Definition ........................................................................................................ 58
5.1. Table Basics ................................................................................................. 58
5.2. Default Values .............................................................................................. 59
5.3. Generated Columns ........................................................................................ 60
5.4. Constraints ................................................................................................... 61
5.4.1. Check Constraints ............................................................................... 61
5.4.2. Not-Null Constraints ............................................................................ 63
5.4.3. Unique Constraints .............................................................................. 64
5.4.4. Primary Keys ..................................................................................... 65
5.4.5. Foreign Keys ...................................................................................... 66
5.4.6. Exclusion Constraints .......................................................................... 68
5.5. System Columns ........................................................................................... 69
5.6. Modifying Tables .......................................................................................... 69
5.6.1. Adding a Column ............................................................................... 70
5.6.2. Removing a Column ............................................................................ 70
5.6.3. Adding a Constraint ............................................................................ 71
5.6.4. Removing a Constraint ........................................................................ 71
5.6.5. Changing a Column's Default Value ....................................................... 71
5.6.6. Changing a Column's Data Type ............................................................ 72
5.6.7. Renaming a Column ............................................................................ 72
5.6.8. Renaming a Table ............................................................................... 72
5.7. Privileges ..................................................................................................... 72
5.8. Row Security Policies .................................................................................... 77
5.9. Schemas ....................................................................................................... 83
5.9.1. Creating a Schema .............................................................................. 83
5.9.2. The Public Schema ............................................................................. 84
5.9.3. The Schema Search Path ...................................................................... 85
5.9.4. Schemas and Privileges ........................................................................ 86

25
 The SQL Language

5.9.5. The System Catalog Schema ................................................................. 86

5.9.6. Usage Patterns .................................................................................... 86
5.9.7. Portability .......................................................................................... 87
5.10. Inheritance .................................................................................................. 87
5.10.1. Caveats ............................................................................................ 90
5.11. Table Partitioning ........................................................................................ 91
5.11.1. Overview ......................................................................................... 91
5.11.2. Declarative Partitioning ...................................................................... 92
5.11.3. Implementation Using Inheritance ........................................................ 96
5.11.4. Partition Pruning ............................................................................. 101
5.11.5. Partitioning and Constraint Exclusion .................................................. 102
5.11.6. Declarative Partitioning Best Practices ................................................. 103
5.12. Foreign Data ............................................................................................. 104
5.13. Other Database Objects ............................................................................... 104
5.14. Dependency Tracking ................................................................................. 105
6. Data Manipulation .................................................................................................. 107
6.1. Inserting Data ............................................................................................. 107
6.2. Updating Data ............................................................................................. 108
6.3. Deleting Data .............................................................................................. 109
6.4. Returning Data From Modified Rows .............................................................. 109
7. Queries ................................................................................................................. 111
7.1. Overview .................................................................................................... 111
7.2. Table Expressions ........................................................................................ 111
7.2.1. The FROM Clause .............................................................................. 112
7.2.2. The WHERE Clause ............................................................................ 120
7.2.3. The GROUP BY and HAVING Clauses .................................................. 121
7.2.4. GROUPING SETS, CUBE, and ROLLUP .............................................. 123
7.2.5. Window Function Processing .............................................................. 126
7.3. Select Lists ................................................................................................. 126
7.3.1. Select-List Items ............................................................................... 126
7.3.2. Column Labels .................................................................................. 127
7.3.3. DISTINCT ...................................................................................... 127
7.4. Combining Queries ...................................................................................... 128
7.5. Sorting Rows .............................................................................................. 128
7.6. LIMIT and OFFSET .................................................................................... 129
7.7. VALUES Lists ............................................................................................. 130
7.8. WITH Queries (Common Table Expressions) .................................................... 131
7.8.1. SELECT in WITH ............................................................................. 131
7.8.2. Data-Modifying Statements in WITH .................................................... 135
8. Data Types ............................................................................................................ 138
8.1. Numeric Types ............................................................................................ 139
8.1.1. Integer Types .................................................................................... 140
8.1.2. Arbitrary Precision Numbers ............................................................... 140
8.1.3. Floating-Point Types .......................................................................... 142
8.1.4. Serial Types ..................................................................................... 143
8.2. Monetary Types ........................................................................................... 144
8.3. Character Types ........................................................................................... 145
8.4. Binary Data Types ....................................................................................... 147
8.4.1. bytea Hex Format ........................................................................... 147
8.4.2. bytea Escape Format ....................................................................... 148
8.5. Date/Time Types ......................................................................................... 149
8.5.1. Date/Time Input ................................................................................ 150
8.5.2. Date/Time Output .............................................................................. 153
8.5.3. Time Zones ...................................................................................... 154
8.5.4. Interval Input .................................................................................... 156
8.5.5. Interval Output .................................................................................. 158
8.6. Boolean Type .............................................................................................. 158
8.7. Enumerated Types ....................................................................................... 159

26
 The SQL Language

8.7.1. Declaration of Enumerated Types ......................................................... 159

8.7.2. Ordering .......................................................................................... 160
8.7.3. Type Safety ...................................................................................... 160
8.7.4. Implementation Details ....................................................................... 161
8.8. Geometric Types ......................................................................................... 161
8.8.1. Points .............................................................................................. 161
8.8.2. Lines ............................................................................................... 162
8.8.3. Line Segments .................................................................................. 162
8.8.4. Boxes .............................................................................................. 162
8.8.5. Paths ............................................................................................... 163
8.8.6. Polygons .......................................................................................... 163
8.8.7. Circles ............................................................................................. 163
8.9. Network Address Types ................................................................................ 163
8.9.1. inet .............................................................................................. 164
8.9.2. cidr .............................................................................................. 164
8.9.3. inet vs. cidr ................................................................................ 165
8.9.4. macaddr ........................................................................................ 165
8.9.5. macaddr8 ...................................................................................... 165
8.10. Bit String Types ........................................................................................ 166
8.11. Text Search Types ...................................................................................... 167
8.11.1. tsvector ..................................................................................... 167
8.11.2. tsquery ....................................................................................... 168
8.12. UUID Type ............................................................................................... 169
8.13. XML Type ................................................................................................ 170
8.13.1. Creating XML Values ...................................................................... 170
8.13.2. Encoding Handling .......................................................................... 171
8.13.3. Accessing XML Values .................................................................... 172
8.14. JSON Types .............................................................................................. 172
8.14.1. JSON Input and Output Syntax .......................................................... 173
8.14.2. Designing JSON Documents .............................................................. 174
8.14.3. jsonb Containment and Existence ..................................................... 175
8.14.4. jsonb Indexing .............................................................................. 177
8.14.5. Transforms ..................................................................................... 179
8.14.6. jsonpath Type ................................................................................. 179
8.15. Arrays ...................................................................................................... 181
8.15.1. Declaration of Array Types ............................................................... 181
8.15.2. Array Value Input ............................................................................ 182
8.15.3. Accessing Arrays ............................................................................. 183
8.15.4. Modifying Arrays ............................................................................ 185
8.15.5. Searching in Arrays ......................................................................... 188
8.15.6. Array Input and Output Syntax .......................................................... 189
8.16. Composite Types ....................................................................................... 190
8.16.1. Declaration of Composite Types ......................................................... 191
8.16.2. Constructing Composite Values .......................................................... 192
8.16.3. Accessing Composite Types .............................................................. 192
8.16.4. Modifying Composite Types .............................................................. 193
8.16.5. Using Composite Types in Queries ..................................................... 193
8.16.6. Composite Type Input and Output Syntax ............................................ 196
8.17. Range Types ............................................................................................. 197
8.17.1. Built-in Range Types ....................................................................... 197
8.17.2. Examples ....................................................................................... 197
8.17.3. Inclusive and Exclusive Bounds ......................................................... 198
8.17.4. Infinite (Unbounded) Ranges ............................................................. 198
8.17.5. Range Input/Output .......................................................................... 198
8.17.6. Constructing Ranges ........................................................................ 199
8.17.7. Discrete Range Types ....................................................................... 200
8.17.8. Defining New Range Types ............................................................... 200
8.17.9. Indexing ......................................................................................... 201

27
 The SQL Language

8.17.10. Constraints on Ranges .................................................................... 202

8.18. Domain Types ........................................................................................... 203
8.19. Object Identifier Types ............................................................................... 203
8.20. pg_lsn Type .............................................................................................. 205
8.21. Pseudo-Types ............................................................................................ 205
9. Functions and Operators .......................................................................................... 207
9.1. Logical Operators ........................................................................................ 207
9.2. Comparison Functions and Operators .............................................................. 207
9.3. Mathematical Functions and Operators ............................................................ 210
9.4. String Functions and Operators ...................................................................... 214
9.4.1. format .......................................................................................... 226
9.5. Binary String Functions and Operators ............................................................ 228
9.6. Bit String Functions and Operators ................................................................. 230
9.7. Pattern Matching ......................................................................................... 231
9.7.1. LIKE .............................................................................................. 232
9.7.2. SIMILAR TO Regular Expressions ..................................................... 233
9.7.3. POSIX Regular Expressions ................................................................ 234
9.8. Data Type Formatting Functions ..................................................................... 248
9.9. Date/Time Functions and Operators ................................................................ 255
9.9.1. EXTRACT, date_part .................................................................... 260
9.9.2. date_trunc .................................................................................. 265
9.9.3. AT TIME ZONE ............................................................................. 266
9.9.4. Current Date/Time ............................................................................. 266
9.9.5. Delaying Execution ........................................................................... 268
9.10. Enum Support Functions ............................................................................. 269
9.11. Geometric Functions and Operators ............................................................... 269
9.12. Network Address Functions and Operators ..................................................... 273
9.13. Text Search Functions and Operators ............................................................. 276
9.14. XML Functions ......................................................................................... 282
9.14.1. Producing XML Content ................................................................... 283
9.14.2. XML Predicates .............................................................................. 287
9.14.3. Processing XML .............................................................................. 289
9.14.4. Mapping Tables to XML .................................................................. 293
9.15. JSON Functions and Operators ..................................................................... 296
9.15.1. Processing and Creating JSON Data .................................................... 297
9.15.2. The SQL/JSON Path Language .......................................................... 307
9.16. Sequence Manipulation Functions ................................................................. 312
9.17. Conditional Expressions .............................................................................. 315
9.17.1. CASE ............................................................................................. 315
9.17.2. COALESCE ..................................................................................... 317
9.17.3. NULLIF ......................................................................................... 317
9.17.4. GREATEST and LEAST .................................................................... 317
9.18. Array Functions and Operators ..................................................................... 318
9.19. Range Functions and Operators .................................................................... 321
9.20. Aggregate Functions ................................................................................... 323
9.21. Window Functions ..................................................................................... 330
9.22. Subquery Expressions ................................................................................. 332
9.22.1. EXISTS ......................................................................................... 332
9.22.2. IN ................................................................................................. 333
9.22.3. NOT IN ........................................................................................ 333
9.22.4. ANY/SOME ...................................................................................... 334
9.22.5. ALL ............................................................................................... 334
9.22.6. Single-Row Comparison ................................................................... 335
9.23. Row and Array Comparisons ....................................................................... 335
9.23.1. IN ................................................................................................. 335
9.23.2. NOT IN ........................................................................................ 335
9.23.3. ANY/SOME (array) ............................................................................ 336
9.23.4. ALL (array) .................................................................................... 336

28
 The SQL Language

9.23.5. Row Constructor Comparison ............................................................ 336

9.23.6. Composite Type Comparison ............................................................. 337
9.24. Set Returning Functions .............................................................................. 338
9.25. System Information Functions and Operators .................................................. 341
9.26. System Administration Functions .................................................................. 358
9.26.1. Configuration Settings Functions ........................................................ 359
9.26.2. Server Signaling Functions ................................................................ 359
9.26.3. Backup Control Functions ................................................................. 360
9.26.4. Recovery Control Functions .............................................................. 363
9.26.5. Snapshot Synchronization Functions ................................................... 364
9.26.6. Replication Functions ....................................................................... 365
9.26.7. Database Object Management Functions .............................................. 369
9.26.8. Index Maintenance Functions ............................................................. 373
9.26.9. Generic File Access Functions ........................................................... 373
9.26.10. Advisory Lock Functions ................................................................ 375
9.27. Trigger Functions ....................................................................................... 377
9.28. Event Trigger Functions .............................................................................. 378
9.28.1. Capturing Changes at Command End .................................................. 378
9.28.2. Processing Objects Dropped by a DDL Command ................................. 379
9.28.3. Handling a Table Rewrite Event ......................................................... 380
9.29. Statistics Information Functions .................................................................... 381
9.29.1. Inspecting MCV Lists ...................................................................... 381
10. Type Conversion .................................................................................................. 382
10.1. Overview .................................................................................................. 382
10.2. Operators .................................................................................................. 383
10.3. Functions .................................................................................................. 387
10.4. Value Storage ............................................................................................ 391
10.5. UNION, CASE, and Related Constructs .......................................................... 391
10.6. SELECT Output Columns ............................................................................ 393
11. Indexes ............................................................................................................... 394
11.1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 394
11.2. Index Types .............................................................................................. 395
11.3. Multicolumn Indexes .................................................................................. 397
11.4. Indexes and ORDER BY ............................................................................. 398
11.5. Combining Multiple Indexes ........................................................................ 399
11.6. Unique Indexes .......................................................................................... 399
11.7. Indexes on Expressions ............................................................................... 400
11.8. Partial Indexes ........................................................................................... 400
11.9. Index-Only Scans and Covering Indexes ........................................................ 403
11.10. Operator Classes and Operator Families ....................................................... 405
11.11. Indexes and Collations .............................................................................. 407
11.12. Examining Index Usage ............................................................................. 407
12. Full Text Search ................................................................................................... 409
12.1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 409
12.1.1. What Is a Document? ....................................................................... 410
12.1.2. Basic Text Matching ........................................................................ 410
12.1.3. Configurations ................................................................................. 412
12.2. Tables and Indexes ..................................................................................... 413
12.2.1. Searching a Table ............................................................................ 413
12.2.2. Creating Indexes .............................................................................. 414
12.3. Controlling Text Search .............................................................................. 415
12.3.1. Parsing Documents .......................................................................... 415
12.3.2. Parsing Queries ............................................................................... 416
12.3.3. Ranking Search Results .................................................................... 419
12.3.4. Highlighting Results ......................................................................... 421
12.4. Additional Features .................................................................................... 422
12.4.1. Manipulating Documents .................................................................. 422
12.4.2. Manipulating Queries ....................................................................... 423

29
 The SQL Language

12.4.3. Triggers for Automatic Updates ......................................................... 425

12.4.4. Gathering Document Statistics ........................................................... 427
12.5. Parsers ..................................................................................................... 427
12.6. Dictionaries ............................................................................................... 429
12.6.1. Stop Words .................................................................................... 430
12.6.2. Simple Dictionary ............................................................................ 431
12.6.3. Synonym Dictionary ........................................................................ 432
12.6.4. Thesaurus Dictionary ........................................................................ 434
12.6.5. Ispell Dictionary .............................................................................. 436
12.6.6. Snowball Dictionary ......................................................................... 438
12.7. Configuration Example ............................................................................... 439
12.8. Testing and Debugging Text Search .............................................................. 440
12.8.1. Configuration Testing ....................................................................... 440
12.8.2. Parser Testing ................................................................................. 443
12.8.3. Dictionary Testing ........................................................................... 444
12.9. GIN and GiST Index Types ......................................................................... 445
12.10. psql Support ............................................................................................ 445
12.11. Limitations .............................................................................................. 449
13. Concurrency Control ............................................................................................. 450
13.1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 450
13.2. Transaction Isolation ................................................................................... 450
13.2.1. Read Committed Isolation Level ........................................................ 451
13.2.2. Repeatable Read Isolation Level ......................................................... 453
13.2.3. Serializable Isolation Level ................................................................ 454
13.3. Explicit Locking ........................................................................................ 456
13.3.1. Table-Level Locks ........................................................................... 456
13.3.2. Row-Level Locks ............................................................................ 458
13.3.3. Page-Level Locks ............................................................................ 459
13.3.4. Deadlocks ....................................................................................... 459
13.3.5. Advisory Locks ............................................................................... 460
13.4. Data Consistency Checks at the Application Level ........................................... 461
13.4.1. Enforcing Consistency with Serializable Transactions ............................. 462
13.4.2. Enforcing Consistency with Explicit Blocking Locks .............................. 462
13.5. Caveats ..................................................................................................... 463
13.6. Locking and Indexes ................................................................................... 463
14. Performance Tips ................................................................................................. 465
14.1. Using EXPLAIN ........................................................................................ 465
14.1.1. EXPLAIN Basics ............................................................................. 465
14.1.2. EXPLAIN ANALYZE ...................................................................... 471
14.1.3. Caveats .......................................................................................... 475
14.2. Statistics Used by the Planner ...................................................................... 476
14.2.1. Single-Column Statistics ................................................................... 476
14.2.2. Extended Statistics ........................................................................... 478
14.3. Controlling the Planner with Explicit JOIN Clauses ......................................... 481
14.4. Populating a Database ................................................................................. 483
14.4.1. Disable Autocommit ........................................................................ 483
14.4.2. Use COPY ...................................................................................... 483
14.4.3. Remove Indexes .............................................................................. 484
14.4.4. Remove Foreign Key Constraints ....................................................... 484
14.4.5. Increase maintenance_work_mem ................................................. 484
14.4.6. Increase max_wal_size ................................................................ 484
14.4.7. Disable WAL Archival and Streaming Replication ................................. 484
14.4.8. Run ANALYZE Afterwards ................................................................ 485
14.4.9. Some Notes about pg_dump .............................................................. 485
14.5. Non-Durable Settings .................................................................................. 486
15. Parallel Query ...................................................................................................... 487
15.1. How Parallel Query Works .......................................................................... 487
15.2. When Can Parallel Query Be Used? .............................................................. 488

30
 The SQL Language

15.3. Parallel Plans ............................................................................................. 489

15.3.1. Parallel Scans .................................................................................. 489
15.3.2. Parallel Joins .................................................................................. 489
15.3.3. Parallel Aggregation ......................................................................... 489
15.3.4. Parallel Append ............................................................................... 490
15.3.5. Parallel Plan Tips ............................................................................ 490
15.4. Parallel Safety ........................................................................................... 491
15.4.1. Parallel Labeling for Functions and Aggregates ..................................... 491

31
Chapter 4. SQL Syntax
This chapter describes the syntax of SQL. It forms the foundation for understanding the following
chapters which will go into detail about how SQL commands are applied to define and modify data.

We also advise users who are already familiar with SQL to read this chapter carefully because it
contains several rules and concepts that are implemented inconsistently among SQL databases or that
are specific to PostgreSQL.

4.1. Lexical Structure

SQL input consists of a sequence of commands. A command is composed of a sequence of tokens,
terminated by a semicolon (“;”). The end of the input stream also terminates a command. Which tokens
are valid depends on the syntax of the particular command.

A token can be a key word, an identifier, a quoted identifier, a literal (or constant), or a special character
symbol. Tokens are normally separated by whitespace (space, tab, newline), but need not be if there
is no ambiguity (which is generally only the case if a special character is adjacent to some other token
type).

For example, the following is (syntactically) valid SQL input:

SELECT * FROM MY_TABLE;

UPDATE MY_TABLE SET A = 5;
INSERT INTO MY_TABLE VALUES (3, 'hi there');

This is a sequence of three commands, one per line (although this is not required; more than one
command can be on a line, and commands can usefully be split across lines).

Additionally, comments can occur in SQL input. They are not tokens, they are effectively equivalent
to whitespace.

The SQL syntax is not very consistent regarding what tokens identify commands and which are
operands or parameters. The first few tokens are generally the command name, so in the above exam-
ple we would usually speak of a “SELECT”, an “UPDATE”, and an “INSERT” command. But for
instance the UPDATE command always requires a SET token to appear in a certain position, and this
particular variation of INSERT also requires a VALUES in order to be complete. The precise syntax
rules for each command are described in Part VI.

4.1.1. Identifiers and Key Words

Tokens such as SELECT, UPDATE, or VALUES in the example above are examples of key words,
that is, words that have a fixed meaning in the SQL language. The tokens MY_TABLE and A are
examples of identifiers. They identify names of tables, columns, or other database objects, depending
on the command they are used in. Therefore they are sometimes simply called “names”. Key words
and identifiers have the same lexical structure, meaning that one cannot know whether a token is an
identifier or a key word without knowing the language. A complete list of key words can be found
in Appendix C.

SQL identifiers and key words must begin with a letter (a-z, but also letters with diacritical marks
and non-Latin letters) or an underscore (_). Subsequent characters in an identifier or key word can be
letters, underscores, digits (0-9), or dollar signs ($). Note that dollar signs are not allowed in identifiers
according to the letter of the SQL standard, so their use might render applications less portable. The
SQL standard will not define a key word that contains digits or starts or ends with an underscore, so
identifiers of this form are safe against possible conflict with future extensions of the standard.

32
 SQL Syntax

The system uses no more than NAMEDATALEN-1 bytes of an identifier; longer names can be written
in commands, but they will be truncated. By default, NAMEDATALEN is 64 so the maximum identifier
length is 63 bytes. If this limit is problematic, it can be raised by changing the NAMEDATALEN constant
in src/include/pg_config_manual.h.

Key words and unquoted identifiers are case insensitive. Therefore:

UPDATE MY_TABLE SET A = 5;

can equivalently be written as:

uPDaTE my_TabLE SeT a = 5;

A convention often used is to write key words in upper case and names in lower case, e.g.:

UPDATE my_table SET a = 5;

There is a second kind of identifier: the delimited identifier or quoted identifier. It is formed by
enclosing an arbitrary sequence of characters in double-quotes ("). A delimited identifier is always
an identifier, never a key word. So "select" could be used to refer to a column or table named
“select”, whereas an unquoted select would be taken as a key word and would therefore provoke
a parse error when used where a table or column name is expected. The example can be written with
quoted identifiers like this:

UPDATE "my_table" SET "a" = 5;

Quoted identifiers can contain any character, except the character with code zero. (To include a double
quote, write two double quotes.) This allows constructing table or column names that would otherwise
not be possible, such as ones containing spaces or ampersands. The length limitation still applies.

A variant of quoted identifiers allows including escaped Unicode characters identified by their code
points. This variant starts with U& (upper or lower case U followed by ampersand) immediately before
the opening double quote, without any spaces in between, for example U&"foo". (Note that this
creates an ambiguity with the operator &. Use spaces around the operator to avoid this problem.) Inside
the quotes, Unicode characters can be specified in escaped form by writing a backslash followed by
the four-digit hexadecimal code point number or alternatively a backslash followed by a plus sign
followed by a six-digit hexadecimal code point number. For example, the identifier "data" could
be written as

U&"d\0061t\+000061"

The following less trivial example writes the Russian word “slon” (elephant) in Cyrillic letters:

U&"\0441\043B\043E\043D"

If a different escape character than backslash is desired, it can be specified using the UESCAPE clause
after the string, for example:

U&"d!0061t!+000061" UESCAPE '!'

The escape character can be any single character other than a hexadecimal digit, the plus sign, a single
quote, a double quote, or a whitespace character. Note that the escape character is written in single
quotes, not double quotes.

33
 SQL Syntax

To include the escape character in the identifier literally, write it twice.

The Unicode escape syntax works only when the server encoding is UTF8. When other server en-
codings are used, only code points in the ASCII range (up to \007F) can be specified. Both the 4-
digit and the 6-digit form can be used to specify UTF-16 surrogate pairs to compose characters with
code points larger than U+FFFF, although the availability of the 6-digit form technically makes this
unnecessary. (Surrogate pairs are not stored directly, but combined into a single code point that is then
encoded in UTF-8.)

Quoting an identifier also makes it case-sensitive, whereas unquoted names are always folded to lower
case. For example, the identifiers FOO, foo, and "foo" are considered the same by PostgreSQL, but
"Foo" and "FOO" are different from these three and each other. (The folding of unquoted names to
lower case in PostgreSQL is incompatible with the SQL standard, which says that unquoted names
should be folded to upper case. Thus, foo should be equivalent to "FOO" not "foo" according to
the standard. If you want to write portable applications you are advised to always quote a particular
name or never quote it.)

4.1.2. Constants
There are three kinds of implicitly-typed constants in PostgreSQL: strings, bit strings, and numbers.
Constants can also be specified with explicit types, which can enable more accurate representation and
more efficient handling by the system. These alternatives are discussed in the following subsections.

4.1.2.1. String Constants

A string constant in SQL is an arbitrary sequence of characters bounded by single quotes ('), for
example 'This is a string'. To include a single-quote character within a string constant,
write two adjacent single quotes, e.g., 'Dianne''s horse'. Note that this is not the same as a
double-quote character (").

Two string constants that are only separated by whitespace with at least one newline are concatenated
and effectively treated as if the string had been written as one constant. For example:

SELECT 'foo'
'bar';

is equivalent to:

SELECT 'foobar';

but:

SELECT 'foo' 'bar';

is not valid syntax. (This slightly bizarre behavior is specified by SQL; PostgreSQL is following the
standard.)

4.1.2.2. String Constants with C-Style Escapes

PostgreSQL also accepts “escape” string constants, which are an extension to the SQL standard. An
escape string constant is specified by writing the letter E (upper or lower case) just before the opening
single quote, e.g., E'foo'. (When continuing an escape string constant across lines, write E only
before the first opening quote.) Within an escape string, a backslash character (\) begins a C-like
backslash escape sequence, in which the combination of backslash and following character(s) repre-
sent a special byte value, as shown in Table 4.1.

34
 SQL Syntax

Table 4.1. Backslash Escape Sequences

Backslash Escape Sequence Interpretation
\b backspace
\f form feed
\n newline
\r carriage return
\t tab
\o, \oo, \ooo (o = 0 - 7) octal byte value
\xh, \xhh (h = 0 - 9, A - F) hexadecimal byte value
\uxxxx, \Uxxxxxxxx (x = 0 - 9, A - F) 16 or 32-bit hexadecimal Unicode character value

Any other character following a backslash is taken literally. Thus, to include a backslash character,
write two backslashes (\\). Also, a single quote can be included in an escape string by writing \',
in addition to the normal way of ''.

It is your responsibility that the byte sequences you create, especially when using the octal or hexa-
decimal escapes, compose valid characters in the server character set encoding. When the server en-
coding is UTF-8, then the Unicode escapes or the alternative Unicode escape syntax, explained in
Section 4.1.2.3, should be used instead. (The alternative would be doing the UTF-8 encoding by hand
and writing out the bytes, which would be very cumbersome.)

The Unicode escape syntax works fully only when the server encoding is UTF8. When other server
encodings are used, only code points in the ASCII range (up to \u007F) can be specified. Both the
4-digit and the 8-digit form can be used to specify UTF-16 surrogate pairs to compose characters
with code points larger than U+FFFF, although the availability of the 8-digit form technically makes
this unnecessary. (When surrogate pairs are used when the server encoding is UTF8, they are first
combined into a single code point that is then encoded in UTF-8.)

Caution
If the configuration parameter standard_conforming_strings is off, then PostgreSQL
recognizes backslash escapes in both regular and escape string constants. However, as
of PostgreSQL 9.1, the default is on, meaning that backslash escapes are recognized
only in escape string constants. This behavior is more standards-compliant, but might
break applications which rely on the historical behavior, where backslash escapes were
always recognized. As a workaround, you can set this parameter to off, but it is better
to migrate away from using backslash escapes. If you need to use a backslash escape
to represent a special character, write the string constant with an E.

In addition to standard_conforming_strings, the configuration parameters

escape_string_warning and backslash_quote govern treatment of backslashes in string
constants.

The character with the code zero cannot be in a string constant.

4.1.2.3. String Constants with Unicode Escapes

PostgreSQL also supports another type of escape syntax for strings that allows specifying arbitrary
Unicode characters by code point. A Unicode escape string constant starts with U& (upper or lower
case letter U followed by ampersand) immediately before the opening quote, without any spaces in
between, for example U&'foo'. (Note that this creates an ambiguity with the operator &. Use spaces
around the operator to avoid this problem.) Inside the quotes, Unicode characters can be specified

35
 SQL Syntax

in escaped form by writing a backslash followed by the four-digit hexadecimal code point number
or alternatively a backslash followed by a plus sign followed by a six-digit hexadecimal code point
number. For example, the string 'data' could be written as

U&'d\0061t\+000061'

The following less trivial example writes the Russian word “slon” (elephant) in Cyrillic letters:

U&'\0441\043B\043E\043D'

If a different escape character than backslash is desired, it can be specified using the UESCAPE clause
after the string, for example:

U&'d!0061t!+000061' UESCAPE '!'

The escape character can be any single character other than a hexadecimal digit, the plus sign, a single
quote, a double quote, or a whitespace character.

The Unicode escape syntax works only when the server encoding is UTF8. When other server encod-
ings are used, only code points in the ASCII range (up to \007F) can be specified. Both the 4-digit
and the 6-digit form can be used to specify UTF-16 surrogate pairs to compose characters with code
points larger than U+FFFF, although the availability of the 6-digit form technically makes this unnec-
essary. (When surrogate pairs are used when the server encoding is UTF8, they are first combined into
a single code point that is then encoded in UTF-8.)

Also, the Unicode escape syntax for string constants only works when the configuration parameter
standard_conforming_strings is turned on. This is because otherwise this syntax could confuse clients
that parse the SQL statements to the point that it could lead to SQL injections and similar security
issues. If the parameter is set to off, this syntax will be rejected with an error message.

To include the escape character in the string literally, write it twice.

4.1.2.4. Dollar-Quoted String Constants

While the standard syntax for specifying string constants is usually convenient, it can be difficult to
understand when the desired string contains many single quotes or backslashes, since each of those
must be doubled. To allow more readable queries in such situations, PostgreSQL provides another
way, called “dollar quoting”, to write string constants. A dollar-quoted string constant consists of a
dollar sign ($), an optional “tag” of zero or more characters, another dollar sign, an arbitrary sequence
of characters that makes up the string content, a dollar sign, the same tag that began this dollar quote,
and a dollar sign. For example, here are two different ways to specify the string “Dianne's horse” using
dollar quoting:

$$Dianne's horse$$
$SomeTag$Dianne's horse$SomeTag$

Notice that inside the dollar-quoted string, single quotes can be used without needing to be escaped.
Indeed, no characters inside a dollar-quoted string are ever escaped: the string content is always written
literally. Backslashes are not special, and neither are dollar signs, unless they are part of a sequence
matching the opening tag.

It is possible to nest dollar-quoted string constants by choosing different tags at each nesting level.
This is most commonly used in writing function definitions. For example:

$function$

36
 SQL Syntax

BEGIN
RETURN ($1 ~ $q$[\t\r\n\v\\]$q$);
END;
$function$

Here, the sequence $q$[\t\r\n\v\\]$q$ represents a dollar-quoted literal string [\t\r\n\v

\\], which will be recognized when the function body is executed by PostgreSQL. But since the
sequence does not match the outer dollar quoting delimiter $function$, it is just some more char-
acters within the constant so far as the outer string is concerned.

The tag, if any, of a dollar-quoted string follows the same rules as an unquoted identifier, except that it
cannot contain a dollar sign. Tags are case sensitive, so $tag$String content$tag$ is correct,
but $TAG$String content$tag$ is not.

A dollar-quoted string that follows a keyword or identifier must be separated from it by whitespace;
otherwise the dollar quoting delimiter would be taken as part of the preceding identifier.

Dollar quoting is not part of the SQL standard, but it is often a more convenient way to write com-
plicated string literals than the standard-compliant single quote syntax. It is particularly useful when
representing string constants inside other constants, as is often needed in procedural function defini-
tions. With single-quote syntax, each backslash in the above example would have to be written as four
backslashes, which would be reduced to two backslashes in parsing the original string constant, and
then to one when the inner string constant is re-parsed during function execution.

4.1.2.5. Bit-String Constants

Bit-string constants look like regular string constants with a B (upper or lower case) immediately
before the opening quote (no intervening whitespace), e.g., B'1001'. The only characters allowed
within bit-string constants are 0 and 1.

Alternatively, bit-string constants can be specified in hexadecimal notation, using a leading X (upper
or lower case), e.g., X'1FF'. This notation is equivalent to a bit-string constant with four binary digits
for each hexadecimal digit.

Both forms of bit-string constant can be continued across lines in the same way as regular string
constants. Dollar quoting cannot be used in a bit-string constant.

4.1.2.6. Numeric Constants

Numeric constants are accepted in these general forms:

digits
digits.[digits][e[+-]digits]
[digits].digits[e[+-]digits]
digitse[+-]digits

where digits is one or more decimal digits (0 through 9). At least one digit must be before or after the
decimal point, if one is used. At least one digit must follow the exponent marker (e), if one is present.
There cannot be any spaces or other characters embedded in the constant. Note that any leading plus
or minus sign is not actually considered part of the constant; it is an operator applied to the constant.

These are some examples of valid numeric constants:

42
3.5
4.
.001

37
 SQL Syntax

5e2
1.925e-3

A numeric constant that contains neither a decimal point nor an exponent is initially presumed to be
type integer if its value fits in type integer (32 bits); otherwise it is presumed to be type bigint
if its value fits in type bigint (64 bits); otherwise it is taken to be type numeric. Constants that
contain decimal points and/or exponents are always initially presumed to be type numeric.

The initially assigned data type of a numeric constant is just a starting point for the type resolution
algorithms. In most cases the constant will be automatically coerced to the most appropriate type de-
pending on context. When necessary, you can force a numeric value to be interpreted as a specific data
type by casting it. For example, you can force a numeric value to be treated as type real (float4)
by writing:

REAL '1.23' -- string style

1.23::REAL -- PostgreSQL (historical) style

These are actually just special cases of the general casting notations discussed next.

4.1.2.7. Constants of Other Types

A constant of an arbitrary type can be entered using any one of the following notations:

type 'string'
'string'::type
CAST ( 'string' AS type )

The string constant's text is passed to the input conversion routine for the type called type. The result
is a constant of the indicated type. The explicit type cast can be omitted if there is no ambiguity as to
the type the constant must be (for example, when it is assigned directly to a table column), in which
case it is automatically coerced.

The string constant can be written using either regular SQL notation or dollar-quoting.

It is also possible to specify a type coercion using a function-like syntax:

typename ( 'string' )

but not all type names can be used in this way; see Section 4.2.9 for details.

The ::, CAST(), and function-call syntaxes can also be used to specify run-time type conver-
sions of arbitrary expressions, as discussed in Section 4.2.9. To avoid syntactic ambiguity, the type
'string' syntax can only be used to specify the type of a simple literal constant. Another restriction
on the type 'string' syntax is that it does not work for array types; use :: or CAST() to specify
the type of an array constant.

The CAST() syntax conforms to SQL. The type 'string' syntax is a generalization of the
standard: SQL specifies this syntax only for a few data types, but PostgreSQL allows it for all types.
The syntax with :: is historical PostgreSQL usage, as is the function-call syntax.

4.1.3. Operators
An operator name is a sequence of up to NAMEDATALEN-1 (63 by default) characters from the fol-
lowing list:

38
 SQL Syntax

+-*/<>=~!@#%^&|`?

There are a few restrictions on operator names, however:

• -- and /* cannot appear anywhere in an operator name, since they will be taken as the start of
a comment.

• A multiple-character operator name cannot end in + or -, unless the name also contains at least
one of these characters:

~!@#%^&|`?

For example, @- is an allowed operator name, but *- is not. This restriction allows PostgreSQL to
parse SQL-compliant queries without requiring spaces between tokens.

When working with non-SQL-standard operator names, you will usually need to separate adjacent
operators with spaces to avoid ambiguity. For example, if you have defined a left unary operator named
@, you cannot write X*@Y; you must write X* @Y to ensure that PostgreSQL reads it as two operator
names not one.

4.1.4. Special Characters

Some characters that are not alphanumeric have a special meaning that is different from being an oper-
ator. Details on the usage can be found at the location where the respective syntax element is described.
This section only exists to advise the existence and summarize the purposes of these characters.

• A dollar sign ($) followed by digits is used to represent a positional parameter in the body of a
function definition or a prepared statement. In other contexts the dollar sign can be part of an iden-
tifier or a dollar-quoted string constant.

• Parentheses (()) have their usual meaning to group expressions and enforce precedence. In some
cases parentheses are required as part of the fixed syntax of a particular SQL command.

• Brackets ([]) are used to select the elements of an array. See Section 8.15 for more information
on arrays.

• Commas (,) are used in some syntactical constructs to separate the elements of a list.

• The semicolon (;) terminates an SQL command. It cannot appear anywhere within a command,
except within a string constant or quoted identifier.

• The colon (:) is used to select “slices” from arrays. (See Section 8.15.) In certain SQL dialects
(such as Embedded SQL), the colon is used to prefix variable names.

• The asterisk (*) is used in some contexts to denote all the fields of a table row or composite value.
It also has a special meaning when used as the argument of an aggregate function, namely that the
aggregate does not require any explicit parameter.

• The period (.) is used in numeric constants, and to separate schema, table, and column names.

4.1.5. Comments
A comment is a sequence of characters beginning with double dashes and extending to the end of
the line, e.g.:

-- This is a standard SQL comment

Alternatively, C-style block comments can be used:

39
 SQL Syntax

/* multiline comment
* with nesting: /* nested block comment */
*/

where the comment begins with /* and extends to the matching occurrence of */. These block com-
ments nest, as specified in the SQL standard but unlike C, so that one can comment out larger blocks
of code that might contain existing block comments.

A comment is removed from the input stream before further syntax analysis and is effectively replaced
by whitespace.

4.1.6. Operator Precedence

Table 4.2 shows the precedence and associativity of the operators in PostgreSQL. Most operators
have the same precedence and are left-associative. The precedence and associativity of the operators
is hard-wired into the parser.

You will sometimes need to add parentheses when using combinations of binary and unary operators.
For instance:

SELECT 5 ! - 6;

will be parsed as:

SELECT 5 ! (- 6);

because the parser has no idea — until it is too late — that ! is defined as a postfix operator, not an
infix one. To get the desired behavior in this case, you must write:

SELECT (5 !) - 6;

This is the price one pays for extensibility.

Table 4.2. Operator Precedence (highest to lowest)

Operator/Element Associativity Description
. left table/column name separator
:: left PostgreSQL-style typecast
[] left array element selection
+- right unary plus, unary minus
^ left exponentiation
*/% left multiplication, division, modulo
+- left addition, subtraction
(any other operator) left all other native and user-defined
operators
BETWEEN IN LIKE ILIKE range containment, set member-
SIMILAR ship, string matching
< > = <= >= <> comparison operators
IS ISNULL NOTNULL IS TRUE, IS FALSE, IS
NULL, IS DISTINCT FROM,
etc

40
 SQL Syntax

Operator/Element Associativity Description

NOT right logical negation
AND left logical conjunction
OR left logical disjunction

Note that the operator precedence rules also apply to user-defined operators that have the same names
as the built-in operators mentioned above. For example, if you define a “+” operator for some custom
data type it will have the same precedence as the built-in “+” operator, no matter what yours does.

When a schema-qualified operator name is used in the OPERATOR syntax, as for example in:

SELECT 3 OPERATOR(pg_catalog.+) 4;

the OPERATOR construct is taken to have the default precedence shown in Table 4.2 for “any other
operator”. This is true no matter which specific operator appears inside OPERATOR().

Note
PostgreSQL versions before 9.5 used slightly different operator precedence rules. In
particular, <= >= and <> used to be treated as generic operators; IS tests used to have
higher priority; and NOT BETWEEN and related constructs acted inconsistently, being
taken in some cases as having the precedence of NOT rather than BETWEEN. These
rules were changed for better compliance with the SQL standard and to reduce con-
fusion from inconsistent treatment of logically equivalent constructs. In most cases,
these changes will result in no behavioral change, or perhaps in “no such operator”
failures which can be resolved by adding parentheses. However there are corner cases
in which a query might change behavior without any parsing error being reported. If
you are concerned about whether these changes have silently broken something, you
can test your application with the configuration parameter operator_precedence_warn-
ing turned on to see if any warnings are logged.

4.2. Value Expressions

Value expressions are used in a variety of contexts, such as in the target list of the SELECT command,
as new column values in INSERT or UPDATE, or in search conditions in a number of commands. The
result of a value expression is sometimes called a scalar, to distinguish it from the result of a table
expression (which is a table). Value expressions are therefore also called scalar expressions (or even
simply expressions). The expression syntax allows the calculation of values from primitive parts using
arithmetic, logical, set, and other operations.

A value expression is one of the following:

• A constant or literal value

• A column reference

• A positional parameter reference, in the body of a function definition or prepared statement

• A subscripted expression

• A field selection expression

• An operator invocation

• A function call

41
 SQL Syntax

• An aggregate expression

• A window function call

• A type cast

• A collation expression

• A scalar subquery

• An array constructor

• A row constructor

• Another value expression in parentheses (used to group subexpressions and override precedence)

In addition to this list, there are a number of constructs that can be classified as an expression but do
not follow any general syntax rules. These generally have the semantics of a function or operator and
are explained in the appropriate location in Chapter 9. An example is the IS NULL clause.

We have already discussed constants in Section 4.1.2. The following sections discuss the remaining
options.

4.2.1. Column References

A column can be referenced in the form:

correlation.columnname

correlation is the name of a table (possibly qualified with a schema name), or an alias for a table
defined by means of a FROM clause. The correlation name and separating dot can be omitted if the
column name is unique across all the tables being used in the current query. (See also Chapter 7.)

4.2.2. Positional Parameters

A positional parameter reference is used to indicate a value that is supplied externally to an SQL state-
ment. Parameters are used in SQL function definitions and in prepared queries. Some client libraries
also support specifying data values separately from the SQL command string, in which case parame-
ters are used to refer to the out-of-line data values. The form of a parameter reference is:

$number

For example, consider the definition of a function, dept, as:

CREATE FUNCTION dept(text) RETURNS dept

AS $$ SELECT * FROM dept WHERE name = $1 $$
LANGUAGE SQL;

Here the $1 references the value of the first function argument whenever the function is invoked.

4.2.3. Subscripts
If an expression yields a value of an array type, then a specific element of the array value can be
extracted by writing

expression[subscript]

42
 SQL Syntax

or multiple adjacent elements (an “array slice”) can be extracted by writing

expression[lower_subscript:upper_subscript]

(Here, the brackets [ ] are meant to appear literally.) Each subscript is itself an expression,
which must yield an integer value.

In general the array expression must be parenthesized, but the parentheses can be omitted when
the expression to be subscripted is just a column reference or positional parameter. Also, multiple
subscripts can be concatenated when the original array is multidimensional. For example:

mytable.arraycolumn[4]
mytable.two_d_column[17][34]
$1[10:42]
(arrayfunction(a,b))[42]

The parentheses in the last example are required. See Section 8.15 for more about arrays.

4.2.4. Field Selection

If an expression yields a value of a composite type (row type), then a specific field of the row can
be extracted by writing

expression.fieldname

In general the row expression must be parenthesized, but the parentheses can be omitted when the
expression to be selected from is just a table reference or positional parameter. For example:

mytable.mycolumn
$1.somecolumn
(rowfunction(a,b)).col3

(Thus, a qualified column reference is actually just a special case of the field selection syntax.) An
important special case is extracting a field from a table column that is of a composite type:

(compositecol).somefield
(mytable.compositecol).somefield

The parentheses are required here to show that compositecol is a column name not a table name,
or that mytable is a table name not a schema name in the second case.

You can ask for all fields of a composite value by writing .*:

(compositecol).*

This notation behaves differently depending on context; see Section 8.16.5 for details.

4.2.5. Operator Invocations

There are three possible syntaxes for an operator invocation:

expression operator expression (binary infix operator)

operator expression (unary prefix operator)

43
 SQL Syntax

expression operator (unary postfix operator)

where the operator token follows the syntax rules of Section 4.1.3, or is one of the key words AND,
OR, and NOT, or is a qualified operator name in the form:

OPERATOR(schema.operatorname)

Which particular operators exist and whether they are unary or binary depends on what operators have
been defined by the system or the user. Chapter 9 describes the built-in operators.

4.2.6. Function Calls

The syntax for a function call is the name of a function (possibly qualified with a schema name),
followed by its argument list enclosed in parentheses:

function_name ([expression [, expression ... ]] )

For example, the following computes the square root of 2:

sqrt(2)

The list of built-in functions is in Chapter 9. Other functions can be added by the user.

When issuing queries in a database where some users mistrust other users, observe security precautions
from Section 10.3 when writing function calls.

The arguments can optionally have names attached. See Section 4.3 for details.

Note
A function that takes a single argument of composite type can optionally be called
using field-selection syntax, and conversely field selection can be written in functional
style. That is, the notations col(table) and table.col are interchangeable. This
behavior is not SQL-standard but is provided in PostgreSQL because it allows use of
functions to emulate “computed fields”. For more information see Section 8.16.5.

4.2.7. Aggregate Expressions

An aggregate expression represents the application of an aggregate function across the rows selected
by a query. An aggregate function reduces multiple inputs to a single output value, such as the sum or
average of the inputs. The syntax of an aggregate expression is one of the following:

aggregate_name (expression [ , ... ] [ order_by_clause ] ) [ FILTER

( WHERE filter_clause ) ]
aggregate_name (ALL expression [ , ... ] [ order_by_clause ] )
[ FILTER ( WHERE filter_clause ) ]
aggregate_name (DISTINCT expression [ , ... ] [ order_by_clause ] )
[ FILTER ( WHERE filter_clause ) ]
aggregate_name ( * ) [ FILTER ( WHERE filter_clause ) ]
aggregate_name ( [ expression [ , ... ] ] ) WITHIN GROUP
( order_by_clause ) [ FILTER ( WHERE filter_clause ) ]

where aggregate_name is a previously defined aggregate (possibly qualified with a schema name)
and expression is any value expression that does not itself contain an aggregate expression or

44
 SQL Syntax

a window function call. The optional order_by_clause and filter_clause are described
below.

The first form of aggregate expression invokes the aggregate once for each input row. The second
form is the same as the first, since ALL is the default. The third form invokes the aggregate once for
each distinct value of the expression (or distinct set of values, for multiple expressions) found in the
input rows. The fourth form invokes the aggregate once for each input row; since no particular input
value is specified, it is generally only useful for the count(*) aggregate function. The last form is
used with ordered-set aggregate functions, which are described below.

Most aggregate functions ignore null inputs, so that rows in which one or more of the expression(s)
yield null are discarded. This can be assumed to be true, unless otherwise specified, for all built-in
aggregates.

For example, count(*) yields the total number of input rows; count(f1) yields the number of
input rows in which f1 is non-null, since count ignores nulls; and count(distinct f1) yields
the number of distinct non-null values of f1.

Ordinarily, the input rows are fed to the aggregate function in an unspecified order. In many cases
this does not matter; for example, min produces the same result no matter what order it receives the
inputs in. However, some aggregate functions (such as array_agg and string_agg) produce
results that depend on the ordering of the input rows. When using such an aggregate, the optional
order_by_clause can be used to specify the desired ordering. The order_by_clause has
the same syntax as for a query-level ORDER BY clause, as described in Section 7.5, except that its
expressions are always just expressions and cannot be output-column names or numbers. For example:

SELECT array_agg(a ORDER BY b DESC) FROM table;

When dealing with multiple-argument aggregate functions, note that the ORDER BY clause goes after
all the aggregate arguments. For example, write this:

SELECT string_agg(a, ',' ORDER BY a) FROM table;

not this:

SELECT string_agg(a ORDER BY a, ',') FROM table; -- incorrect

The latter is syntactically valid, but it represents a call of a single-argument aggregate function with
two ORDER BY keys (the second one being rather useless since it's a constant).

If DISTINCT is specified in addition to an order_by_clause, then all the ORDER BY expressions

must match regular arguments of the aggregate; that is, you cannot sort on an expression that is not
included in the DISTINCT list.

Note
The ability to specify both DISTINCT and ORDER BY in an aggregate function is
a PostgreSQL extension.

Placing ORDER BY within the aggregate's regular argument list, as described so far, is used when
ordering the input rows for general-purpose and statistical aggregates, for which ordering is op-
tional. There is a subclass of aggregate functions called ordered-set aggregates for which an or-
der_by_clause is required, usually because the aggregate's computation is only sensible in terms
of a specific ordering of its input rows. Typical examples of ordered-set aggregates include rank
and percentile calculations. For an ordered-set aggregate, the order_by_clause is written inside

45
 SQL Syntax

WITHIN GROUP (...), as shown in the final syntax alternative above. The expressions in the
order_by_clause are evaluated once per input row just like regular aggregate arguments, sorted
as per the order_by_clause's requirements, and fed to the aggregate function as input arguments.
(This is unlike the case for a non-WITHIN GROUP order_by_clause, which is not treated as
argument(s) to the aggregate function.) The argument expressions preceding WITHIN GROUP, if
any, are called direct arguments to distinguish them from the aggregated arguments listed in the or-
der_by_clause. Unlike regular aggregate arguments, direct arguments are evaluated only once
per aggregate call, not once per input row. This means that they can contain variables only if those
variables are grouped by GROUP BY; this restriction is the same as if the direct arguments were not
inside an aggregate expression at all. Direct arguments are typically used for things like percentile
fractions, which only make sense as a single value per aggregation calculation. The direct argument
list can be empty; in this case, write just () not (*). (PostgreSQL will actually accept either spelling,
but only the first way conforms to the SQL standard.)

An example of an ordered-set aggregate call is:

SELECT percentile_cont(0.5) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY income) FROM

households;
percentile_cont
-----------------
50489

which obtains the 50th percentile, or median, value of the income column from table households.
Here, 0.5 is a direct argument; it would make no sense for the percentile fraction to be a value varying
across rows.

If FILTER is specified, then only the input rows for which the filter_clause evaluates to true
are fed to the aggregate function; other rows are discarded. For example:

SELECT
count(*) AS unfiltered,
count(*) FILTER (WHERE i < 5) AS filtered
FROM generate_series(1,10) AS s(i);
unfiltered | filtered
------------+----------
10 | 4
(1 row)

The predefined aggregate functions are described in Section 9.20. Other aggregate functions can be
added by the user.

An aggregate expression can only appear in the result list or HAVING clause of a SELECT command.
It is forbidden in other clauses, such as WHERE, because those clauses are logically evaluated before
the results of aggregates are formed.

When an aggregate expression appears in a subquery (see Section 4.2.11 and Section 9.22), the aggre-
gate is normally evaluated over the rows of the subquery. But an exception occurs if the aggregate's
arguments (and filter_clause if any) contain only outer-level variables: the aggregate then be-
longs to the nearest such outer level, and is evaluated over the rows of that query. The aggregate ex-
pression as a whole is then an outer reference for the subquery it appears in, and acts as a constant over
any one evaluation of that subquery. The restriction about appearing only in the result list or HAVING
clause applies with respect to the query level that the aggregate belongs to.

4.2.8. Window Function Calls

A window function call represents the application of an aggregate-like function over some portion of
the rows selected by a query. Unlike non-window aggregate calls, this is not tied to grouping of the

46
 SQL Syntax

selected rows into a single output row — each row remains separate in the query output. However the
window function has access to all the rows that would be part of the current row's group according
to the grouping specification (PARTITION BY list) of the window function call. The syntax of a
window function call is one of the following:

function_name ([expression [, expression ... ]]) [ FILTER

( WHERE filter_clause ) ] OVER window_name
function_name ([expression [, expression ... ]]) [ FILTER
( WHERE filter_clause ) ] OVER ( window_definition )
function_name ( * ) [ FILTER ( WHERE filter_clause ) ]
OVER window_name
function_name ( * ) [ FILTER ( WHERE filter_clause ) ] OVER
( window_definition )

where window_definition has the syntax

[ existing_window_name ]
[ PARTITION BY expression [, ...] ]
[ ORDER BY expression [ ASC | DESC | USING operator ] [ NULLS
{ FIRST | LAST } ] [, ...] ]
[ frame_clause ]

The optional frame_clause can be one of

{ RANGE | ROWS | GROUPS } frame_start [ frame_exclusion ]

{ RANGE | ROWS | GROUPS } BETWEEN frame_start AND frame_end
[ frame_exclusion ]

where frame_start and frame_end can be one of

UNBOUNDED PRECEDING
offset PRECEDING
CURRENT ROW
offset FOLLOWING
UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING

and frame_exclusion can be one of

EXCLUDE CURRENT ROW

EXCLUDE GROUP
EXCLUDE TIES
EXCLUDE NO OTHERS

Here, expression represents any value expression that does not itself contain window function
calls.

window_name is a reference to a named window specification defined in the query's WINDOW clause.
Alternatively, a full window_definition can be given within parentheses, using the same syntax
as for defining a named window in the WINDOW clause; see the SELECT reference page for details. It's
worth pointing out that OVER wname is not exactly equivalent to OVER (wname ...); the latter
implies copying and modifying the window definition, and will be rejected if the referenced window
specification includes a frame clause.

The PARTITION BY clause groups the rows of the query into partitions, which are processed sepa-
rately by the window function. PARTITION BY works similarly to a query-level GROUP BY clause,

47
 SQL Syntax

except that its expressions are always just expressions and cannot be output-column names or num-
bers. Without PARTITION BY, all rows produced by the query are treated as a single partition. The
ORDER BY clause determines the order in which the rows of a partition are processed by the window
function. It works similarly to a query-level ORDER BY clause, but likewise cannot use output-column
names or numbers. Without ORDER BY, rows are processed in an unspecified order.

The frame_clause specifies the set of rows constituting the window frame, which is a subset of
the current partition, for those window functions that act on the frame instead of the whole partition.
The set of rows in the frame can vary depending on which row is the current row. The frame can be
specified in RANGE, ROWS or GROUPS mode; in each case, it runs from the frame_start to the
frame_end. If frame_end is omitted, the end defaults to CURRENT ROW.

A frame_start of UNBOUNDED PRECEDING means that the frame starts with the first row of
the partition, and similarly a frame_end of UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING means that the frame ends
with the last row of the partition.

In RANGE or GROUPS mode, a frame_start of CURRENT ROW means the frame starts with the
current row's first peer row (a row that the window's ORDER BY clause sorts as equivalent to the
current row), while a frame_end of CURRENT ROW means the frame ends with the current row's
last peer row. In ROWS mode, CURRENT ROW simply means the current row.

In the offset PRECEDING and offset FOLLOWING frame options, the offset must be an
expression not containing any variables, aggregate functions, or window functions. The meaning of
the offset depends on the frame mode:

• In ROWS mode, the offset must yield a non-null, non-negative integer, and the option means that
the frame starts or ends the specified number of rows before or after the current row.

• In GROUPS mode, the offset again must yield a non-null, non-negative integer, and the option
means that the frame starts or ends the specified number of peer groups before or after the current
row's peer group, where a peer group is a set of rows that are equivalent in the ORDER BY ordering.
(There must be an ORDER BY clause in the window definition to use GROUPS mode.)

• In RANGE mode, these options require that the ORDER BY clause specify exactly one column. The
offset specifies the maximum difference between the value of that column in the current row and
its value in preceding or following rows of the frame. The data type of the offset expression varies
depending on the data type of the ordering column. For numeric ordering columns it is typically
of the same type as the ordering column, but for datetime ordering columns it is an interval.
For example, if the ordering column is of type date or timestamp, one could write RANGE
BETWEEN '1 day' PRECEDING AND '10 days' FOLLOWING. The offset is still
required to be non-null and non-negative, though the meaning of “non-negative” depends on its
data type.

In any case, the distance to the end of the frame is limited by the distance to the end of the partition,
so that for rows near the partition ends the frame might contain fewer rows than elsewhere.

Notice that in both ROWS and GROUPS mode, 0 PRECEDING and 0 FOLLOWING are equivalent to
CURRENT ROW. This normally holds in RANGE mode as well, for an appropriate data-type-specific
meaning of “zero”.

The frame_exclusion option allows rows around the current row to be excluded from the frame,
even if they would be included according to the frame start and frame end options. EXCLUDE CUR-
RENT ROW excludes the current row from the frame. EXCLUDE GROUP excludes the current row and
its ordering peers from the frame. EXCLUDE TIES excludes any peers of the current row from the
frame, but not the current row itself. EXCLUDE NO OTHERS simply specifies explicitly the default
behavior of not excluding the current row or its peers.

The default framing option is RANGE UNBOUNDED PRECEDING, which is the same as RANGE
BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW. With ORDER BY, this sets the frame
to be all rows from the partition start up through the current row's last ORDER BY peer. Without

48
 SQL Syntax

ORDER BY, this means all rows of the partition are included in the window frame, since all rows
become peers of the current row.

Restrictions are that frame_start cannot be UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING, frame_end cannot

be UNBOUNDED PRECEDING, and the frame_end choice cannot appear earlier in the above list
of frame_start and frame_end options than the frame_start choice does — for example
RANGE BETWEEN CURRENT ROW AND offset PRECEDING is not allowed. But, for example,
ROWS BETWEEN 7 PRECEDING AND 8 PRECEDING is allowed, even though it would never
select any rows.

If FILTER is specified, then only the input rows for which the filter_clause evaluates to true
are fed to the window function; other rows are discarded. Only window functions that are aggregates
accept a FILTER clause.

The built-in window functions are described in Table 9.60. Other window functions can be added by
the user. Also, any built-in or user-defined general-purpose or statistical aggregate can be used as a
window function. (Ordered-set and hypothetical-set aggregates cannot presently be used as window
functions.)

The syntaxes using * are used for calling parameter-less aggregate functions as window functions, for
example count(*) OVER (PARTITION BY x ORDER BY y). The asterisk (*) is customar-
ily not used for window-specific functions. Window-specific functions do not allow DISTINCT or
ORDER BY to be used within the function argument list.

Window function calls are permitted only in the SELECT list and the ORDER BY clause of the query.

More information about window functions can be found in Section 3.5, Section 9.21, and Section 7.2.5.

4.2.9. Type Casts

A type cast specifies a conversion from one data type to another. PostgreSQL accepts two equivalent
syntaxes for type casts:

CAST ( expression AS type )

expression::type

The CAST syntax conforms to SQL; the syntax with :: is historical PostgreSQL usage.

When a cast is applied to a value expression of a known type, it represents a run-time type conversion.
The cast will succeed only if a suitable type conversion operation has been defined. Notice that this
is subtly different from the use of casts with constants, as shown in Section 4.1.2.7. A cast applied
to an unadorned string literal represents the initial assignment of a type to a literal constant value,
and so it will succeed for any type (if the contents of the string literal are acceptable input syntax for
the data type).

An explicit type cast can usually be omitted if there is no ambiguity as to the type that a value expres-
sion must produce (for example, when it is assigned to a table column); the system will automatically
apply a type cast in such cases. However, automatic casting is only done for casts that are marked “OK
to apply implicitly” in the system catalogs. Other casts must be invoked with explicit casting syntax.
This restriction is intended to prevent surprising conversions from being applied silently.

It is also possible to specify a type cast using a function-like syntax:

typename ( expression )

However, this only works for types whose names are also valid as function names. For example, dou-
ble precision cannot be used this way, but the equivalent float8 can. Also, the names in-

49
 SQL Syntax

terval, time, and timestamp can only be used in this fashion if they are double-quoted, because
of syntactic conflicts. Therefore, the use of the function-like cast syntax leads to inconsistencies and
should probably be avoided.

Note
The function-like syntax is in fact just a function call. When one of the two standard
cast syntaxes is used to do a run-time conversion, it will internally invoke a registered
function to perform the conversion. By convention, these conversion functions have
the same name as their output type, and thus the “function-like syntax” is nothing more
than a direct invocation of the underlying conversion function. Obviously, this is not
something that a portable application should rely on. For further details see CREATE
CAST.

4.2.10. Collation Expressions

The COLLATE clause overrides the collation of an expression. It is appended to the expression it
applies to:

expr COLLATE collation

where collation is a possibly schema-qualified identifier. The COLLATE clause binds tighter than
operators; parentheses can be used when necessary.

If no collation is explicitly specified, the database system either derives a collation from the columns
involved in the expression, or it defaults to the default collation of the database if no column is involved
in the expression.

The two common uses of the COLLATE clause are overriding the sort order in an ORDER BY clause,
for example:

SELECT a, b, c FROM tbl WHERE ... ORDER BY a COLLATE "C";

and overriding the collation of a function or operator call that has locale-sensitive results, for example:

SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE a > 'foo' COLLATE "C";

Note that in the latter case the COLLATE clause is attached to an input argument of the operator we
wish to affect. It doesn't matter which argument of the operator or function call the COLLATE clause is
attached to, because the collation that is applied by the operator or function is derived by considering
all arguments, and an explicit COLLATE clause will override the collations of all other arguments.
(Attaching non-matching COLLATE clauses to more than one argument, however, is an error. For
more details see Section 23.2.) Thus, this gives the same result as the previous example:

SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE a COLLATE "C" > 'foo';

But this is an error:

SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE (a > 'foo') COLLATE "C";

because it attempts to apply a collation to the result of the > operator, which is of the non-collatable
data type boolean.

50
 SQL Syntax

4.2.11. Scalar Subqueries

A scalar subquery is an ordinary SELECT query in parentheses that returns exactly one row with one
column. (See Chapter 7 for information about writing queries.) The SELECT query is executed and
the single returned value is used in the surrounding value expression. It is an error to use a query that
returns more than one row or more than one column as a scalar subquery. (But if, during a particular
execution, the subquery returns no rows, there is no error; the scalar result is taken to be null.) The
subquery can refer to variables from the surrounding query, which will act as constants during any
one evaluation of the subquery. See also Section 9.22 for other expressions involving subqueries.

For example, the following finds the largest city population in each state:

SELECT name, (SELECT max(pop) FROM cities WHERE cities.state =

states.name)
FROM states;

4.2.12. Array Constructors

An array constructor is an expression that builds an array value using values for its member elements. A
simple array constructor consists of the key word ARRAY, a left square bracket [, a list of expressions
(separated by commas) for the array element values, and finally a right square bracket ]. For example:

SELECT ARRAY[1,2,3+4];
array
---------
{1,2,7}
(1 row)

By default, the array element type is the common type of the member expressions, determined using
the same rules as for UNION or CASE constructs (see Section 10.5). You can override this by explicitly
casting the array constructor to the desired type, for example:

SELECT ARRAY[1,2,22.7]::integer[];
array
----------
{1,2,23}
(1 row)

This has the same effect as casting each expression to the array element type individually. For more
on casting, see Section 4.2.9.

Multidimensional array values can be built by nesting array constructors. In the inner constructors, the
key word ARRAY can be omitted. For example, these produce the same result:

SELECT ARRAY[ARRAY[1,2], ARRAY[3,4]];

array
---------------
{{1,2},{3,4}}
(1 row)

SELECT ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]];
array
---------------
{{1,2},{3,4}}
(1 row)

51
 SQL Syntax

Since multidimensional arrays must be rectangular, inner constructors at the same level must produce
sub-arrays of identical dimensions. Any cast applied to the outer ARRAY constructor propagates au-
tomatically to all the inner constructors.

Multidimensional array constructor elements can be anything yielding an array of the proper kind, not
only a sub-ARRAY construct. For example:

CREATE TABLE arr(f1 int[], f2 int[]);

INSERT INTO arr VALUES (ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]], ARRAY[[5,6],[7,8]]);

SELECT ARRAY[f1, f2, '{{9,10},{11,12}}'::int[]] FROM arr;

array
------------------------------------------------
{{{1,2},{3,4}},{{5,6},{7,8}},{{9,10},{11,12}}}
(1 row)

You can construct an empty array, but since it's impossible to have an array with no type, you must
explicitly cast your empty array to the desired type. For example:

SELECT ARRAY[]::integer[];
array
-------
{}
(1 row)

It is also possible to construct an array from the results of a subquery. In this form, the array construc-
tor is written with the key word ARRAY followed by a parenthesized (not bracketed) subquery. For
example:

SELECT ARRAY(SELECT oid FROM pg_proc WHERE proname LIKE 'bytea%');

array
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
{2011,1954,1948,1952,1951,1244,1950,2005,1949,1953,2006,31,2412,2413}
(1 row)

SELECT ARRAY(SELECT ARRAY[i, i*2] FROM generate_series(1,5) AS

a(i));
array
----------------------------------
{{1,2},{2,4},{3,6},{4,8},{5,10}}
(1 row)

The subquery must return a single column. If the subquery's output column is of a non-array type,
the resulting one-dimensional array will have an element for each row in the subquery result, with an
element type matching that of the subquery's output column. If the subquery's output column is of an
array type, the result will be an array of the same type but one higher dimension; in this case all the
subquery rows must yield arrays of identical dimensionality, else the result would not be rectangular.

The subscripts of an array value built with ARRAY always begin with one. For more information about
arrays, see Section 8.15.

4.2.13. Row Constructors

A row constructor is an expression that builds a row value (also called a composite value) using values
for its member fields. A row constructor consists of the key word ROW, a left parenthesis, zero or

52
 SQL Syntax

more expressions (separated by commas) for the row field values, and finally a right parenthesis. For
example:

SELECT ROW(1,2.5,'this is a test');

The key word ROW is optional when there is more than one expression in the list.

A row constructor can include the syntax rowvalue.*, which will be expanded to a list of the
elements of the row value, just as occurs when the .* syntax is used at the top level of a SELECT list
(see Section 8.16.5). For example, if table t has columns f1 and f2, these are the same:

SELECT ROW(t.*, 42) FROM t;

SELECT ROW(t.f1, t.f2, 42) FROM t;

Note
Before PostgreSQL 8.2, the .* syntax was not expanded in row constructors, so that
writing ROW(t.*, 42) created a two-field row whose first field was another row
value. The new behavior is usually more useful. If you need the old behavior of nested
row values, write the inner row value without .*, for instance ROW(t, 42).

By default, the value created by a ROW expression is of an anonymous record type. If necessary, it can
be cast to a named composite type — either the row type of a table, or a composite type created with
CREATE TYPE AS. An explicit cast might be needed to avoid ambiguity. For example:

CREATE TABLE mytable(f1 int, f2 float, f3 text);

CREATE FUNCTION getf1(mytable) RETURNS int AS 'SELECT $1.f1'

LANGUAGE SQL;

-- No cast needed since only one getf1() exists

SELECT getf1(ROW(1,2.5,'this is a test'));
getf1
-------
1
(1 row)

CREATE TYPE myrowtype AS (f1 int, f2 text, f3 numeric);

CREATE FUNCTION getf1(myrowtype) RETURNS int AS 'SELECT $1.f1'

LANGUAGE SQL;

-- Now we need a cast to indicate which function to call:

SELECT getf1(ROW(1,2.5,'this is a test'));
ERROR: function getf1(record) is not unique

SELECT getf1(ROW(1,2.5,'this is a test')::mytable);

getf1
-------
1
(1 row)

SELECT getf1(CAST(ROW(11,'this is a test',2.5) AS myrowtype));

getf1

53
 SQL Syntax

-------
11
(1 row)

Row constructors can be used to build composite values to be stored in a composite-type table column,
or to be passed to a function that accepts a composite parameter. Also, it is possible to compare two
row values or test a row with IS NULL or IS NOT NULL, for example:

SELECT ROW(1,2.5,'this is a test') = ROW(1, 3, 'not the same');

SELECT ROW(table.*) IS NULL FROM table; -- detect all-null rows

For more detail see Section 9.23. Row constructors can also be used in connection with subqueries,
as discussed in Section 9.22.

4.2.14. Expression Evaluation Rules

The order of evaluation of subexpressions is not defined. In particular, the inputs of an operator or
function are not necessarily evaluated left-to-right or in any other fixed order.

Furthermore, if the result of an expression can be determined by evaluating only some parts of it, then
other subexpressions might not be evaluated at all. For instance, if one wrote:

SELECT true OR somefunc();

then somefunc() would (probably) not be called at all. The same would be the case if one wrote:

SELECT somefunc() OR true;

Note that this is not the same as the left-to-right “short-circuiting” of Boolean operators that is found
in some programming languages.

As a consequence, it is unwise to use functions with side effects as part of complex expressions. It is
particularly dangerous to rely on side effects or evaluation order in WHERE and HAVING clauses, since
those clauses are extensively reprocessed as part of developing an execution plan. Boolean expressions
(AND/OR/NOT combinations) in those clauses can be reorganized in any manner allowed by the laws
of Boolean algebra.

When it is essential to force evaluation order, a CASE construct (see Section 9.17) can be used. For
example, this is an untrustworthy way of trying to avoid division by zero in a WHERE clause:

SELECT ... WHERE x > 0 AND y/x > 1.5;

But this is safe:

SELECT ... WHERE CASE WHEN x > 0 THEN y/x > 1.5 ELSE false END;

A CASE construct used in this fashion will defeat optimization attempts, so it should only be done
when necessary. (In this particular example, it would be better to sidestep the problem by writing y
> 1.5*x instead.)

CASE is not a cure-all for such issues, however. One limitation of the technique illustrated above is
that it does not prevent early evaluation of constant subexpressions. As described in Section 37.7,
functions and operators marked IMMUTABLE can be evaluated when the query is planned rather than
when it is executed. Thus for example

54
 SQL Syntax

SELECT CASE WHEN x > 0 THEN x ELSE 1/0 END FROM tab;

is likely to result in a division-by-zero failure due to the planner trying to simplify the constant subex-
pression, even if every row in the table has x > 0 so that the ELSE arm would never be entered
at run time.

While that particular example might seem silly, related cases that don't obviously involve constants
can occur in queries executed within functions, since the values of function arguments and local vari-
ables can be inserted into queries as constants for planning purposes. Within PL/pgSQL functions, for
example, using an IF-THEN-ELSE statement to protect a risky computation is much safer than just
nesting it in a CASE expression.

Another limitation of the same kind is that a CASE cannot prevent evaluation of an aggregate expres-
sion contained within it, because aggregate expressions are computed before other expressions in a
SELECT list or HAVING clause are considered. For example, the following query can cause a divi-
sion-by-zero error despite seemingly having protected against it:

SELECT CASE WHEN min(employees) > 0

THEN avg(expenses / employees)
END
FROM departments;

The min() and avg() aggregates are computed concurrently over all the input rows, so if any row
has employees equal to zero, the division-by-zero error will occur before there is any opportunity
to test the result of min(). Instead, use a WHERE or FILTER clause to prevent problematic input
rows from reaching an aggregate function in the first place.

4.3. Calling Functions

PostgreSQL allows functions that have named parameters to be called using either positional or named
notation. Named notation is especially useful for functions that have a large number of parameters,
since it makes the associations between parameters and actual arguments more explicit and reliable.
In positional notation, a function call is written with its argument values in the same order as they
are defined in the function declaration. In named notation, the arguments are matched to the function
parameters by name and can be written in any order. For each notation, also consider the effect of
function argument types, documented in Section 10.3.

In either notation, parameters that have default values given in the function declaration need not be
written in the call at all. But this is particularly useful in named notation, since any combination of
parameters can be omitted; while in positional notation parameters can only be omitted from right
to left.

PostgreSQL also supports mixed notation, which combines positional and named notation. In this case,
positional parameters are written first and named parameters appear after them.

The following examples will illustrate the usage of all three notations, using the following function
definition:

CREATE FUNCTION concat_lower_or_upper(a text, b text, uppercase

boolean DEFAULT false)
RETURNS text
AS
$$
SELECT CASE
WHEN $3 THEN UPPER($1 || ' ' || $2)
ELSE LOWER($1 || ' ' || $2)

55
 SQL Syntax

END;
$$
LANGUAGE SQL IMMUTABLE STRICT;

Function concat_lower_or_upper has two mandatory parameters, a and b. Additionally there

is one optional parameter uppercase which defaults to false. The a and b inputs will be concate-
nated, and forced to either upper or lower case depending on the uppercase parameter. The remain-
ing details of this function definition are not important here (see Chapter 37 for more information).

4.3.1. Using Positional Notation

Positional notation is the traditional mechanism for passing arguments to functions in PostgreSQL.
An example is:

SELECT concat_lower_or_upper('Hello', 'World', true);

concat_lower_or_upper
-----------------------
HELLO WORLD
(1 row)

All arguments are specified in order. The result is upper case since uppercase is specified as true.
Another example is:

SELECT concat_lower_or_upper('Hello', 'World');

concat_lower_or_upper
-----------------------
hello world
(1 row)

Here, the uppercase parameter is omitted, so it receives its default value of false, resulting in
lower case output. In positional notation, arguments can be omitted from right to left so long as they
have defaults.

4.3.2. Using Named Notation

In named notation, each argument's name is specified using => to separate it from the argument ex-
pression. For example:

SELECT concat_lower_or_upper(a => 'Hello', b => 'World');

concat_lower_or_upper
-----------------------
hello world
(1 row)

Again, the argument uppercase was omitted so it is set to false implicitly. One advantage of
using named notation is that the arguments may be specified in any order, for example:

SELECT concat_lower_or_upper(a => 'Hello', b => 'World', uppercase

=> true);
concat_lower_or_upper
-----------------------
HELLO WORLD
(1 row)

56
 SQL Syntax

SELECT concat_lower_or_upper(a => 'Hello', uppercase => true, b =>

'World');
concat_lower_or_upper
-----------------------
HELLO WORLD
(1 row)

An older syntax based on ":=" is supported for backward compatibility:

SELECT concat_lower_or_upper(a := 'Hello', uppercase := true, b :=

'World');
concat_lower_or_upper
-----------------------
HELLO WORLD
(1 row)

4.3.3. Using Mixed Notation

The mixed notation combines positional and named notation. However, as already mentioned, named
arguments cannot precede positional arguments. For example:

SELECT concat_lower_or_upper('Hello', 'World', uppercase => true);

concat_lower_or_upper
-----------------------
HELLO WORLD
(1 row)

In the above query, the arguments a and b are specified positionally, while uppercase is specified
by name. In this example, that adds little except documentation. With a more complex function having
numerous parameters that have default values, named or mixed notation can save a great deal of writing
and reduce chances for error.

Note
Named and mixed call notations currently cannot be used when calling an aggregate
function (but they do work when an aggregate function is used as a window function).

57
Chapter 5. Data Definition
This chapter covers how one creates the database structures that will hold one's data. In a relational
database, the raw data is stored in tables, so the majority of this chapter is devoted to explaining how
tables are created and modified and what features are available to control what data is stored in the
tables. Subsequently, we discuss how tables can be organized into schemas, and how privileges can
be assigned to tables. Finally, we will briefly look at other features that affect the data storage, such
as inheritance, table partitioning, views, functions, and triggers.

5.1. Table Basics

A table in a relational database is much like a table on paper: It consists of rows and columns. The
number and order of the columns is fixed, and each column has a name. The number of rows is variable
— it reflects how much data is stored at a given moment. SQL does not make any guarantees about
the order of the rows in a table. When a table is read, the rows will appear in an unspecified order,
unless sorting is explicitly requested. This is covered in Chapter 7. Furthermore, SQL does not assign
unique identifiers to rows, so it is possible to have several completely identical rows in a table. This
is a consequence of the mathematical model that underlies SQL but is usually not desirable. Later in
this chapter we will see how to deal with this issue.

Each column has a data type. The data type constrains the set of possible values that can be assigned to
a column and assigns semantics to the data stored in the column so that it can be used for computations.
For instance, a column declared to be of a numerical type will not accept arbitrary text strings, and
the data stored in such a column can be used for mathematical computations. By contrast, a column
declared to be of a character string type will accept almost any kind of data but it does not lend itself
to mathematical calculations, although other operations such as string concatenation are available.

PostgreSQL includes a sizable set of built-in data types that fit many applications. Users can also
define their own data types. Most built-in data types have obvious names and semantics, so we defer
a detailed explanation to Chapter 8. Some of the frequently used data types are integer for whole
numbers, numeric for possibly fractional numbers, text for character strings, date for dates,
time for time-of-day values, and timestamp for values containing both date and time.

To create a table, you use the aptly named CREATE TABLE command. In this command you specify
at least a name for the new table, the names of the columns and the data type of each column. For
example:

CREATE TABLE my_first_table (

first_column text,
second_column integer
);

This creates a table named my_first_table with two columns. The first column is named
first_column and has a data type of text; the second column has the name second_column
and the type integer. The table and column names follow the identifier syntax explained in Sec-
tion 4.1.1. The type names are usually also identifiers, but there are some exceptions. Note that the
column list is comma-separated and surrounded by parentheses.

Of course, the previous example was heavily contrived. Normally, you would give names to your
tables and columns that convey what kind of data they store. So let's look at a more realistic example:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric

58
 Data Definition

);

(The numeric type can store fractional components, as would be typical of monetary amounts.)

Tip
When you create many interrelated tables it is wise to choose a consistent naming
pattern for the tables and columns. For instance, there is a choice of using singular or
plural nouns for table names, both of which are favored by some theorist or other.

There is a limit on how many columns a table can contain. Depending on the column types, it is
between 250 and 1600. However, defining a table with anywhere near this many columns is highly
unusual and often a questionable design.

If you no longer need a table, you can remove it using the DROP TABLE command. For example:

DROP TABLE my_first_table;

DROP TABLE products;

Attempting to drop a table that does not exist is an error. Nevertheless, it is common in SQL script files
to unconditionally try to drop each table before creating it, ignoring any error messages, so that the
script works whether or not the table exists. (If you like, you can use the DROP TABLE IF EXISTS
variant to avoid the error messages, but this is not standard SQL.)

If you need to modify a table that already exists, see Section 5.6 later in this chapter.

With the tools discussed so far you can create fully functional tables. The remainder of this chapter is
concerned with adding features to the table definition to ensure data integrity, security, or convenience.
If you are eager to fill your tables with data now you can skip ahead to Chapter 6 and read the rest
of this chapter later.

5.2. Default Values

A column can be assigned a default value. When a new row is created and no values are specified
for some of the columns, those columns will be filled with their respective default values. A data
manipulation command can also request explicitly that a column be set to its default value, without
having to know what that value is. (Details about data manipulation commands are in Chapter 6.)

If no default value is declared explicitly, the default value is the null value. This usually makes sense
because a null value can be considered to represent unknown data.

In a table definition, default values are listed after the column data type. For example:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric DEFAULT 9.99
);

The default value can be an expression, which will be evaluated whenever the default value is inserted
(not when the table is created). A common example is for a timestamp column to have a default of
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, so that it gets set to the time of row insertion. Another common example is
generating a “serial number” for each row. In PostgreSQL this is typically done by something like:

59
 Data Definition

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer DEFAULT nextval('products_product_no_seq'),
...
);

where the nextval() function supplies successive values from a sequence object (see Section 9.16).
This arrangement is sufficiently common that there's a special shorthand for it:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no SERIAL,
...
);

The SERIAL shorthand is discussed further in Section 8.1.4.

5.3. Generated Columns

A generated column is a special column that is always computed from other columns. Thus, it is for
columns what a view is for tables. There are two kinds of generated columns: stored and virtual. A
stored generated column is computed when it is written (inserted or updated) and occupies storage as
if it were a normal column. A virtual generated column occupies no storage and is computed when it is
read. Thus, a virtual generated column is similar to a view and a stored generated column is similar to a
materialized view (except that it is always updated automatically). PostgreSQL currently implements
only stored generated columns.

To create a generated column, use the GENERATED ALWAYS AS clause in CREATE TABLE, for
example:

CREATE TABLE people (

...,
height_cm numeric,
height_in numeric GENERATED ALWAYS AS (height_cm / 2.54) STORED
);

The keyword STORED must be specified to choose the stored kind of generated column. See CREATE
TABLE for more details.

A generated column cannot be written to directly. In INSERT or UPDATE commands, a value cannot
be specified for a generated column, but the keyword DEFAULT may be specified.

Consider the differences between a column with a default and a generated column. The column default
is evaluated once when the row is first inserted if no other value was provided; a generated column is
updated whenever the row changes and cannot be overridden. A column default may not refer to other
columns of the table; a generation expression would normally do so. A column default can use volatile
functions, for example random() or functions referring to the current time; this is not allowed for
generated columns.

Several restrictions apply to the definition of generated columns and tables involving generated
columns:

• The generation expression can only use immutable functions and cannot use subqueries or reference
anything other than the current row in any way.

• A generation expression cannot reference another generated column.

• A generation expression cannot reference a system column, except tableoid.

• A generated column cannot have a column default or an identity definition.

60
 Data Definition

• A generated column cannot be part of a partition key.

• Foreign tables can have generated columns. See CREATE FOREIGN TABLE for details.

Additional considerations apply to the use of generated columns.

• Generated columns maintain access privileges separately from their underlying base columns. So,
it is possible to arrange it so that a particular role can read from a generated column but not from
the underlying base columns.

• Generated columns are, conceptually, updated after BEFORE triggers have run. Therefore, changes
made to base columns in a BEFORE trigger will be reflected in generated columns. But conversely,
it is not allowed to access generated columns in BEFORE triggers.

5.4. Constraints
Data types are a way to limit the kind of data that can be stored in a table. For many applications,
however, the constraint they provide is too coarse. For example, a column containing a product price
should probably only accept positive values. But there is no standard data type that accepts only pos-
itive numbers. Another issue is that you might want to constrain column data with respect to other
columns or rows. For example, in a table containing product information, there should be only one
row for each product number.

To that end, SQL allows you to define constraints on columns and tables. Constraints give you as
much control over the data in your tables as you wish. If a user attempts to store data in a column
that would violate a constraint, an error is raised. This applies even if the value came from the default
value definition.

5.4.1. Check Constraints

A check constraint is the most generic constraint type. It allows you to specify that the value in a cer-
tain column must satisfy a Boolean (truth-value) expression. For instance, to require positive product
prices, you could use:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric CHECK (price > 0)
);

As you see, the constraint definition comes after the data type, just like default value definitions.
Default values and constraints can be listed in any order. A check constraint consists of the key word
CHECK followed by an expression in parentheses. The check constraint expression should involve the
column thus constrained, otherwise the constraint would not make too much sense.

You can also give the constraint a separate name. This clarifies error messages and allows you to refer
to the constraint when you need to change it. The syntax is:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric CONSTRAINT positive_price CHECK (price > 0)
);

So, to specify a named constraint, use the key word CONSTRAINT followed by an identifier followed
by the constraint definition. (If you don't specify a constraint name in this way, the system chooses
a name for you.)

61
 Data Definition

A check constraint can also refer to several columns. Say you store a regular price and a discounted
price, and you want to ensure that the discounted price is lower than the regular price:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric CHECK (price > 0),
discounted_price numeric CHECK (discounted_price > 0),
CHECK (price > discounted_price)
);

The first two constraints should look familiar. The third one uses a new syntax. It is not attached to a
particular column, instead it appears as a separate item in the comma-separated column list. Column
definitions and these constraint definitions can be listed in mixed order.

We say that the first two constraints are column constraints, whereas the third one is a table constraint
because it is written separately from any one column definition. Column constraints can also be written
as table constraints, while the reverse is not necessarily possible, since a column constraint is supposed
to refer to only the column it is attached to. (PostgreSQL doesn't enforce that rule, but you should
follow it if you want your table definitions to work with other database systems.) The above example
could also be written as:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric,
CHECK (price > 0),
discounted_price numeric,
CHECK (discounted_price > 0),
CHECK (price > discounted_price)
);

or even:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric CHECK (price > 0),
discounted_price numeric,
CHECK (discounted_price > 0 AND price > discounted_price)
);

It's a matter of taste.

Names can be assigned to table constraints in the same way as column constraints:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric,
CHECK (price > 0),
discounted_price numeric,
CHECK (discounted_price > 0),
CONSTRAINT valid_discount CHECK (price > discounted_price)
);

62
 Data Definition

It should be noted that a check constraint is satisfied if the check expression evaluates to true or the
null value. Since most expressions will evaluate to the null value if any operand is null, they will not
prevent null values in the constrained columns. To ensure that a column does not contain null values,
the not-null constraint described in the next section can be used.

Note
PostgreSQL does not support CHECK constraints that reference table data other than
the new or updated row being checked. While a CHECK constraint that violates this
rule may appear to work in simple tests, it cannot guarantee that the database will
not reach a state in which the constraint condition is false (due to subsequent changes
of the other row(s) involved). This would cause a database dump and reload to fail.
The reload could fail even when the complete database state is consistent with the
constraint, due to rows not being loaded in an order that will satisfy the constraint. If
possible, use UNIQUE, EXCLUDE, or FOREIGN KEY constraints to express cross-
row and cross-table restrictions.

If what you desire is a one-time check against other rows at row insertion, rather than
a continuously-maintained consistency guarantee, a custom trigger can be used to im-
plement that. (This approach avoids the dump/reload problem because pg_dump does
not reinstall triggers until after reloading data, so that the check will not be enforced
during a dump/reload.)

Note
PostgreSQL assumes that CHECK constraints' conditions are immutable, that is, they
will always give the same result for the same input row. This assumption is what jus-
tifies examining CHECK constraints only when rows are inserted or updated, and not
at other times. (The warning above about not referencing other table data is really a
special case of this restriction.)

An example of a common way to break this assumption is to reference a user-defined

function in a CHECK expression, and then change the behavior of that function. Post-
greSQL does not disallow that, but it will not notice if there are rows in the table that
now violate the CHECK constraint. That would cause a subsequent database dump and
reload to fail. The recommended way to handle such a change is to drop the constraint
(using ALTER TABLE), adjust the function definition, and re-add the constraint, there-
by rechecking it against all table rows.

5.4.2. Not-Null Constraints

A not-null constraint simply specifies that a column must not assume the null value. A syntax example:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer NOT NULL,
name text NOT NULL,
price numeric
);

A not-null constraint is always written as a column constraint. A not-null constraint is functionally

equivalent to creating a check constraint CHECK (column_name IS NOT NULL), but in Post-
greSQL creating an explicit not-null constraint is more efficient. The drawback is that you cannot give
explicit names to not-null constraints created this way.

63
 Data Definition

Of course, a column can have more than one constraint. Just write the constraints one after another:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer NOT NULL,
name text NOT NULL,
price numeric NOT NULL CHECK (price > 0)
);

The order doesn't matter. It does not necessarily determine in which order the constraints are checked.

The NOT NULL constraint has an inverse: the NULL constraint. This does not mean that the column
must be null, which would surely be useless. Instead, this simply selects the default behavior that the
column might be null. The NULL constraint is not present in the SQL standard and should not be used
in portable applications. (It was only added to PostgreSQL to be compatible with some other database
systems.) Some users, however, like it because it makes it easy to toggle the constraint in a script file.
For example, you could start with:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer NULL,
name text NULL,
price numeric NULL
);

and then insert the NOT key word where desired.

Tip
In most database designs the majority of columns should be marked not null.

5.4.3. Unique Constraints

Unique constraints ensure that the data contained in a column, or a group of columns, is unique among
all the rows in the table. The syntax is:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer UNIQUE,
name text,
price numeric
);

when written as a column constraint, and:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric,
UNIQUE (product_no)
);

when written as a table constraint.

To define a unique constraint for a group of columns, write it as a table constraint with the column
names separated by commas:

64
 Data Definition

CREATE TABLE example (

a integer,
b integer,
c integer,
UNIQUE (a, c)
);

This specifies that the combination of values in the indicated columns is unique across the whole table,
though any one of the columns need not be (and ordinarily isn't) unique.

You can assign your own name for a unique constraint, in the usual way:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer CONSTRAINT must_be_different UNIQUE,
name text,
price numeric
);

Adding a unique constraint will automatically create a unique B-tree index on the column or group of
columns listed in the constraint. A uniqueness restriction covering only some rows cannot be written
as a unique constraint, but it is possible to enforce such a restriction by creating a unique partial index.

In general, a unique constraint is violated if there is more than one row in the table where the values of
all of the columns included in the constraint are equal. However, two null values are never considered
equal in this comparison. That means even in the presence of a unique constraint it is possible to
store duplicate rows that contain a null value in at least one of the constrained columns. This behavior
conforms to the SQL standard, but we have heard that other SQL databases might not follow this rule.
So be careful when developing applications that are intended to be portable.

5.4.4. Primary Keys

A primary key constraint indicates that a column, or group of columns, can be used as a unique iden-
tifier for rows in the table. This requires that the values be both unique and not null. So, the following
two table definitions accept the same data:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer UNIQUE NOT NULL,
name text,
price numeric
);

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer PRIMARY KEY,
name text,
price numeric
);

Primary keys can span more than one column; the syntax is similar to unique constraints:

CREATE TABLE example (

a integer,
b integer,
c integer,

65
 Data Definition

PRIMARY KEY (a, c)

);

Adding a primary key will automatically create a unique B-tree index on the column or group of
columns listed in the primary key, and will force the column(s) to be marked NOT NULL.

A table can have at most one primary key. (There can be any number of unique and not-null constraints,
which are functionally almost the same thing, but only one can be identified as the primary key.)
Relational database theory dictates that every table must have a primary key. This rule is not enforced
by PostgreSQL, but it is usually best to follow it.

Primary keys are useful both for documentation purposes and for client applications. For example, a
GUI application that allows modifying row values probably needs to know the primary key of a table
to be able to identify rows uniquely. There are also various ways in which the database system makes
use of a primary key if one has been declared; for example, the primary key defines the default target
column(s) for foreign keys referencing its table.

5.4.5. Foreign Keys

A foreign key constraint specifies that the values in a column (or a group of columns) must match the
values appearing in some row of another table. We say this maintains the referential integrity between
two related tables.

Say you have the product table that we have used several times already:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer PRIMARY KEY,
name text,
price numeric
);

Let's also assume you have a table storing orders of those products. We want to ensure that the orders
table only contains orders of products that actually exist. So we define a foreign key constraint in the
orders table that references the products table:

CREATE TABLE orders (

order_id integer PRIMARY KEY,
product_no integer REFERENCES products (product_no),
quantity integer
);

Now it is impossible to create orders with non-NULL product_no entries that do not appear in
the products table.

We say that in this situation the orders table is the referencing table and the products table is the
referenced table. Similarly, there are referencing and referenced columns.

You can also shorten the above command to:

CREATE TABLE orders (

order_id integer PRIMARY KEY,
product_no integer REFERENCES products,
quantity integer
);

because in absence of a column list the primary key of the referenced table is used as the referenced
column(s).

66
 Data Definition

A foreign key can also constrain and reference a group of columns. As usual, it then needs to be written
in table constraint form. Here is a contrived syntax example:

CREATE TABLE t1 (
a integer PRIMARY KEY,
b integer,
c integer,
FOREIGN KEY (b, c) REFERENCES other_table (c1, c2)
);

Of course, the number and type of the constrained columns need to match the number and type of
the referenced columns.

You can assign your own name for a foreign key constraint, in the usual way.

A table can have more than one foreign key constraint. This is used to implement many-to-many
relationships between tables. Say you have tables about products and orders, but now you want to
allow one order to contain possibly many products (which the structure above did not allow). You
could use this table structure:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer PRIMARY KEY,
name text,
price numeric
);

CREATE TABLE orders (

order_id integer PRIMARY KEY,
shipping_address text,
...
);

CREATE TABLE order_items (

product_no integer REFERENCES products,
order_id integer REFERENCES orders,
quantity integer,
PRIMARY KEY (product_no, order_id)
);

Notice that the primary key overlaps with the foreign keys in the last table.

We know that the foreign keys disallow creation of orders that do not relate to any products. But what
if a product is removed after an order is created that references it? SQL allows you to handle that as
well. Intuitively, we have a few options:

• Disallow deleting a referenced product

• Delete the orders as well
• Something else?

To illustrate this, let's implement the following policy on the many-to-many relationship exam-
ple above: when someone wants to remove a product that is still referenced by an order (via or-
der_items), we disallow it. If someone removes an order, the order items are removed as well:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer PRIMARY KEY,
name text,

67
 Data Definition

price numeric
);

CREATE TABLE orders (

order_id integer PRIMARY KEY,
shipping_address text,
...
);

CREATE TABLE order_items (

product_no integer REFERENCES products ON DELETE RESTRICT,
order_id integer REFERENCES orders ON DELETE CASCADE,
quantity integer,
PRIMARY KEY (product_no, order_id)
);

Restricting and cascading deletes are the two most common options. RESTRICT prevents deletion of
a referenced row. NO ACTION means that if any referencing rows still exist when the constraint is
checked, an error is raised; this is the default behavior if you do not specify anything. (The essential
difference between these two choices is that NO ACTION allows the check to be deferred until later
in the transaction, whereas RESTRICT does not.) CASCADE specifies that when a referenced row is
deleted, row(s) referencing it should be automatically deleted as well. There are two other options:
SET NULL and SET DEFAULT. These cause the referencing column(s) in the referencing row(s) to
be set to nulls or their default values, respectively, when the referenced row is deleted. Note that these
do not excuse you from observing any constraints. For example, if an action specifies SET DEFAULT
but the default value would not satisfy the foreign key constraint, the operation will fail.

Analogous to ON DELETE there is also ON UPDATE which is invoked when a referenced column is
changed (updated). The possible actions are the same. In this case, CASCADE means that the updated
values of the referenced column(s) should be copied into the referencing row(s).

Normally, a referencing row need not satisfy the foreign key constraint if any of its referencing
columns are null. If MATCH FULL is added to the foreign key declaration, a referencing row escapes
satisfying the constraint only if all its referencing columns are null (so a mix of null and non-null
values is guaranteed to fail a MATCH FULL constraint). If you don't want referencing rows to be able
to avoid satisfying the foreign key constraint, declare the referencing column(s) as NOT NULL.

A foreign key must reference columns that either are a primary key or form a unique constraint. This
means that the referenced columns always have an index (the one underlying the primary key or unique
constraint); so checks on whether a referencing row has a match will be efficient. Since a DELETE
of a row from the referenced table or an UPDATE of a referenced column will require a scan of the
referencing table for rows matching the old value, it is often a good idea to index the referencing
columns too. Because this is not always needed, and there are many choices available on how to
index, declaration of a foreign key constraint does not automatically create an index on the referencing
columns.

More information about updating and deleting data is in Chapter 6. Also see the description of foreign
key constraint syntax in the reference documentation for CREATE TABLE.

5.4.6. Exclusion Constraints

Exclusion constraints ensure that if any two rows are compared on the specified columns or expressions
using the specified operators, at least one of these operator comparisons will return false or null. The
syntax is:

CREATE TABLE circles (

c circle,
EXCLUDE USING gist (c WITH &&)

68
 Data Definition

);

See also CREATE TABLE ... CONSTRAINT ... EXCLUDE for details.

Adding an exclusion constraint will automatically create an index of the type specified in the constraint
declaration.

5.5. System Columns

Every table has several system columns that are implicitly defined by the system. Therefore, these
names cannot be used as names of user-defined columns. (Note that these restrictions are separate from
whether the name is a key word or not; quoting a name will not allow you to escape these restrictions.)
You do not really need to be concerned about these columns; just know they exist.

tableoid

The OID of the table containing this row. This column is particularly handy for queries that select
from inheritance hierarchies (see Section 5.10), since without it, it's difficult to tell which individ-
ual table a row came from. The tableoid can be joined against the oid column of pg_class
to obtain the table name.

xmin

The identity (transaction ID) of the inserting transaction for this row version. (A row version is an
individual state of a row; each update of a row creates a new row version for the same logical row.)

cmin

The command identifier (starting at zero) within the inserting transaction.

xmax

The identity (transaction ID) of the deleting transaction, or zero for an undeleted row version. It
is possible for this column to be nonzero in a visible row version. That usually indicates that the
deleting transaction hasn't committed yet, or that an attempted deletion was rolled back.

cmax

The command identifier within the deleting transaction, or zero.

ctid

The physical location of the row version within its table. Note that although the ctid can be used
to locate the row version very quickly, a row's ctid will change if it is updated or moved by
VACUUM FULL. Therefore ctid is useless as a long-term row identifier. A primary key should
be used to identify logical rows.

Transaction identifiers are also 32-bit quantities. In a long-lived database it is possible for transaction
IDs to wrap around. This is not a fatal problem given appropriate maintenance procedures; see Chap-
ter 24 for details. It is unwise, however, to depend on the uniqueness of transaction IDs over the long
term (more than one billion transactions).

Command identifiers are also 32-bit quantities. This creates a hard limit of 232 (4 billion) SQL com-
mands within a single transaction. In practice this limit is not a problem — note that the limit is on
the number of SQL commands, not the number of rows processed. Also, only commands that actually
modify the database contents will consume a command identifier.

5.6. Modifying Tables

69
 Data Definition

When you create a table and you realize that you made a mistake, or the requirements of the application
change, you can drop the table and create it again. But this is not a convenient option if the table is
already filled with data, or if the table is referenced by other database objects (for instance a foreign key
constraint). Therefore PostgreSQL provides a family of commands to make modifications to existing
tables. Note that this is conceptually distinct from altering the data contained in the table: here we are
interested in altering the definition, or structure, of the table.

You can:

• Add columns
• Remove columns
• Add constraints
• Remove constraints
• Change default values
• Change column data types
• Rename columns
• Rename tables

All these actions are performed using the ALTER TABLE command, whose reference page contains
details beyond those given here.

5.6.1. Adding a Column

To add a column, use a command like:

ALTER TABLE products ADD COLUMN description text;

The new column is initially filled with whatever default value is given (null if you don't specify a
DEFAULT clause).

Tip
From PostgreSQL 11, adding a column with a constant default value no longer means
that each row of the table needs to be updated when the ALTER TABLE statement is
executed. Instead, the default value will be returned the next time the row is accessed,
and applied when the table is rewritten, making the ALTER TABLE very fast even
on large tables.

However, if the default value is volatile (e.g. clock_timestamp()) each row will
need to be updated with the value calculated at the time ALTER TABLE is executed.
To avoid a potentially lengthy update operation, particularly if you intend to fill the
column with mostly nondefault values anyway, it may be preferable to add the column
with no default, insert the correct values using UPDATE, and then add any desired
default as described below.

You can also define constraints on the column at the same time, using the usual syntax:

ALTER TABLE products ADD COLUMN description text CHECK (description

<> '');

In fact all the options that can be applied to a column description in CREATE TABLE can be used here.
Keep in mind however that the default value must satisfy the given constraints, or the ADD will fail.
Alternatively, you can add constraints later (see below) after you've filled in the new column correctly.

5.6.2. Removing a Column

70
 Data Definition

To remove a column, use a command like:

ALTER TABLE products DROP COLUMN description;

Whatever data was in the column disappears. Table constraints involving the column are dropped, too.
However, if the column is referenced by a foreign key constraint of another table, PostgreSQL will
not silently drop that constraint. You can authorize dropping everything that depends on the column
by adding CASCADE:

ALTER TABLE products DROP COLUMN description CASCADE;

See Section 5.14 for a description of the general mechanism behind this.

5.6.3. Adding a Constraint

To add a constraint, the table constraint syntax is used. For example:

ALTER TABLE products ADD CHECK (name <> '');

ALTER TABLE products ADD CONSTRAINT some_name UNIQUE (product_no);
ALTER TABLE products ADD FOREIGN KEY (product_group_id) REFERENCES
product_groups;

To add a not-null constraint, which cannot be written as a table constraint, use this syntax:

ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN product_no SET NOT NULL;

The constraint will be checked immediately, so the table data must satisfy the constraint before it can
be added.

5.6.4. Removing a Constraint

To remove a constraint you need to know its name. If you gave it a name then that's easy. Otherwise
the system assigned a generated name, which you need to find out. The psql command \d table-
name can be helpful here; other interfaces might also provide a way to inspect table details. Then
the command is:

ALTER TABLE products DROP CONSTRAINT some_name;

(If you are dealing with a generated constraint name like $2, don't forget that you'll need to dou-
ble-quote it to make it a valid identifier.)

As with dropping a column, you need to add CASCADE if you want to drop a constraint that something
else depends on. An example is that a foreign key constraint depends on a unique or primary key
constraint on the referenced column(s).

This works the same for all constraint types except not-null constraints. To drop a not null constraint
use:

ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN product_no DROP NOT NULL;

(Recall that not-null constraints do not have names.)

5.6.5. Changing a Column's Default Value

71
 Data Definition

To set a new default for a column, use a command like:

ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN price SET DEFAULT 7.77;

Note that this doesn't affect any existing rows in the table, it just changes the default for future INSERT
commands.

To remove any default value, use:

ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN price DROP DEFAULT;

This is effectively the same as setting the default to null. As a consequence, it is not an error to drop
a default where one hadn't been defined, because the default is implicitly the null value.

5.6.6. Changing a Column's Data Type

To convert a column to a different data type, use a command like:

ALTER TABLE products ALTER COLUMN price TYPE numeric(10,2);

This will succeed only if each existing entry in the column can be converted to the new type by an
implicit cast. If a more complex conversion is needed, you can add a USING clause that specifies how
to compute the new values from the old.

PostgreSQL will attempt to convert the column's default value (if any) to the new type, as well as
any constraints that involve the column. But these conversions might fail, or might produce surprising
results. It's often best to drop any constraints on the column before altering its type, and then add back
suitably modified constraints afterwards.

5.6.7. Renaming a Column

To rename a column:

ALTER TABLE products RENAME COLUMN product_no TO product_number;

5.6.8. Renaming a Table

To rename a table:

ALTER TABLE products RENAME TO items;

5.7. Privileges
When an object is created, it is assigned an owner. The owner is normally the role that executed the
creation statement. For most kinds of objects, the initial state is that only the owner (or a superuser)
can do anything with the object. To allow other roles to use it, privileges must be granted.

There are different kinds of privileges: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, TRUNCATE, REF-
ERENCES, TRIGGER, CREATE, CONNECT, TEMPORARY, EXECUTE, and USAGE. The privileges
applicable to a particular object vary depending on the object's type (table, function, etc). More detail
about the meanings of these privileges appears below. The following sections and chapters will also
show you how these privileges are used.

The right to modify or destroy an object is always the privilege of the owner only.

72
 Data Definition

An object can be assigned to a new owner with an ALTER command of the appropriate kind for the
object, for example

ALTER TABLE table_name OWNER TO new_owner;

Superusers can always do this; ordinary roles can only do it if they are both the current owner of the
object (or a member of the owning role) and a member of the new owning role.

To assign privileges, the GRANT command is used. For example, if joe is an existing role, and
accounts is an existing table, the privilege to update the table can be granted with:

GRANT UPDATE ON accounts TO joe;

Writing ALL in place of a specific privilege grants all privileges that are relevant for the object type.

The special “role” name PUBLIC can be used to grant a privilege to every role on the system. Also,
“group” roles can be set up to help manage privileges when there are many users of a database —
for details see Chapter 21.

To revoke a privilege, use the fittingly named REVOKE command:

REVOKE ALL ON accounts FROM PUBLIC;

The special privileges of the object owner (i.e., the right to do DROP, GRANT, REVOKE, etc.) are
always implicit in being the owner, and cannot be granted or revoked. But the object owner can choose
to revoke their own ordinary privileges, for example to make a table read-only for themselves as well
as others.

Ordinarily, only the object's owner (or a superuser) can grant or revoke privileges on an object. How-
ever, it is possible to grant a privilege “with grant option”, which gives the recipient the right to grant
it in turn to others. If the grant option is subsequently revoked then all who received the privilege from
that recipient (directly or through a chain of grants) will lose the privilege. For details see the GRANT
and REVOKE reference pages.

The available privileges are:

SELECT

Allows SELECT from any column, or specific column(s), of a table, view, materialized view, or
other table-like object. Also allows use of COPY TO. This privilege is also needed to reference
existing column values in UPDATE or DELETE. For sequences, this privilege also allows use of
the currval function. For large objects, this privilege allows the object to be read.

INSERT

Allows INSERT of a new row into a table, view, etc. Can be granted on specific column(s), in
which case only those columns may be assigned to in the INSERT command (other columns will
therefore receive default values). Also allows use of COPY FROM.

UPDATE

Allows UPDATE of any column, or specific column(s), of a table, view, etc. (In practice, any
nontrivial UPDATE command will require SELECT privilege as well, since it must reference
table columns to determine which rows to update, and/or to compute new values for columns.)
SELECT ... FOR UPDATE and SELECT ... FOR SHARE also require this privilege on
at least one column, in addition to the SELECT privilege. For sequences, this privilege allows
use of the nextval and setval functions. For large objects, this privilege allows writing or
truncating the object.

73
 Data Definition

DELETE

Allows DELETE of a row from a table, view, etc. (In practice, any nontrivial DELETE command
will require SELECT privilege as well, since it must reference table columns to determine which
rows to delete.)

TRUNCATE

Allows TRUNCATE on a table, view, etc.

REFERENCES

Allows creation of a foreign key constraint referencing a table, or specific column(s) of a table.

TRIGGER

Allows creation of a trigger on a table, view, etc.

CREATE

For databases, allows new schemas and publications to be created within the database.

For schemas, allows new objects to be created within the schema. To rename an existing object,
you must own the object and have this privilege for the containing schema.

For tablespaces, allows tables, indexes, and temporary files to be created within the tablespace,
and allows databases to be created that have the tablespace as their default tablespace. (Note that
revoking this privilege will not alter the placement of existing objects.)

CONNECT

Allows the grantee to connect to the database. This privilege is checked at connection startup (in
addition to checking any restrictions imposed by pg_hba.conf).

TEMPORARY

Allows temporary tables to be created while using the database.

EXECUTE

Allows calling a function or procedure, including use of any operators that are implemented on
top of the function. This is the only type of privilege that is applicable to functions and procedures.

USAGE

For procedural languages, allows use of the language for the creation of functions in that language.
This is the only type of privilege that is applicable to procedural languages.

For schemas, allows access to objects contained in the schema (assuming that the objects' own
privilege requirements are also met). Essentially this allows the grantee to “look up” objects within
the schema. Without this permission, it is still possible to see the object names, e.g. by querying
system catalogs. Also, after revoking this permission, existing sessions might have statements
that have previously performed this lookup, so this is not a completely secure way to prevent
object access.

For sequences, allows use of the currval and nextval functions.

For types and domains, allows use of the type or domain in the creation of tables, functions, and
other schema objects. (Note that this privilege does not control all “usage” of the type, such as
values of the type appearing in queries. It only prevents objects from being created that depend on
the type. The main purpose of this privilege is controlling which users can create dependencies
on a type, which could prevent the owner from changing the type later.)

74
 Data Definition

For foreign-data wrappers, allows creation of new servers using the foreign-data wrapper.

For foreign servers, allows creation of foreign tables using the server. Grantees may also create,
alter, or drop their own user mappings associated with that server.

The privileges required by other commands are listed on the reference page of the respective command.

PostgreSQL grants privileges on some types of objects to PUBLIC by default when the objects are
created. No privileges are granted to PUBLIC by default on tables, table columns, sequences, foreign
data wrappers, foreign servers, large objects, schemas, or tablespaces. For other types of objects, the
default privileges granted to PUBLIC are as follows: CONNECT and TEMPORARY (create temporary
tables) privileges for databases; EXECUTE privilege for functions and procedures; and USAGE priv-
ilege for languages and data types (including domains). The object owner can, of course, REVOKE
both default and expressly granted privileges. (For maximum security, issue the REVOKE in the same
transaction that creates the object; then there is no window in which another user can use the object.)
Also, these default privilege settings can be overridden using the ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES
command.

Table 5.1 shows the one-letter abbreviations that are used for these privilege types in ACL (Access
Control List) values. You will see these letters in the output of the psql commands listed below, or
when looking at ACL columns of system catalogs.

Table 5.1. ACL Privilege Abbreviations

Privilege Abbreviation Applicable Object Types
SELECT r (“read”) LARGE OBJECT, SEQUENCE,
TABLE (and table-like objects),
table column
INSERT a (“append”) TABLE, table column
UPDATE w (“write”) LARGE OBJECT, SEQUENCE,
TABLE, table column
DELETE d TABLE
TRUNCATE D TABLE
REFERENCES x TABLE, table column
TRIGGER t TABLE
CREATE C DATABASE, SCHEMA,
TABLESPACE
CONNECT c DATABASE
TEMPORARY T DATABASE
EXECUTE X FUNCTION, PROCEDURE
USAGE U DOMAIN, FOREIGN DATA
WRAPPER, FOREIGN SERV-
ER, LANGUAGE, SCHEMA, SE-
QUENCE, TYPE

Table 5.2 summarizes the privileges available for each type of SQL object, using the abbreviations
shown above. It also shows the psql command that can be used to examine privilege settings for each
object type.

Table 5.2. Summary of Access Privileges

Object Type All Privileges Default PUBLIC Privi- psql Command
leges
DATABASE CTc Tc \l

75
 Data Definition

Object Type All Privileges Default PUBLIC Privi- psql Command

leges
DOMAIN U U \dD+
FUNCTION or PROCE- X X \df+
DURE
FOREIGN DATA U none \dew+
WRAPPER
FOREIGN SERVER U none \des+
LANGUAGE U U \dL+
LARGE OBJECT rw none
SCHEMA UC none \dn+
SEQUENCE rwU none \dp
TABLE (and table-like arwdDxt none \dp
objects)
Table column arwx none \dp
TABLESPACE C none \db+
TYPE U U \dT+

The privileges that have been granted for a particular object are displayed as a list of aclitem
entries, where each aclitem describes the permissions of one grantee that have been granted by
a particular grantor. For example, calvin=r*w/hobbes specifies that the role calvin has the
privilege SELECT (r) with grant option (*) as well as the non-grantable privilege UPDATE (w), both
granted by the role hobbes. If calvin also has some privileges on the same object granted by a
different grantor, those would appear as a separate aclitem entry. An empty grantee field in an
aclitem stands for PUBLIC.

As an example, suppose that user miriam creates table mytable and does:

GRANT SELECT ON mytable TO PUBLIC;

GRANT SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT ON mytable TO admin;
GRANT SELECT (col1), UPDATE (col1) ON mytable TO miriam_rw;

Then psql's \dp command would show:

=> \dp mytable

Access privileges
Schema | Name | Type | Access privileges | Column
privileges | Policies
--------+---------+-------+-----------------------
+-----------------------+----------
public | mytable | table | miriam=arwdDxt/miriam+| col1:
+|
| | | =r/miriam +| miriam_rw=rw/
miriam |
| | | admin=arw/miriam |
|
(1 row)

If the “Access privileges” column is empty for a given object, it means the object has default privileges
(that is, its privileges entry in the relevant system catalog is null). Default privileges always include all
privileges for the owner, and can include some privileges for PUBLIC depending on the object type,
as explained above. The first GRANT or REVOKE on an object will instantiate the default privileges

76
 Data Definition

(producing, for example, miriam=arwdDxt/miriam) and then modify them per the specified re-
quest. Similarly, entries are shown in “Column privileges” only for columns with nondefault privi-
leges. (Note: for this purpose, “default privileges” always means the built-in default privileges for the
object's type. An object whose privileges have been affected by an ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES
command will always be shown with an explicit privilege entry that includes the effects of the ALTER.)

Notice that the owner's implicit grant options are not marked in the access privileges display. A * will
appear only when grant options have been explicitly granted to someone.

5.8. Row Security Policies

In addition to the SQL-standard privilege system available through GRANT, tables can have row
security policies that restrict, on a per-user basis, which rows can be returned by normal queries or
inserted, updated, or deleted by data modification commands. This feature is also known as Row-Level
Security. By default, tables do not have any policies, so that if a user has access privileges to a table
according to the SQL privilege system, all rows within it are equally available for querying or updating.

When row security is enabled on a table (with ALTER TABLE ... ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURI-
TY), all normal access to the table for selecting rows or modifying rows must be allowed by a row
security policy. (However, the table's owner is typically not subject to row security policies.) If no
policy exists for the table, a default-deny policy is used, meaning that no rows are visible or can be
modified. Operations that apply to the whole table, such as TRUNCATE and REFERENCES, are not
subject to row security.

Row security policies can be specific to commands, or to roles, or to both. A policy can be specified
to apply to ALL commands, or to SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE. Multiple roles can be
assigned to a given policy, and normal role membership and inheritance rules apply.

To specify which rows are visible or modifiable according to a policy, an expression is required that
returns a Boolean result. This expression will be evaluated for each row prior to any conditions or
functions coming from the user's query. (The only exceptions to this rule are leakproof functions,
which are guaranteed to not leak information; the optimizer may choose to apply such functions ahead
of the row-security check.) Rows for which the expression does not return true will not be processed.
Separate expressions may be specified to provide independent control over the rows which are visible
and the rows which are allowed to be modified. Policy expressions are run as part of the query and
with the privileges of the user running the query, although security-definer functions can be used to
access data not available to the calling user.

Superusers and roles with the BYPASSRLS attribute always bypass the row security system when
accessing a table. Table owners normally bypass row security as well, though a table owner can choose
to be subject to row security with ALTER TABLE ... FORCE ROW LEVEL SECURITY.

Enabling and disabling row security, as well as adding policies to a table, is always the privilege of
the table owner only.

Policies are created using the CREATE POLICY command, altered using the ALTER POLICY com-
mand, and dropped using the DROP POLICY command. To enable and disable row security for a
given table, use the ALTER TABLE command.

Each policy has a name and multiple policies can be defined for a table. As policies are table-specific,
each policy for a table must have a unique name. Different tables may have policies with the same
name.

When multiple policies apply to a given query, they are combined using either OR (for permissive
policies, which are the default) or using AND (for restrictive policies). This is similar to the rule that a
given role has the privileges of all roles that they are a member of. Permissive vs. restrictive policies
are discussed further below.

As a simple example, here is how to create a policy on the account relation to allow only members
of the managers role to access rows, and only rows of their accounts:

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 Data Definition

CREATE TABLE accounts (manager text, company text, contact_email

text);

ALTER TABLE accounts ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

CREATE POLICY account_managers ON accounts TO managers

USING (manager = current_user);

The policy above implicitly provides a WITH CHECK clause identical to its USING clause, so that
the constraint applies both to rows selected by a command (so a manager cannot SELECT, UPDATE,
or DELETE existing rows belonging to a different manager) and to rows modified by a command (so
rows belonging to a different manager cannot be created via INSERT or UPDATE).

If no role is specified, or the special user name PUBLIC is used, then the policy applies to all users
on the system. To allow all users to access only their own row in a users table, a simple policy
can be used:

CREATE POLICY user_policy ON users

USING (user_name = current_user);

This works similarly to the previous example.

To use a different policy for rows that are being added to the table compared to those rows that are
visible, multiple policies can be combined. This pair of policies would allow all users to view all rows
in the users table, but only modify their own:

CREATE POLICY user_sel_policy ON users

FOR SELECT
USING (true);
CREATE POLICY user_mod_policy ON users
USING (user_name = current_user);

In a SELECT command, these two policies are combined using OR, with the net effect being that all
rows can be selected. In other command types, only the second policy applies, so that the effects are
the same as before.

Row security can also be disabled with the ALTER TABLE command. Disabling row security does
not remove any policies that are defined on the table; they are simply ignored. Then all rows in the
table are visible and modifiable, subject to the standard SQL privileges system.

Below is a larger example of how this feature can be used in production environments. The table
passwd emulates a Unix password file:

-- Simple passwd-file based example

CREATE TABLE passwd (
user_name text UNIQUE NOT NULL,
pwhash text,
uid int PRIMARY KEY,
gid int NOT NULL,
real_name text NOT NULL,
home_phone text,
extra_info text,
home_dir text NOT NULL,
shell text NOT NULL
);

78
 Data Definition

CREATE ROLE admin; -- Administrator

CREATE ROLE bob; -- Normal user
CREATE ROLE alice; -- Normal user

-- Populate the table

INSERT INTO passwd VALUES
('admin','xxx',0,0,'Admin','111-222-3333',null,'/root','/bin/
dash');
INSERT INTO passwd VALUES
('bob','xxx',1,1,'Bob','123-456-7890',null,'/home/bob','/bin/
zsh');
INSERT INTO passwd VALUES
('alice','xxx',2,1,'Alice','098-765-4321',null,'/home/alice','/
bin/zsh');

-- Be sure to enable row level security on the table

ALTER TABLE passwd ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

-- Create policies
-- Administrator can see all rows and add any rows
CREATE POLICY admin_all ON passwd TO admin USING (true) WITH CHECK
(true);
-- Normal users can view all rows
CREATE POLICY all_view ON passwd FOR SELECT USING (true);
-- Normal users can update their own records, but
-- limit which shells a normal user is allowed to set
CREATE POLICY user_mod ON passwd FOR UPDATE
USING (current_user = user_name)
WITH CHECK (
current_user = user_name AND
shell IN ('/bin/bash','/bin/sh','/bin/dash','/bin/zsh','/bin/
tcsh')
);

-- Allow admin all normal rights

GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON passwd TO admin;
-- Users only get select access on public columns
GRANT SELECT
(user_name, uid, gid, real_name, home_phone, extra_info,
home_dir, shell)
ON passwd TO public;
-- Allow users to update certain columns
GRANT UPDATE
(pwhash, real_name, home_phone, extra_info, shell)
ON passwd TO public;

As with any security settings, it's important to test and ensure that the system is behaving as expected.
Using the example above, this demonstrates that the permission system is working properly.

-- admin can view all rows and fields

postgres=> set role admin;
SET
postgres=> table passwd;
user_name | pwhash | uid | gid | real_name | home_phone |
extra_info | home_dir | shell
-----------+--------+-----+-----+-----------+--------------
+------------+-------------+-----------

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 Data Definition

admin | xxx | 0 | 0 | Admin | 111-222-3333 |

| /root | /bin/dash
bob | xxx | 1 | 1 | Bob | 123-456-7890 |
| /home/bob | /bin/zsh
alice | xxx | 2 | 1 | Alice | 098-765-4321 |
| /home/alice | /bin/zsh
(3 rows)

-- Test what Alice is able to do

postgres=> set role alice;
SET
postgres=> table passwd;
ERROR: permission denied for relation passwd
postgres=> select
user_name,real_name,home_phone,extra_info,home_dir,shell from
passwd;
user_name | real_name | home_phone | extra_info | home_dir |
shell
-----------+-----------+--------------+------------+-------------
+-----------
admin | Admin | 111-222-3333 | | /root
| /bin/dash
bob | Bob | 123-456-7890 | | /home/bob
| /bin/zsh
alice | Alice | 098-765-4321 | | /home/alice
| /bin/zsh
(3 rows)

postgres=> update passwd set user_name = 'joe';

ERROR: permission denied for relation passwd
-- Alice is allowed to change her own real_name, but no others
postgres=> update passwd set real_name = 'Alice Doe';
UPDATE 1
postgres=> update passwd set real_name = 'John Doe' where user_name
= 'admin';
UPDATE 0
postgres=> update passwd set shell = '/bin/xx';
ERROR: new row violates WITH CHECK OPTION for "passwd"
postgres=> delete from passwd;
ERROR: permission denied for relation passwd
postgres=> insert into passwd (user_name) values ('xxx');
ERROR: permission denied for relation passwd
-- Alice can change her own password; RLS silently prevents
updating other rows
postgres=> update passwd set pwhash = 'abc';
UPDATE 1

All of the policies constructed thus far have been permissive policies, meaning that when multiple
policies are applied they are combined using the “OR” Boolean operator. While permissive policies
can be constructed to only allow access to rows in the intended cases, it can be simpler to combine
permissive policies with restrictive policies (which the records must pass and which are combined
using the “AND” Boolean operator). Building on the example above, we add a restrictive policy to
require the administrator to be connected over a local Unix socket to access the records of the passwd
table:

CREATE POLICY admin_local_only ON passwd AS RESTRICTIVE TO admin

USING (pg_catalog.inet_client_addr() IS NULL);

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 Data Definition

We can then see that an administrator connecting over a network will not see any records, due to the
restrictive policy:

=> SELECT current_user;

current_user
--------------
admin
(1 row)

=> select inet_client_addr();

inet_client_addr
------------------
127.0.0.1
(1 row)

=> SELECT current_user;

current_user
--------------
admin
(1 row)

=> TABLE passwd;

user_name | pwhash | uid | gid | real_name | home_phone |
extra_info | home_dir | shell
-----------+--------+-----+-----+-----------+------------
+------------+----------+-------
(0 rows)

=> UPDATE passwd set pwhash = NULL;

UPDATE 0

Referential integrity checks, such as unique or primary key constraints and foreign key references,
always bypass row security to ensure that data integrity is maintained. Care must be taken when de-
veloping schemas and row level policies to avoid “covert channel” leaks of information through such
referential integrity checks.

In some contexts it is important to be sure that row security is not being applied. For example, when
taking a backup, it could be disastrous if row security silently caused some rows to be omitted from
the backup. In such a situation, you can set the row_security configuration parameter to off. This
does not in itself bypass row security; what it does is throw an error if any query's results would get
filtered by a policy. The reason for the error can then be investigated and fixed.

In the examples above, the policy expressions consider only the current values in the row to be ac-
cessed or updated. This is the simplest and best-performing case; when possible, it's best to design row
security applications to work this way. If it is necessary to consult other rows or other tables to make
a policy decision, that can be accomplished using sub-SELECTs, or functions that contain SELECTs,
in the policy expressions. Be aware however that such accesses can create race conditions that could
allow information leakage if care is not taken. As an example, consider the following table design:

-- definition of privilege groups

CREATE TABLE groups (group_id int PRIMARY KEY,
group_name text NOT NULL);

INSERT INTO groups VALUES

(1, 'low'),
(2, 'medium'),
(5, 'high');

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 Data Definition

GRANT ALL ON groups TO alice; -- alice is the administrator

GRANT SELECT ON groups TO public;

-- definition of users' privilege levels

CREATE TABLE users (user_name text PRIMARY KEY,
group_id int NOT NULL REFERENCES groups);

INSERT INTO users VALUES

('alice', 5),
('bob', 2),
('mallory', 2);

GRANT ALL ON users TO alice;

GRANT SELECT ON users TO public;

-- table holding the information to be protected

CREATE TABLE information (info text,
group_id int NOT NULL REFERENCES groups);

INSERT INTO information VALUES

('barely secret', 1),
('slightly secret', 2),
('very secret', 5);

ALTER TABLE information ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;

-- a row should be visible to/updatable by users whose security

group_id is
-- greater than or equal to the row's group_id
CREATE POLICY fp_s ON information FOR SELECT
USING (group_id <= (SELECT group_id FROM users WHERE user_name =
current_user));
CREATE POLICY fp_u ON information FOR UPDATE
USING (group_id <= (SELECT group_id FROM users WHERE user_name =
current_user));

-- we rely only on RLS to protect the information table

GRANT ALL ON information TO public;

Now suppose that alice wishes to change the “slightly secret” information, but decides that mal-
lory should not be trusted with the new content of that row, so she does:

BEGIN;
UPDATE users SET group_id = 1 WHERE user_name = 'mallory';
UPDATE information SET info = 'secret from mallory' WHERE group_id
= 2;
COMMIT;

That looks safe; there is no window wherein mallory should be able to see the “secret from mallory”
string. However, there is a race condition here. If mallory is concurrently doing, say,

SELECT * FROM information WHERE group_id = 2 FOR UPDATE;

and her transaction is in READ COMMITTED mode, it is possible for her to see “secret from mallory”.
That happens if her transaction reaches the information row just after alice's does. It blocks
waiting for alice's transaction to commit, then fetches the updated row contents thanks to the FOR

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 Data Definition

UPDATE clause. However, it does not fetch an updated row for the implicit SELECT from users,
because that sub-SELECT did not have FOR UPDATE; instead the users row is read with the snap-
shot taken at the start of the query. Therefore, the policy expression tests the old value of mallory's
privilege level and allows her to see the updated row.

There are several ways around this problem. One simple answer is to use SELECT ... FOR
SHARE in sub-SELECTs in row security policies. However, that requires granting UPDATE privilege
on the referenced table (here users) to the affected users, which might be undesirable. (But another
row security policy could be applied to prevent them from actually exercising that privilege; or the
sub-SELECT could be embedded into a security definer function.) Also, heavy concurrent use of row
share locks on the referenced table could pose a performance problem, especially if updates of it are
frequent. Another solution, practical if updates of the referenced table are infrequent, is to take an ex-
clusive lock on the referenced table when updating it, so that no concurrent transactions could be ex-
amining old row values. Or one could just wait for all concurrent transactions to end after committing
an update of the referenced table and before making changes that rely on the new security situation.

For additional details see CREATE POLICY and ALTER TABLE.

5.9. Schemas
A PostgreSQL database cluster contains one or more named databases. Users and groups of users are
shared across the entire cluster, but no other data is shared across databases. Any given client connec-
tion to the server can access only the data in a single database, the one specified in the connection
request.

Note
Users of a cluster do not necessarily have the privilege to access every database in the
cluster. Sharing of user names means that there cannot be different users named, say,
joe in two databases in the same cluster; but the system can be configured to allow
joe access to only some of the databases.

A database contains one or more named schemas, which in turn contain tables. Schemas also contain
other kinds of named objects, including data types, functions, and operators. The same object name
can be used in different schemas without conflict; for example, both schema1 and myschema can
contain tables named mytable. Unlike databases, schemas are not rigidly separated: a user can access
objects in any of the schemas in the database they are connected to, if they have privileges to do so.

There are several reasons why one might want to use schemas:

• To allow many users to use one database without interfering with each other.

• To organize database objects into logical groups to make them more manageable.

• Third-party applications can be put into separate schemas so they do not collide with the names
of other objects.

Schemas are analogous to directories at the operating system level, except that schemas cannot be
nested.

5.9.1. Creating a Schema

To create a schema, use the CREATE SCHEMA command. Give the schema a name of your choice.
For example:

CREATE SCHEMA myschema;

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 Data Definition

To create or access objects in a schema, write a qualified name consisting of the schema name and
table name separated by a dot:

schema.table

This works anywhere a table name is expected, including the table modification commands and the
data access commands discussed in the following chapters. (For brevity we will speak of tables only,
but the same ideas apply to other kinds of named objects, such as types and functions.)

Actually, the even more general syntax

database.schema.table

can be used too, but at present this is just for pro forma compliance with the SQL standard. If you
write a database name, it must be the same as the database you are connected to.

So to create a table in the new schema, use:

CREATE TABLE myschema.mytable (

...
);

To drop a schema if it's empty (all objects in it have been dropped), use:

DROP SCHEMA myschema;

To drop a schema including all contained objects, use:

DROP SCHEMA myschema CASCADE;

See Section 5.14 for a description of the general mechanism behind this.

Often you will want to create a schema owned by someone else (since this is one of the ways to restrict
the activities of your users to well-defined namespaces). The syntax for that is:

CREATE SCHEMA schema_name AUTHORIZATION user_name;

You can even omit the schema name, in which case the schema name will be the same as the user
name. See Section 5.9.6 for how this can be useful.

Schema names beginning with pg_ are reserved for system purposes and cannot be created by users.

5.9.2. The Public Schema

In the previous sections we created tables without specifying any schema names. By default such
tables (and other objects) are automatically put into a schema named “public”. Every new database
contains such a schema. Thus, the following are equivalent:

CREATE TABLE products ( ... );

and:

CREATE TABLE public.products ( ... );

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 Data Definition

5.9.3. The Schema Search Path

Qualified names are tedious to write, and it's often best not to wire a particular schema name into
applications anyway. Therefore tables are often referred to by unqualified names, which consist of
just the table name. The system determines which table is meant by following a search path, which is
a list of schemas to look in. The first matching table in the search path is taken to be the one wanted.
If there is no match in the search path, an error is reported, even if matching table names exist in other
schemas in the database.

The ability to create like-named objects in different schemas complicates writing a query that refer-
ences precisely the same objects every time. It also opens up the potential for users to change the be-
havior of other users' queries, maliciously or accidentally. Due to the prevalence of unqualified names
in queries and their use in PostgreSQL internals, adding a schema to search_path effectively trusts
all users having CREATE privilege on that schema. When you run an ordinary query, a malicious user
able to create objects in a schema of your search path can take control and execute arbitrary SQL
functions as though you executed them.

The first schema named in the search path is called the current schema. Aside from being the first
schema searched, it is also the schema in which new tables will be created if the CREATE TABLE
command does not specify a schema name.

To show the current search path, use the following command:

SHOW search_path;

In the default setup this returns:

search_path
--------------
"$user", public

The first element specifies that a schema with the same name as the current user is to be searched.
If no such schema exists, the entry is ignored. The second element refers to the public schema that
we have seen already.

The first schema in the search path that exists is the default location for creating new objects. That
is the reason that by default objects are created in the public schema. When objects are referenced
in any other context without schema qualification (table modification, data modification, or query
commands) the search path is traversed until a matching object is found. Therefore, in the default
configuration, any unqualified access again can only refer to the public schema.

To put our new schema in the path, we use:

SET search_path TO myschema,public;

(We omit the $user here because we have no immediate need for it.) And then we can access the
table without schema qualification:

DROP TABLE mytable;

Also, since myschema is the first element in the path, new objects would by default be created in it.

We could also have written:

SET search_path TO myschema;

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 Data Definition

Then we no longer have access to the public schema without explicit qualification. There is nothing
special about the public schema except that it exists by default. It can be dropped, too.

See also Section 9.25 for other ways to manipulate the schema search path.

The search path works in the same way for data type names, function names, and operator names as it
does for table names. Data type and function names can be qualified in exactly the same way as table
names. If you need to write a qualified operator name in an expression, there is a special provision:
you must write

OPERATOR(schema.operator)

This is needed to avoid syntactic ambiguity. An example is:

SELECT 3 OPERATOR(pg_catalog.+) 4;

In practice one usually relies on the search path for operators, so as not to have to write anything so
ugly as that.

5.9.4. Schemas and Privileges

By default, users cannot access any objects in schemas they do not own. To allow that, the owner of
the schema must grant the USAGE privilege on the schema. To allow users to make use of the objects
in the schema, additional privileges might need to be granted, as appropriate for the object.

A user can also be allowed to create objects in someone else's schema. To allow that, the CREATE
privilege on the schema needs to be granted. Note that by default, everyone has CREATE and USAGE
privileges on the schema public. This allows all users that are able to connect to a given database
to create objects in its public schema. Some usage patterns call for revoking that privilege:

REVOKE CREATE ON SCHEMA public FROM PUBLIC;

(The first “public” is the schema, the second “public” means “every user”. In the first sense it is an
identifier, in the second sense it is a key word, hence the different capitalization; recall the guidelines
from Section 4.1.1.)

5.9.5. The System Catalog Schema

In addition to public and user-created schemas, each database contains a pg_catalog schema,
which contains the system tables and all the built-in data types, functions, and operators. pg_cat-
alog is always effectively part of the search path. If it is not named explicitly in the path then it is
implicitly searched before searching the path's schemas. This ensures that built-in names will always
be findable. However, you can explicitly place pg_catalog at the end of your search path if you
prefer to have user-defined names override built-in names.

Since system table names begin with pg_, it is best to avoid such names to ensure that you won't suffer
a conflict if some future version defines a system table named the same as your table. (With the default
search path, an unqualified reference to your table name would then be resolved as the system table
instead.) System tables will continue to follow the convention of having names beginning with pg_,
so that they will not conflict with unqualified user-table names so long as users avoid the pg_ prefix.

5.9.6. Usage Patterns

Schemas can be used to organize your data in many ways. There are a few usage patterns easily
supported by the default configuration, only one of which suffices when database users mistrust other
database users:

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 Data Definition

• Constrain ordinary users to user-private schemas. To implement this, issue REVOKE CREATE ON
SCHEMA public FROM PUBLIC, and create a schema for each user with the same name as
that user. If affected users had logged in before this, consider auditing the public schema for objects
named like objects in schema pg_catalog. Recall that the default search path starts with $user,
which resolves to the user name. Therefore, if each user has a separate schema, they access their
own schemas by default.

• Remove the public schema from each user's default search path using ALTER ROLE user SET
search_path = "$user". Everyone retains the ability to create objects in the public schema,
but only qualified names will choose those objects. While qualified table references are fine, calls to
functions in the public schema will be unsafe or unreliable. Also, a user holding the CREATEROLE
privilege can undo this setting and issue arbitrary queries under the identity of users relying on the
setting. If you create functions or extensions in the public schema or grant CREATEROLE to users
not warranting this almost-superuser ability, use the first pattern instead.

• Remove the public schema from search_path in postgresql.conf. The ensuing user ex-
perience matches the previous pattern. In addition to that pattern's implications for functions and
CREATEROLE, this trusts database owners like CREATEROLE. If you create functions or exten-
sions in the public schema or assign the CREATEROLE privilege, CREATEDB privilege or individ-
ual database ownership to users not warranting almost-superuser access, use the first pattern instead.

• Keep the default. All users access the public schema implicitly. This simulates the situation where
schemas are not available at all, giving a smooth transition from the non-schema-aware world.
However, any user can issue arbitrary queries under the identity of any user not electing to protect
itself individually. This pattern is acceptable only when the database has a single user or a few
mutually-trusting users.

For any pattern, to install shared applications (tables to be used by everyone, additional functions pro-
vided by third parties, etc.), put them into separate schemas. Remember to grant appropriate privileges
to allow the other users to access them. Users can then refer to these additional objects by qualifying
the names with a schema name, or they can put the additional schemas into their search path, as they
choose.

5.9.7. Portability
In the SQL standard, the notion of objects in the same schema being owned by different users does
not exist. Moreover, some implementations do not allow you to create schemas that have a different
name than their owner. In fact, the concepts of schema and user are nearly equivalent in a database
system that implements only the basic schema support specified in the standard. Therefore, many users
consider qualified names to really consist of user_name.table_name. This is how PostgreSQL
will effectively behave if you create a per-user schema for every user.

Also, there is no concept of a public schema in the SQL standard. For maximum conformance to
the standard, you should not use the public schema.

Of course, some SQL database systems might not implement schemas at all, or provide namespace
support by allowing (possibly limited) cross-database access. If you need to work with those systems,
then maximum portability would be achieved by not using schemas at all.

5.10. Inheritance
PostgreSQL implements table inheritance, which can be a useful tool for database designers.
(SQL:1999 and later define a type inheritance feature, which differs in many respects from the features
described here.)

Let's start with an example: suppose we are trying to build a data model for cities. Each state has many
cities, but only one capital. We want to be able to quickly retrieve the capital city for any particular
state. This can be done by creating two tables, one for state capitals and one for cities that are not

87
 Data Definition

capitals. However, what happens when we want to ask for data about a city, regardless of whether it is
a capital or not? The inheritance feature can help to resolve this problem. We define the capitals
table so that it inherits from cities:

CREATE TABLE cities (

name text,
population float,
altitude int -- in feet
);

CREATE TABLE capitals (

state char(2)
) INHERITS (cities);

In this case, the capitals table inherits all the columns of its parent table, cities. State capitals
also have an extra column, state, that shows their state.

In PostgreSQL, a table can inherit from zero or more other tables, and a query can reference either
all rows of a table or all rows of a table plus all of its descendant tables. The latter behavior is the
default. For example, the following query finds the names of all cities, including state capitals, that
are located at an altitude over 500 feet:

SELECT name, altitude

FROM cities
WHERE altitude > 500;

Given the sample data from the PostgreSQL tutorial (see Section 2.1), this returns:

name | altitude
-----------+----------
Las Vegas | 2174
Mariposa | 1953
Madison | 845

On the other hand, the following query finds all the cities that are not state capitals and are situated
at an altitude over 500 feet:

SELECT name, altitude

FROM ONLY cities
WHERE altitude > 500;

name | altitude
-----------+----------
Las Vegas | 2174
Mariposa | 1953

Here the ONLY keyword indicates that the query should apply only to cities, and not any tables
below cities in the inheritance hierarchy. Many of the commands that we have already discussed
— SELECT, UPDATE and DELETE — support the ONLY keyword.

You can also write the table name with a trailing * to explicitly specify that descendant tables are
included:

SELECT name, altitude

88
 Data Definition

FROM cities*
WHERE altitude > 500;

Writing * is not necessary, since this behavior is always the default. However, this syntax is still
supported for compatibility with older releases where the default could be changed.

In some cases you might wish to know which table a particular row originated from. There is a system
column called tableoid in each table which can tell you the originating table:

SELECT c.tableoid, c.name, c.altitude

FROM cities c
WHERE c.altitude > 500;

which returns:

tableoid | name | altitude

----------+-----------+----------
139793 | Las Vegas | 2174
139793 | Mariposa | 1953
139798 | Madison | 845

(If you try to reproduce this example, you will probably get different numeric OIDs.) By doing a join
with pg_class you can see the actual table names:

SELECT p.relname, c.name, c.altitude

FROM cities c, pg_class p
WHERE c.altitude > 500 AND c.tableoid = p.oid;

which returns:

relname | name | altitude

----------+-----------+----------
cities | Las Vegas | 2174
cities | Mariposa | 1953
capitals | Madison | 845

Another way to get the same effect is to use the regclass alias type, which will print the table OID
symbolically:

SELECT c.tableoid::regclass, c.name, c.altitude

FROM cities c
WHERE c.altitude > 500;

Inheritance does not automatically propagate data from INSERT or COPY commands to other tables
in the inheritance hierarchy. In our example, the following INSERT statement will fail:

INSERT INTO cities (name, population, altitude, state)

VALUES ('Albany', NULL, NULL, 'NY');

We might hope that the data would somehow be routed to the capitals table, but this does not
happen: INSERT always inserts into exactly the table specified. In some cases it is possible to redirect
the insertion using a rule (see Chapter 40). However that does not help for the above case because
the cities table does not contain the column state, and so the command will be rejected before
the rule can be applied.

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 Data Definition

All check constraints and not-null constraints on a parent table are automatically inherited by its chil-
dren, unless explicitly specified otherwise with NO INHERIT clauses. Other types of constraints
(unique, primary key, and foreign key constraints) are not inherited.

A table can inherit from more than one parent table, in which case it has the union of the columns
defined by the parent tables. Any columns declared in the child table's definition are added to these.
If the same column name appears in multiple parent tables, or in both a parent table and the child's
definition, then these columns are “merged” so that there is only one such column in the child table. To
be merged, columns must have the same data types, else an error is raised. Inheritable check constraints
and not-null constraints are merged in a similar fashion. Thus, for example, a merged column will be
marked not-null if any one of the column definitions it came from is marked not-null. Check constraints
are merged if they have the same name, and the merge will fail if their conditions are different.

Table inheritance is typically established when the child table is created, using the INHERITS clause
of the CREATE TABLE statement. Alternatively, a table which is already defined in a compatible
way can have a new parent relationship added, using the INHERIT variant of ALTER TABLE. To do
this the new child table must already include columns with the same names and types as the columns
of the parent. It must also include check constraints with the same names and check expressions as
those of the parent. Similarly an inheritance link can be removed from a child using the NO INHERIT
variant of ALTER TABLE. Dynamically adding and removing inheritance links like this can be useful
when the inheritance relationship is being used for table partitioning (see Section 5.11).

One convenient way to create a compatible table that will later be made a new child is to use the
LIKE clause in CREATE TABLE. This creates a new table with the same columns as the source table.
If there are any CHECK constraints defined on the source table, the INCLUDING CONSTRAINTS
option to LIKE should be specified, as the new child must have constraints matching the parent to
be considered compatible.

A parent table cannot be dropped while any of its children remain. Neither can columns or check
constraints of child tables be dropped or altered if they are inherited from any parent tables. If you
wish to remove a table and all of its descendants, one easy way is to drop the parent table with the
CASCADE option (see Section 5.14).

ALTER TABLE will propagate any changes in column data definitions and check constraints down
the inheritance hierarchy. Again, dropping columns that are depended on by other tables is only pos-
sible when using the CASCADE option. ALTER TABLE follows the same rules for duplicate column
merging and rejection that apply during CREATE TABLE.

Inherited queries perform access permission checks on the parent table only. Thus, for example, grant-
ing UPDATE permission on the cities table implies permission to update rows in the capitals
table as well, when they are accessed through cities. This preserves the appearance that the data
is (also) in the parent table. But the capitals table could not be updated directly without an addi-
tional grant. In a similar way, the parent table's row security policies (see Section 5.8) are applied to
rows coming from child tables during an inherited query. A child table's policies, if any, are applied
only when it is the table explicitly named in the query; and in that case, any policies attached to its
parent(s) are ignored.

Foreign tables (see Section 5.12) can also be part of inheritance hierarchies, either as parent or child
tables, just as regular tables can be. If a foreign table is part of an inheritance hierarchy then any
operations not supported by the foreign table are not supported on the whole hierarchy either.

5.10.1. Caveats
Note that not all SQL commands are able to work on inheritance hierarchies. Commands that are used
for data querying, data modification, or schema modification (e.g., SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, most
variants of ALTER TABLE, but not INSERT or ALTER TABLE ... RENAME) typically default
to including child tables and support the ONLY notation to exclude them. Commands that do database
maintenance and tuning (e.g., REINDEX, VACUUM) typically only work on individual, physical tables
and do not support recursing over inheritance hierarchies. The respective behavior of each individual
command is documented in its reference page (SQL Commands).

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 Data Definition

A serious limitation of the inheritance feature is that indexes (including unique constraints) and foreign
key constraints only apply to single tables, not to their inheritance children. This is true on both the
referencing and referenced sides of a foreign key constraint. Thus, in the terms of the above example:

• If we declared cities.name to be UNIQUE or a PRIMARY KEY, this would not stop the cap-
itals table from having rows with names duplicating rows in cities. And those duplicate rows
would by default show up in queries from cities. In fact, by default capitals would have no
unique constraint at all, and so could contain multiple rows with the same name. You could add a
unique constraint to capitals, but this would not prevent duplication compared to cities.

• Similarly, if we were to specify that cities.name REFERENCES some other table, this constraint
would not automatically propagate to capitals. In this case you could work around it by manually
adding the same REFERENCES constraint to capitals.

• Specifying that another table's column REFERENCES cities(name) would allow the other
table to contain city names, but not capital names. There is no good workaround for this case.

Some functionality not implemented for inheritance hierarchies is implemented for declarative parti-
tioning. Considerable care is needed in deciding whether partitioning with legacy inheritance is useful
for your application.

5.11. Table Partitioning

PostgreSQL supports basic table partitioning. This section describes why and how to implement par-
titioning as part of your database design.

5.11.1. Overview
Partitioning refers to splitting what is logically one large table into smaller physical pieces. Partitioning
can provide several benefits:

• Query performance can be improved dramatically in certain situations, particularly when most of
the heavily accessed rows of the table are in a single partition or a small number of partitions. The
partitioning substitutes for leading columns of indexes, reducing index size and making it more
likely that the heavily-used parts of the indexes fit in memory.

• When queries or updates access a large percentage of a single partition, performance can be im-
proved by taking advantage of sequential scan of that partition instead of using an index and random
access reads scattered across the whole table.

• Bulk loads and deletes can be accomplished by adding or removing partitions, if that requirement is
planned into the partitioning design. Doing ALTER TABLE DETACH PARTITION or dropping
an individual partition using DROP TABLE is far faster than a bulk operation. These commands
also entirely avoid the VACUUM overhead caused by a bulk DELETE.

• Seldom-used data can be migrated to cheaper and slower storage media.

The benefits will normally be worthwhile only when a table would otherwise be very large. The exact
point at which a table will benefit from partitioning depends on the application, although a rule of
thumb is that the size of the table should exceed the physical memory of the database server.

PostgreSQL offers built-in support for the following forms of partitioning:

Range Partitioning

The table is partitioned into “ranges” defined by a key column or set of columns, with no overlap
between the ranges of values assigned to different partitions. For example, one might partition by
date ranges, or by ranges of identifiers for particular business objects.

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 Data Definition

List Partitioning

The table is partitioned by explicitly listing which key values appear in each partition.

Hash Partitioning

The table is partitioned by specifying a modulus and a remainder for each partition. Each partition
will hold the rows for which the hash value of the partition key divided by the specified modulus
will produce the specified remainder.

If your application needs to use other forms of partitioning not listed above, alternative methods such
as inheritance and UNION ALL views can be used instead. Such methods offer flexibility but do not
have some of the performance benefits of built-in declarative partitioning.

5.11.2. Declarative Partitioning

PostgreSQL offers a way to specify how to divide a table into pieces called partitions. The table that
is divided is referred to as a partitioned table. The specification consists of the partitioning method
and a list of columns or expressions to be used as the partition key.

All rows inserted into a partitioned table will be routed to one of the partitions based on the value of
the partition key. Each partition has a subset of the data defined by its partition bounds. The currently
supported partitioning methods are range, list, and hash.

Partitions may themselves be defined as partitioned tables, using what is called sub-partitioning. Par-
titions may have their own indexes, constraints and default values, distinct from those of other parti-
tions. See CREATE TABLE for more details on creating partitioned tables and partitions.

It is not possible to turn a regular table into a partitioned table or vice versa. However, it is possible
to add a regular or partitioned table containing data as a partition of a partitioned table, or remove a
partition from a partitioned table turning it into a standalone table; see ALTER TABLE to learn more
about the ATTACH PARTITION and DETACH PARTITION sub-commands.

Individual partitions are linked to the partitioned table with inheritance behind-the-scenes; however, it
is not possible to use some of the generic features of inheritance (discussed below) with declaratively
partitioned tables or their partitions. For example, a partition cannot have any parents other than the
partitioned table it is a partition of, nor can a regular table inherit from a partitioned table making the
latter its parent. That means partitioned tables and their partitions do not participate in inheritance with
regular tables. Since a partition hierarchy consisting of the partitioned table and its partitions is still
an inheritance hierarchy, all the normal rules of inheritance apply as described in Section 5.10 with
some exceptions, most notably:

• Both CHECK and NOT NULL constraints of a partitioned table are always inherited by all its par-
titions. CHECK constraints that are marked NO INHERIT are not allowed to be created on parti-
tioned tables.

• Using ONLY to add or drop a constraint on only the partitioned table is supported as long as there
are no partitions. Once partitions exist, using ONLY will result in an error as adding or dropping
constraints on only the partitioned table, when partitions exist, is not supported. Instead, constraints
on the partitions themselves can be added and (if they are not present in the parent table) dropped.

• As a partitioned table does not have any data directly, attempts to use TRUNCATE ONLY on a
partitioned table will always return an error.

• Partitions cannot have columns that are not present in the parent. It is not possible to specify columns
when creating partitions with CREATE TABLE, nor is it possible to add columns to partitions
after-the-fact using ALTER TABLE. Tables may be added as a partition with ALTER TABLE ...
ATTACH PARTITION only if their columns exactly match the parent.

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 Data Definition

• You cannot drop the NOT NULL constraint on a partition's column if the constraint is present in
the parent table.

Partitions can also be foreign tables, although they have some limitations that normal tables do not;
see CREATE FOREIGN TABLE for more information.

Updating the partition key of a row might cause it to be moved into a different partition where this
row satisfies the partition bounds.

5.11.2.1. Example
Suppose we are constructing a database for a large ice cream company. The company measures peak
temperatures every day as well as ice cream sales in each region. Conceptually, we want a table like:

CREATE TABLE measurement (

city_id int not null,
logdate date not null,
peaktemp int,
unitsales int
);

We know that most queries will access just the last week's, month's or quarter's data, since the main
use of this table will be to prepare online reports for management. To reduce the amount of old data
that needs to be stored, we decide to only keep the most recent 3 years worth of data. At the beginning
of each month we will remove the oldest month's data. In this situation we can use partitioning to help
us meet all of our different requirements for the measurements table.

To use declarative partitioning in this case, use the following steps:

1. Create measurement table as a partitioned table by specifying the PARTITION BY clause,

which includes the partitioning method (RANGE in this case) and the list of column(s) to use as
the partition key.

CREATE TABLE measurement (

city_id int not null,
logdate date not null,
peaktemp int,
unitsales int
) PARTITION BY RANGE (logdate);

You may decide to use multiple columns in the partition key for range partitioning, if desired.
Of course, this will often result in a larger number of partitions, each of which is individually
smaller. On the other hand, using fewer columns may lead to a coarser-grained partitioning criteria
with smaller number of partitions. A query accessing the partitioned table will have to scan fewer
partitions if the conditions involve some or all of these columns. For example, consider a table
range partitioned using columns lastname and firstname (in that order) as the partition key.
2. Create partitions. Each partition's definition must specify the bounds that correspond to the parti-
tioning method and partition key of the parent. Note that specifying bounds such that the new parti-
tion's values will overlap with those in one or more existing partitions will cause an error. Inserting
data into the parent table that does not map to one of the existing partitions will cause an error; an
appropriate partition must be added manually.

Partitions thus created are in every way normal PostgreSQL tables (or, possibly, foreign tables). It
is possible to specify a tablespace and storage parameters for each partition separately.

It is not necessary to create table constraints describing partition boundary condition for partitions.
Instead, partition constraints are generated implicitly from the partition bound specification when-
ever there is need to refer to them.

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 Data Definition

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2006m02 PARTITION OF measurement

FOR VALUES FROM ('2006-02-01') TO ('2006-03-01');

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2006m03 PARTITION OF measurement

FOR VALUES FROM ('2006-03-01') TO ('2006-04-01');

...
CREATE TABLE measurement_y2007m11 PARTITION OF measurement
FOR VALUES FROM ('2007-11-01') TO ('2007-12-01');

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2007m12 PARTITION OF measurement

FOR VALUES FROM ('2007-12-01') TO ('2008-01-01')
TABLESPACE fasttablespace;

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m01 PARTITION OF measurement

FOR VALUES FROM ('2008-01-01') TO ('2008-02-01')
WITH (parallel_workers = 4)
TABLESPACE fasttablespace;

To implement sub-partitioning, specify the PARTITION BY clause in the commands used to create
individual partitions, for example:

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2006m02 PARTITION OF measurement

FOR VALUES FROM ('2006-02-01') TO ('2006-03-01')
PARTITION BY RANGE (peaktemp);

After creating partitions of measurement_y2006m02, any data inserted into measurement

that is mapped to measurement_y2006m02 (or data that is directly inserted into measure-
ment_y2006m02, provided it satisfies its partition constraint) will be further redirected to one of
its partitions based on the peaktemp column. The partition key specified may overlap with the
parent's partition key, although care should be taken when specifying the bounds of a sub-partition
such that the set of data it accepts constitutes a subset of what the partition's own bounds allows;
the system does not try to check whether that's really the case.
3. Create an index on the key column(s), as well as any other indexes you might want, on the par-
titioned table. (The key index is not strictly necessary, but in most scenarios it is helpful.) This
automatically creates one index on each partition, and any partitions you create or attach later will
also contain the index.

CREATE INDEX ON measurement (logdate);

4. Ensure that the enable_partition_pruning configuration parameter is not disabled in post-
gresql.conf. If it is, queries will not be optimized as desired.

In the above example we would be creating a new partition each month, so it might be wise to write
a script that generates the required DDL automatically.

5.11.2.2. Partition Maintenance

Normally the set of partitions established when initially defining the table are not intended to remain
static. It is common to want to remove old partitions of data and periodically add new partitions for
new data. One of the most important advantages of partitioning is precisely that it allows this otherwise
painful task to be executed nearly instantaneously by manipulating the partition structure, rather than
physically moving large amounts of data around.

The simplest option for removing old data is to drop the partition that is no longer necessary:

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 Data Definition

DROP TABLE measurement_y2006m02;

This can very quickly delete millions of records because it doesn't have to individually delete every
record. Note however that the above command requires taking an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock on
the parent table.

Another option that is often preferable is to remove the partition from the partitioned table but retain
access to it as a table in its own right:

ALTER TABLE measurement DETACH PARTITION measurement_y2006m02;

This allows further operations to be performed on the data before it is dropped. For example, this is
often a useful time to back up the data using COPY, pg_dump, or similar tools. It might also be a useful
time to aggregate data into smaller formats, perform other data manipulations, or run reports.

Similarly we can add a new partition to handle new data. We can create an empty partition in the
partitioned table just as the original partitions were created above:

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m02 PARTITION OF measurement

FOR VALUES FROM ('2008-02-01') TO ('2008-03-01')
TABLESPACE fasttablespace;

As an alternative, it is sometimes more convenient to create the new table outside the partition struc-
ture, and make it a proper partition later. This allows the data to be loaded, checked, and transformed
prior to it appearing in the partitioned table:

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m02

(LIKE measurement INCLUDING DEFAULTS INCLUDING CONSTRAINTS)
TABLESPACE fasttablespace;

ALTER TABLE measurement_y2008m02 ADD CONSTRAINT y2008m02

CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2008-02-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2008-03-01' );

\copy measurement_y2008m02 from 'measurement_y2008m02'

-- possibly some other data preparation work

ALTER TABLE measurement ATTACH PARTITION measurement_y2008m02

FOR VALUES FROM ('2008-02-01') TO ('2008-03-01' );

Before running the ATTACH PARTITION command, it is recommended to create a CHECK constraint
on the table to be attached describing the desired partition constraint. That way, the system will be
able to skip the scan to validate the implicit partition constraint. Without such a constraint, the table
will be scanned to validate the partition constraint while holding an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock on
that partition and a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE lock on the parent table. One may then drop the
constraint after ATTACH PARTITION is finished, because it is no longer necessary.

As explained above, it is possible to create indexes on partitioned tables and they are applied automat-
ically to the entire hierarchy. This is very convenient, as not only the existing partitions will become
indexed, but also any partitions that are created in the future will. One limitation is that it's not possible
to use the CONCURRENTLY qualifier when creating such a partitioned index. To overcome long lock
times, it is possible to use CREATE INDEX ON ONLY the partitioned table; such an index is marked
invalid, and the partitions do not get the index applied automatically. The indexes on partitions can be
created separately using CONCURRENTLY, and later attached to the index on the parent using ALTER
INDEX .. ATTACH PARTITION. Once indexes for all partitions are attached to the parent index,
the parent index is marked valid automatically. Example:

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 Data Definition

CREATE INDEX measurement_usls_idx ON ONLY measurement (unitsales);

CREATE INDEX measurement_usls_200602_idx

ON measurement_y2006m02 (unitsales);
ALTER INDEX measurement_usls_idx
ATTACH PARTITION measurement_usls_200602_idx;
...

This technique can be used with UNIQUE and PRIMARY KEY constraints too; the indexes are created
implicitly when the constraint is created. Example:

ALTER TABLE ONLY measurement ADD UNIQUE (city_id, logdate);

ALTER TABLE measurement_y2006m02 ADD UNIQUE (city_id, logdate);

ALTER INDEX measurement_city_id_logdate_key
ATTACH PARTITION measurement_y2006m02_city_id_logdate_key;
...

5.11.2.3. Limitations
The following limitations apply to partitioned tables:

• There is no way to create an exclusion constraint spanning all partitions; it is only possible to con-
strain each leaf partition individually.

• Unique constraints on partitioned tables must include all the partition key columns. This limitation
exists because PostgreSQL can only enforce uniqueness in each partition individually.

• BEFORE ROW triggers, if necessary, must be defined on individual partitions, not the partitioned
table.

• Mixing temporary and permanent relations in the same partition tree is not allowed. Hence, if the
partitioned table is permanent, so must be its partitions and likewise if the partitioned table is tem-
porary. When using temporary relations, all members of the partition tree have to be from the same
session.

5.11.3. Implementation Using Inheritance

While the built-in declarative partitioning is suitable for most common use cases, there are some
circumstances where a more flexible approach may be useful. Partitioning can be implemented using
table inheritance, which allows for several features not supported by declarative partitioning, such as:

• For declarative partitioning, partitions must have exactly the same set of columns as the partitioned
table, whereas with table inheritance, child tables may have extra columns not present in the parent.

• Table inheritance allows for multiple inheritance.

• Declarative partitioning only supports range, list and hash partitioning, whereas table inheritance
allows data to be divided in a manner of the user's choosing. (Note, however, that if constraint
exclusion is unable to prune child tables effectively, query performance might be poor.)

• Some operations require a stronger lock when using declarative partitioning than when using table
inheritance. For example, adding or removing a partition to or from a partitioned table requires tak-
ing an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock on the parent table, whereas a SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE
lock is enough in the case of regular inheritance.

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 Data Definition

5.11.3.1. Example
We use the same measurement table we used above. To implement partitioning using inheritance,
use the following steps:

1. Create the “master” table, from which all of the “child” tables will inherit. This table will contain
no data. Do not define any check constraints on this table, unless you intend them to be applied
equally to all child tables. There is no point in defining any indexes or unique constraints on it,
either. For our example, the master table is the measurement table as originally defined.
2. Create several “child” tables that each inherit from the master table. Normally, these tables will not
add any columns to the set inherited from the master. Just as with declarative partitioning, these
tables are in every way normal PostgreSQL tables (or foreign tables).

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2006m02 () INHERITS (measurement);

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2006m03 () INHERITS (measurement);
...
CREATE TABLE measurement_y2007m11 () INHERITS (measurement);
CREATE TABLE measurement_y2007m12 () INHERITS (measurement);
CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m01 () INHERITS (measurement);
3. Add non-overlapping table constraints to the child tables to define the allowed key values in each.

Typical examples would be:

CHECK ( x = 1 )
CHECK ( county IN ( 'Oxfordshire', 'Buckinghamshire',
'Warwickshire' ))
CHECK ( outletID >= 100 AND outletID < 200 )

Ensure that the constraints guarantee that there is no overlap between the key values permitted in
different child tables. A common mistake is to set up range constraints like:

CHECK ( outletID BETWEEN 100 AND 200 )

CHECK ( outletID BETWEEN 200 AND 300 )

This is wrong since it is not clear which child table the key value 200 belongs in.

It would be better to instead create child tables as follows:

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2006m02 (

CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2006-02-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2006-03-01' )
) INHERITS (measurement);

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2006m03 (

CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2006-03-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2006-04-01' )
) INHERITS (measurement);

...
CREATE TABLE measurement_y2007m11 (
CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2007-11-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2007-12-01' )
) INHERITS (measurement);

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2007m12 (

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 Data Definition

CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2007-12-01' AND logdate < DATE

'2008-01-01' )
) INHERITS (measurement);

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m01 (

CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2008-01-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2008-02-01' )
) INHERITS (measurement);
4. For each child table, create an index on the key column(s), as well as any other indexes you might
want.

CREATE INDEX measurement_y2006m02_logdate ON measurement_y2006m02

(logdate);
CREATE INDEX measurement_y2006m03_logdate ON measurement_y2006m03
(logdate);
CREATE INDEX measurement_y2007m11_logdate ON measurement_y2007m11
(logdate);
CREATE INDEX measurement_y2007m12_logdate ON measurement_y2007m12
(logdate);
CREATE INDEX measurement_y2008m01_logdate ON measurement_y2008m01
(logdate);
5. We want our application to be able to say INSERT INTO measurement ... and have the data
be redirected into the appropriate child table. We can arrange that by attaching a suitable trigger
function to the master table. If data will be added only to the latest child, we can use a very simple
trigger function:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION measurement_insert_trigger()

RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
BEGIN
INSERT INTO measurement_y2008m01 VALUES (NEW.*);
RETURN NULL;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

After creating the function, we create a trigger which calls the trigger function:

CREATE TRIGGER insert_measurement_trigger

BEFORE INSERT ON measurement
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE FUNCTION measurement_insert_trigger();

We must redefine the trigger function each month so that it always points to the current child table.
The trigger definition does not need to be updated, however.

We might want to insert data and have the server automatically locate the child table into which
the row should be added. We could do this with a more complex trigger function, for example:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION measurement_insert_trigger()

RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
BEGIN
IF ( NEW.logdate >= DATE '2006-02-01' AND
NEW.logdate < DATE '2006-03-01' ) THEN
INSERT INTO measurement_y2006m02 VALUES (NEW.*);
ELSIF ( NEW.logdate >= DATE '2006-03-01' AND
NEW.logdate < DATE '2006-04-01' ) THEN

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 Data Definition

INSERT INTO measurement_y2006m03 VALUES (NEW.*);

...
ELSIF ( NEW.logdate >= DATE '2008-01-01' AND
NEW.logdate < DATE '2008-02-01' ) THEN
INSERT INTO measurement_y2008m01 VALUES (NEW.*);
ELSE
RAISE EXCEPTION 'Date out of range. Fix the
measurement_insert_trigger() function!';
END IF;
RETURN NULL;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

The trigger definition is the same as before. Note that each IF test must exactly match the CHECK
constraint for its child table.

While this function is more complex than the single-month case, it doesn't need to be updated as
often, since branches can be added in advance of being needed.

Note
In practice, it might be best to check the newest child first, if most inserts go into
that child. For simplicity, we have shown the trigger's tests in the same order as in
other parts of this example.

A different approach to redirecting inserts into the appropriate child table is to set up rules, instead
of a trigger, on the master table. For example:

CREATE RULE measurement_insert_y2006m02 AS

ON INSERT TO measurement WHERE
( logdate >= DATE '2006-02-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2006-03-01' )
DO INSTEAD
INSERT INTO measurement_y2006m02 VALUES (NEW.*);
...
CREATE RULE measurement_insert_y2008m01 AS
ON INSERT TO measurement WHERE
( logdate >= DATE '2008-01-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2008-02-01' )
DO INSTEAD
INSERT INTO measurement_y2008m01 VALUES (NEW.*);

A rule has significantly more overhead than a trigger, but the overhead is paid once per query rather
than once per row, so this method might be advantageous for bulk-insert situations. In most cases,
however, the trigger method will offer better performance.

Be aware that COPY ignores rules. If you want to use COPY to insert data, you'll need to copy into
the correct child table rather than directly into the master. COPY does fire triggers, so you can use
it normally if you use the trigger approach.

Another disadvantage of the rule approach is that there is no simple way to force an error if the set
of rules doesn't cover the insertion date; the data will silently go into the master table instead.
6. Ensure that the constraint_exclusion configuration parameter is not disabled in post-
gresql.conf; otherwise child tables may be accessed unnecessarily.

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 Data Definition

As we can see, a complex table hierarchy could require a substantial amount of DDL. In the above
example we would be creating a new child table each month, so it might be wise to write a script that
generates the required DDL automatically.

5.11.3.2. Maintenance for Inheritance Partitioning

To remove old data quickly, simply drop the child table that is no longer necessary:

DROP TABLE measurement_y2006m02;

To remove the child table from the inheritance hierarchy table but retain access to it as a table in its
own right:

ALTER TABLE measurement_y2006m02 NO INHERIT measurement;

To add a new child table to handle new data, create an empty child table just as the original children
were created above:

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m02 (

CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2008-02-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2008-03-01' )
) INHERITS (measurement);

Alternatively, one may want to create and populate the new child table before adding it to the table
hierarchy. This could allow data to be loaded, checked, and transformed before being made visible
to queries on the parent table.

CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m02

(LIKE measurement INCLUDING DEFAULTS INCLUDING CONSTRAINTS);
ALTER TABLE measurement_y2008m02 ADD CONSTRAINT y2008m02
CHECK ( logdate >= DATE '2008-02-01' AND logdate < DATE
'2008-03-01' );
\copy measurement_y2008m02 from 'measurement_y2008m02'
-- possibly some other data preparation work
ALTER TABLE measurement_y2008m02 INHERIT measurement;

5.11.3.3. Caveats
The following caveats apply to partitioning implemented using inheritance:

• There is no automatic way to verify that all of the CHECK constraints are mutually exclusive. It is
safer to create code that generates child tables and creates and/or modifies associated objects than
to write each by hand.

• Indexes and foreign key constraints apply to single tables and not to their inheritance children, hence
they have some caveats to be aware of.

• The schemes shown here assume that the values of a row's key column(s) never change, or at least do
not change enough to require it to move to another partition. An UPDATE that attempts to do that will
fail because of the CHECK constraints. If you need to handle such cases, you can put suitable update
triggers on the child tables, but it makes management of the structure much more complicated.

• If you are using manual VACUUM or ANALYZE commands, don't forget that you need to run them
on each child table individually. A command like:

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 Data Definition

ANALYZE measurement;

will only process the master table.

• INSERT statements with ON CONFLICT clauses are unlikely to work as expected, as the ON
CONFLICT action is only taken in case of unique violations on the specified target relation, not
its child relations.

• Triggers or rules will be needed to route rows to the desired child table, unless the application is
explicitly aware of the partitioning scheme. Triggers may be complicated to write, and will be much
slower than the tuple routing performed internally by declarative partitioning.

5.11.4. Partition Pruning

Partition pruning is a query optimization technique that improves performance for declaratively par-
titioned tables. As an example:

SET enable_partition_pruning = on; -- the default

SELECT count(*) FROM measurement WHERE logdate >= DATE
'2008-01-01';

Without partition pruning, the above query would scan each of the partitions of the measurement
table. With partition pruning enabled, the planner will examine the definition of each partition and
prove that the partition need not be scanned because it could not contain any rows meeting the query's
WHERE clause. When the planner can prove this, it excludes (prunes) the partition from the query plan.

By using the EXPLAIN command and the enable_partition_pruning configuration parameter, it's pos-
sible to show the difference between a plan for which partitions have been pruned and one for which
they have not. A typical unoptimized plan for this type of table setup is:

SET enable_partition_pruning = off;

EXPLAIN SELECT count(*) FROM measurement WHERE logdate >= DATE
'2008-01-01';
QUERY PLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aggregate (cost=188.76..188.77 rows=1 width=8)
-> Append (cost=0.00..181.05 rows=3085 width=0)
-> Seq Scan on measurement_y2006m02 (cost=0.00..33.12
rows=617 width=0)
Filter: (logdate >= '2008-01-01'::date)
-> Seq Scan on measurement_y2006m03 (cost=0.00..33.12
rows=617 width=0)
Filter: (logdate >= '2008-01-01'::date)
...
-> Seq Scan on measurement_y2007m11 (cost=0.00..33.12
rows=617 width=0)
Filter: (logdate >= '2008-01-01'::date)
-> Seq Scan on measurement_y2007m12 (cost=0.00..33.12
rows=617 width=0)
Filter: (logdate >= '2008-01-01'::date)
-> Seq Scan on measurement_y2008m01 (cost=0.00..33.12
rows=617 width=0)
Filter: (logdate >= '2008-01-01'::date)

Some or all of the partitions might use index scans instead of full-table sequential scans, but the point
here is that there is no need to scan the older partitions at all to answer this query. When we enable
partition pruning, we get a significantly cheaper plan that will deliver the same answer:

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 Data Definition

SET enable_partition_pruning = on;

EXPLAIN SELECT count(*) FROM measurement WHERE logdate >= DATE
'2008-01-01';
QUERY PLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aggregate (cost=37.75..37.76 rows=1 width=8)
-> Seq Scan on measurement_y2008m01 (cost=0.00..33.12 rows=617
width=0)
Filter: (logdate >= '2008-01-01'::date)

Note that partition pruning is driven only by the constraints defined implicitly by the partition keys,
not by the presence of indexes. Therefore it isn't necessary to define indexes on the key columns.
Whether an index needs to be created for a given partition depends on whether you expect that queries
that scan the partition will generally scan a large part of the partition or just a small part. An index
will be helpful in the latter case but not the former.

Partition pruning can be performed not only during the planning of a given query, but also during its
execution. This is useful as it can allow more partitions to be pruned when clauses contain expressions
whose values are not known at query planning time, for example, parameters defined in a PREPARE
statement, using a value obtained from a subquery, or using a parameterized value on the inner side of
a nested loop join. Partition pruning during execution can be performed at any of the following times:

• During initialization of the query plan. Partition pruning can be performed here for parameter values
which are known during the initialization phase of execution. Partitions which are pruned during
this stage will not show up in the query's EXPLAIN or EXPLAIN ANALYZE. It is possible to de-
termine the number of partitions which were removed during this phase by observing the “Subplans
Removed” property in the EXPLAIN output.

• During actual execution of the query plan. Partition pruning may also be performed here to remove
partitions using values which are only known during actual query execution. This includes values
from subqueries and values from execution-time parameters such as those from parameterized nest-
ed loop joins. Since the value of these parameters may change many times during the execution of
the query, partition pruning is performed whenever one of the execution parameters being used by
partition pruning changes. Determining if partitions were pruned during this phase requires careful
inspection of the loops property in the EXPLAIN ANALYZE output. Subplans corresponding to
different partitions may have different values for it depending on how many times each of them
was pruned during execution. Some may be shown as (never executed) if they were pruned
every time.

Partition pruning can be disabled using the enable_partition_pruning setting.

Note
Execution-time partition pruning currently only occurs for the Append and
MergeAppend node types. It is not yet implemented for the ModifyTable node
type, but that is likely to be changed in a future release of PostgreSQL.

5.11.5. Partitioning and Constraint Exclusion

Constraint exclusion is a query optimization technique similar to partition pruning. While it is primar-
ily used for partitioning implemented using the legacy inheritance method, it can be used for other
purposes, including with declarative partitioning.

Constraint exclusion works in a very similar way to partition pruning, except that it uses each table's
CHECK constraints — which gives it its name — whereas partition pruning uses the table's partition

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 Data Definition

bounds, which exist only in the case of declarative partitioning. Another difference is that constraint
exclusion is only applied at plan time; there is no attempt to remove partitions at execution time.

The fact that constraint exclusion uses CHECK constraints, which makes it slow compared to partition
pruning, can sometimes be used as an advantage: because constraints can be defined even on declar-
atively-partitioned tables, in addition to their internal partition bounds, constraint exclusion may be
able to elide additional partitions from the query plan.

The default (and recommended) setting of constraint_exclusion is neither on nor off, but an inter-
mediate setting called partition, which causes the technique to be applied only to queries that are
likely to be working on inheritance partitioned tables. The on setting causes the planner to examine
CHECK constraints in all queries, even simple ones that are unlikely to benefit.

The following caveats apply to constraint exclusion:

• Constraint exclusion is only applied during query planning, unlike partition pruning, which can also
be applied during query execution.

• Constraint exclusion only works when the query's WHERE clause contains constants (or externally
supplied parameters). For example, a comparison against a non-immutable function such as CUR-
RENT_TIMESTAMP cannot be optimized, since the planner cannot know which child table the
function's value might fall into at run time.

• Keep the partitioning constraints simple, else the planner may not be able to prove that child tables
might not need to be visited. Use simple equality conditions for list partitioning, or simple range
tests for range partitioning, as illustrated in the preceding examples. A good rule of thumb is that
partitioning constraints should contain only comparisons of the partitioning column(s) to constants
using B-tree-indexable operators, because only B-tree-indexable column(s) are allowed in the par-
tition key.

• All constraints on all children of the parent table are examined during constraint exclusion, so large
numbers of children are likely to increase query planning time considerably. So the legacy inheri-
tance based partitioning will work well with up to perhaps a hundred child tables; don't try to use
many thousands of children.

5.11.6. Declarative Partitioning Best Practices

The choice of how to partition a table should be made carefully as the performance of query planning
and execution can be negatively affected by poor design.

One of the most critical design decisions will be the column or columns by which you partition your
data. Often the best choice will be to partition by the column or set of columns which most commonly
appear in WHERE clauses of queries being executed on the partitioned table. WHERE clause items that
match and are compatible with the partition key can be used to prune unneeded partitions. However,
you may be forced into making other decisions by requirements for the PRIMARY KEY or a UNIQUE
constraint. Removal of unwanted data is also a factor to consider when planning your partitioning
strategy. An entire partition can be detached fairly quickly, so it may be beneficial to design the par-
tition strategy in such a way that all data to be removed at once is located in a single partition.

Choosing the target number of partitions that the table should be divided into is also a critical decision
to make. Not having enough partitions may mean that indexes remain too large and that data locality
remains poor which could result in low cache hit ratios. However, dividing the table into too many
partitions can also cause issues. Too many partitions can mean longer query planning times and higher
memory consumption during both query planning and execution. When choosing how to partition your
table, it's also important to consider what changes may occur in the future. For example, if you choose
to have one partition per customer and you currently have a small number of large customers, consider
the implications if in several years you instead find yourself with a large number of small customers. In
this case, it may be better to choose to partition by HASH and choose a reasonable number of partitions
rather than trying to partition by LIST and hoping that the number of customers does not increase
beyond what it is practical to partition the data by.

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 Data Definition

Sub-partitioning can be useful to further divide partitions that are expected to become larger than other
partitions, although excessive sub-partitioning can easily lead to large numbers of partitions and can
cause the same problems mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

It is also important to consider the overhead of partitioning during query planning and execution. The
query planner is generally able to handle partition hierarchies with up to a few thousand partitions
fairly well, provided that typical queries allow the query planner to prune all but a small number
of partitions. Planning times become longer and memory consumption becomes higher when more
partitions remain after the planner performs partition pruning. This is particularly true for the UPDATE
and DELETE commands. Another reason to be concerned about having a large number of partitions
is that the server's memory consumption may grow significantly over a period of time, especially if
many sessions touch large numbers of partitions. That's because each partition requires its metadata
to be loaded into the local memory of each session that touches it.

With data warehouse type workloads, it can make sense to use a larger number of partitions than with
an OLTP type workload. Generally, in data warehouses, query planning time is less of a concern as
the majority of processing time is spent during query execution. With either of these two types of
workload, it is important to make the right decisions early, as re-partitioning large quantities of data
can be painfully slow. Simulations of the intended workload are often beneficial for optimizing the
partitioning strategy. Never assume that more partitions are better than fewer partitions and vice-versa.

5.12. Foreign Data

PostgreSQL implements portions of the SQL/MED specification, allowing you to access data that
resides outside PostgreSQL using regular SQL queries. Such data is referred to as foreign data. (Note
that this usage is not to be confused with foreign keys, which are a type of constraint within the
database.)

Foreign data is accessed with help from a foreign data wrapper. A foreign data wrapper is a library
that can communicate with an external data source, hiding the details of connecting to the data source
and obtaining data from it. There are some foreign data wrappers available as contrib modules; see
Appendix F. Other kinds of foreign data wrappers might be found as third party products. If none of
the existing foreign data wrappers suit your needs, you can write your own; see Chapter 56.

To access foreign data, you need to create a foreign server object, which defines how to connect to
a particular external data source according to the set of options used by its supporting foreign data
wrapper. Then you need to create one or more foreign tables, which define the structure of the remote
data. A foreign table can be used in queries just like a normal table, but a foreign table has no storage
in the PostgreSQL server. Whenever it is used, PostgreSQL asks the foreign data wrapper to fetch data
from the external source, or transmit data to the external source in the case of update commands.

Accessing remote data may require authenticating to the external data source. This information can
be provided by a user mapping, which can provide additional data such as user names and passwords
based on the current PostgreSQL role.

For additional information, see CREATE FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER, CREATE SERVER, CRE-
ATE USER MAPPING, CREATE FOREIGN TABLE, and IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA.

5.13. Other Database Objects

Tables are the central objects in a relational database structure, because they hold your data. But they
are not the only objects that exist in a database. Many other kinds of objects can be created to make the
use and management of the data more efficient or convenient. They are not discussed in this chapter,
but we give you a list here so that you are aware of what is possible:

• Views

• Functions, procedures, and operators

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 Data Definition

• Data types and domains

• Triggers and rewrite rules

Detailed information on these topics appears in Part V.

5.14. Dependency Tracking

When you create complex database structures involving many tables with foreign key constraints,
views, triggers, functions, etc. you implicitly create a net of dependencies between the objects. For
instance, a table with a foreign key constraint depends on the table it references.

To ensure the integrity of the entire database structure, PostgreSQL makes sure that you cannot drop
objects that other objects still depend on. For example, attempting to drop the products table we con-
sidered in Section 5.4.5, with the orders table depending on it, would result in an error message like
this:

DROP TABLE products;

ERROR: cannot drop table products because other objects depend on

it
DETAIL: constraint orders_product_no_fkey on table orders depends
on table products
HINT: Use DROP ... CASCADE to drop the dependent objects too.

The error message contains a useful hint: if you do not want to bother deleting all the dependent objects
individually, you can run:

DROP TABLE products CASCADE;

and all the dependent objects will be removed, as will any objects that depend on them, recursively.
In this case, it doesn't remove the orders table, it only removes the foreign key constraint. It stops
there because nothing depends on the foreign key constraint. (If you want to check what DROP ...
CASCADE will do, run DROP without CASCADE and read the DETAIL output.)

Almost all DROP commands in PostgreSQL support specifying CASCADE. Of course, the nature of
the possible dependencies varies with the type of the object. You can also write RESTRICT instead
of CASCADE to get the default behavior, which is to prevent dropping objects that any other objects
depend on.

Note
According to the SQL standard, specifying either RESTRICT or CASCADE is required
in a DROP command. No database system actually enforces that rule, but whether the
default behavior is RESTRICT or CASCADE varies across systems.

If a DROP command lists multiple objects, CASCADE is only required when there are dependencies
outside the specified group. For example, when saying DROP TABLE tab1, tab2 the existence
of a foreign key referencing tab1 from tab2 would not mean that CASCADE is needed to succeed.

For user-defined functions, PostgreSQL tracks dependencies associated with a function's external-
ly-visible properties, such as its argument and result types, but not dependencies that could only be
known by examining the function body. As an example, consider this situation:

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 Data Definition

CREATE TYPE rainbow AS ENUM ('red', 'orange', 'yellow',

'green', 'blue', 'purple');

CREATE TABLE my_colors (color rainbow, note text);

CREATE FUNCTION get_color_note (rainbow) RETURNS text AS

'SELECT note FROM my_colors WHERE color = $1'
LANGUAGE SQL;

(See Section 37.5 for an explanation of SQL-language functions.) PostgreSQL will be aware that the
get_color_note function depends on the rainbow type: dropping the type would force dropping
the function, because its argument type would no longer be defined. But PostgreSQL will not consider
get_color_note to depend on the my_colors table, and so will not drop the function if the table
is dropped. While there are disadvantages to this approach, there are also benefits. The function is still
valid in some sense if the table is missing, though executing it would cause an error; creating a new
table of the same name would allow the function to work again.

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Chapter 6. Data Manipulation
The previous chapter discussed how to create tables and other structures to hold your data. Now it is
time to fill the tables with data. This chapter covers how to insert, update, and delete table data. The
chapter after this will finally explain how to extract your long-lost data from the database.

6.1. Inserting Data

When a table is created, it contains no data. The first thing to do before a database can be of much use
is to insert data. Data is conceptually inserted one row at a time. Of course you can also insert more
than one row, but there is no way to insert less than one row. Even if you know only some column
values, a complete row must be created.

To create a new row, use the INSERT command. The command requires the table name and column
values. For example, consider the products table from Chapter 5:

CREATE TABLE products (

product_no integer,
name text,
price numeric
);

An example command to insert a row would be:

INSERT INTO products VALUES (1, 'Cheese', 9.99);

The data values are listed in the order in which the columns appear in the table, separated by commas.
Usually, the data values will be literals (constants), but scalar expressions are also allowed.

The above syntax has the drawback that you need to know the order of the columns in the table. To
avoid this you can also list the columns explicitly. For example, both of the following commands have
the same effect as the one above:

INSERT INTO products (product_no, name, price) VALUES (1, 'Cheese',

9.99);
INSERT INTO products (name, price, product_no) VALUES ('Cheese',
9.99, 1);

Many users consider it good practice to always list the column names.

If you don't have values for all the columns, you can omit some of them. In that case, the columns will
be filled with their default values. For example:

INSERT INTO products (product_no, name) VALUES (1, 'Cheese');

INSERT INTO products VALUES (1, 'Cheese');

The second form is a PostgreSQL extension. It fills the columns from the left with as many values as
are given, and the rest will be defaulted.

For clarity, you can also request default values explicitly, for individual columns or for the entire row:

INSERT INTO products (product_no, name, price) VALUES (1, 'Cheese',

DEFAULT);

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 Data Manipulation

INSERT INTO products DEFAULT VALUES;

You can insert multiple rows in a single command:

INSERT INTO products (product_no, name, price) VALUES

(1, 'Cheese', 9.99),
(2, 'Bread', 1.99),
(3, 'Milk', 2.99);

It is also possible to insert the result of a query (which might be no rows, one row, or many rows):

INSERT INTO products (product_no, name, price)

SELECT product_no, name, price FROM new_products
WHERE release_date = 'today';

This provides the full power of the SQL query mechanism (Chapter 7) for computing the rows to be
inserted.

Tip
When inserting a lot of data at the same time, consider using the COPY command. It
is not as flexible as the INSERT command, but is more efficient. Refer to Section 14.4
for more information on improving bulk loading performance.

6.2. Updating Data

The modification of data that is already in the database is referred to as updating. You can update
individual rows, all the rows in a table, or a subset of all rows. Each column can be updated separately;
the other columns are not affected.

To update existing rows, use the UPDATE command. This requires three pieces of information:

1. The name of the table and column to update

2. The new value of the column
3. Which row(s) to update

Recall from Chapter 5 that SQL does not, in general, provide a unique identifier for rows. Therefore it
is not always possible to directly specify which row to update. Instead, you specify which conditions
a row must meet in order to be updated. Only if you have a primary key in the table (independent
of whether you declared it or not) can you reliably address individual rows by choosing a condition
that matches the primary key. Graphical database access tools rely on this fact to allow you to update
rows individually.

For example, this command updates all products that have a price of 5 to have a price of 10:

UPDATE products SET price = 10 WHERE price = 5;

This might cause zero, one, or many rows to be updated. It is not an error to attempt an update that
does not match any rows.

Let's look at that command in detail. First is the key word UPDATE followed by the table name. As
usual, the table name can be schema-qualified, otherwise it is looked up in the path. Next is the key
word SET followed by the column name, an equal sign, and the new column value. The new column
value can be any scalar expression, not just a constant. For example, if you want to raise the price of
all products by 10% you could use:

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 Data Manipulation

UPDATE products SET price = price * 1.10;

As you see, the expression for the new value can refer to the existing value(s) in the row. We also left
out the WHERE clause. If it is omitted, it means that all rows in the table are updated. If it is present,
only those rows that match the WHERE condition are updated. Note that the equals sign in the SET
clause is an assignment while the one in the WHERE clause is a comparison, but this does not create any
ambiguity. Of course, the WHERE condition does not have to be an equality test. Many other operators
are available (see Chapter 9). But the expression needs to evaluate to a Boolean result.

You can update more than one column in an UPDATE command by listing more than one assignment
in the SET clause. For example:

UPDATE mytable SET a = 5, b = 3, c = 1 WHERE a > 0;

6.3. Deleting Data

So far we have explained how to add data to tables and how to change data. What remains is to discuss
how to remove data that is no longer needed. Just as adding data is only possible in whole rows, you
can only remove entire rows from a table. In the previous section we explained that SQL does not
provide a way to directly address individual rows. Therefore, removing rows can only be done by
specifying conditions that the rows to be removed have to match. If you have a primary key in the table
then you can specify the exact row. But you can also remove groups of rows matching a condition,
or you can remove all rows in the table at once.

You use the DELETE command to remove rows; the syntax is very similar to the UPDATE command.
For instance, to remove all rows from the products table that have a price of 10, use:

DELETE FROM products WHERE price = 10;

If you simply write:

DELETE FROM products;

then all rows in the table will be deleted! Caveat programmer.

6.4. Returning Data From Modified Rows

Sometimes it is useful to obtain data from modified rows while they are being manipulated. The
INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE commands all have an optional RETURNING clause that supports
this. Use of RETURNING avoids performing an extra database query to collect the data, and is espe-
cially valuable when it would otherwise be difficult to identify the modified rows reliably.

The allowed contents of a RETURNING clause are the same as a SELECT command's output list (see
Section 7.3). It can contain column names of the command's target table, or value expressions using
those columns. A common shorthand is RETURNING *, which selects all columns of the target table
in order.

In an INSERT, the data available to RETURNING is the row as it was inserted. This is not so useful in
trivial inserts, since it would just repeat the data provided by the client. But it can be very handy when
relying on computed default values. For example, when using a serial column to provide unique
identifiers, RETURNING can return the ID assigned to a new row:

CREATE TABLE users (firstname text, lastname text, id serial

primary key);

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 Data Manipulation

INSERT INTO users (firstname, lastname) VALUES ('Joe', 'Cool')

RETURNING id;

The RETURNING clause is also very useful with INSERT ... SELECT.

In an UPDATE, the data available to RETURNING is the new content of the modified row. For example:

UPDATE products SET price = price * 1.10

WHERE price <= 99.99
RETURNING name, price AS new_price;

In a DELETE, the data available to RETURNING is the content of the deleted row. For example:

DELETE FROM products

WHERE obsoletion_date = 'today'
RETURNING *;

If there are triggers (Chapter 38) on the target table, the data available to RETURNING is the row as
modified by the triggers. Thus, inspecting columns computed by triggers is another common use-case
for RETURNING.

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Chapter 7. Queries
The previous chapters explained how to create tables, how to fill them with data, and how to manipulate
that data. Now we finally discuss how to retrieve the data from the database.

7.1. Overview
The process of retrieving or the command to retrieve data from a database is called a query. In SQL
the SELECT command is used to specify queries. The general syntax of the SELECT command is

[WITH with_queries] SELECT select_list FROM table_expression

[sort_specification]

The following sections describe the details of the select list, the table expression, and the sort specifi-
cation. WITH queries are treated last since they are an advanced feature.

A simple kind of query has the form:

SELECT * FROM table1;

Assuming that there is a table called table1, this command would retrieve all rows and all user-
defined columns from table1. (The method of retrieval depends on the client application. For ex-
ample, the psql program will display an ASCII-art table on the screen, while client libraries will offer
functions to extract individual values from the query result.) The select list specification * means all
columns that the table expression happens to provide. A select list can also select a subset of the avail-
able columns or make calculations using the columns. For example, if table1 has columns named
a, b, and c (and perhaps others) you can make the following query:

SELECT a, b + c FROM table1;

(assuming that b and c are of a numerical data type). See Section 7.3 for more details.

FROM table1 is a simple kind of table expression: it reads just one table. In general, table expres-
sions can be complex constructs of base tables, joins, and subqueries. But you can also omit the table
expression entirely and use the SELECT command as a calculator:

SELECT 3 * 4;

This is more useful if the expressions in the select list return varying results. For example, you could
call a function this way:

SELECT random();

7.2. Table Expressions

A table expression computes a table. The table expression contains a FROM clause that is optionally
followed by WHERE, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses. Trivial table expressions simply refer to a
table on disk, a so-called base table, but more complex expressions can be used to modify or combine
base tables in various ways.

The optional WHERE, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses in the table expression specify a pipeline of
successive transformations performed on the table derived in the FROM clause. All these transforma-

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 Queries

tions produce a virtual table that provides the rows that are passed to the select list to compute the
output rows of the query.

7.2.1. The FROM Clause

The FROM Clause derives a table from one or more other tables given in a comma-separated table
reference list.

FROM table_reference [, table_reference [, ...]]

A table reference can be a table name (possibly schema-qualified), or a derived table such as a sub-
query, a JOIN construct, or complex combinations of these. If more than one table reference is listed
in the FROM clause, the tables are cross-joined (that is, the Cartesian product of their rows is formed;
see below). The result of the FROM list is an intermediate virtual table that can then be subject to trans-
formations by the WHERE, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses and is finally the result of the overall
table expression.

When a table reference names a table that is the parent of a table inheritance hierarchy, the table
reference produces rows of not only that table but all of its descendant tables, unless the key word
ONLY precedes the table name. However, the reference produces only the columns that appear in the
named table — any columns added in subtables are ignored.

Instead of writing ONLY before the table name, you can write * after the table name to explicitly
specify that descendant tables are included. There is no real reason to use this syntax any more, be-
cause searching descendant tables is now always the default behavior. However, it is supported for
compatibility with older releases.

7.2.1.1. Joined Tables

A joined table is a table derived from two other (real or derived) tables according to the rules of the
particular join type. Inner, outer, and cross-joins are available. The general syntax of a joined table is

T1 join_type T2 [ join_condition ]

Joins of all types can be chained together, or nested: either or both T1 and T2 can be joined tables.
Parentheses can be used around JOIN clauses to control the join order. In the absence of parentheses,
JOIN clauses nest left-to-right.

Join Types
Cross join

T1 CROSS JOIN T2

For every possible combination of rows from T1 and T2 (i.e., a Cartesian product), the joined
table will contain a row consisting of all columns in T1 followed by all columns in T2. If the
tables have N and M rows respectively, the joined table will have N * M rows.

FROM T1 CROSS JOIN T2 is equivalent to FROM T1 INNER JOIN T2 ON TRUE (see

below). It is also equivalent to FROM T1, T2.

Note
This latter equivalence does not hold exactly when more than two tables appear,
because JOIN binds more tightly than comma. For example FROM T1 CROSS
JOIN T2 INNER JOIN T3 ON condition is not the same as FROM

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 Queries

T1, T2 INNER JOIN T3 ON condition because the condition can

reference T1 in the first case but not the second.

Qualified joins

T1 { [INNER] | { LEFT | RIGHT | FULL } [OUTER] } JOIN T2

ON boolean_expression
T1 { [INNER] | { LEFT | RIGHT | FULL } [OUTER] } JOIN T2 USING
( join column list )
T1 NATURAL { [INNER] | { LEFT | RIGHT | FULL } [OUTER] } JOIN T2

The words INNER and OUTER are optional in all forms. INNER is the default; LEFT, RIGHT,
and FULL imply an outer join.

The join condition is specified in the ON or USING clause, or implicitly by the word NATURAL.
The join condition determines which rows from the two source tables are considered to “match”,
as explained in detail below.

The possible types of qualified join are:

INNER JOIN

For each row R1 of T1, the joined table has a row for each row in T2 that satisfies the join
condition with R1.

LEFT OUTER JOIN

First, an inner join is performed. Then, for each row in T1 that does not satisfy the join
condition with any row in T2, a joined row is added with null values in columns of T2. Thus,
the joined table always has at least one row for each row in T1.

RIGHT OUTER JOIN

First, an inner join is performed. Then, for each row in T2 that does not satisfy the join
condition with any row in T1, a joined row is added with null values in columns of T1. This
is the converse of a left join: the result table will always have a row for each row in T2.

FULL OUTER JOIN

First, an inner join is performed. Then, for each row in T1 that does not satisfy the join
condition with any row in T2, a joined row is added with null values in columns of T2. Also,
for each row of T2 that does not satisfy the join condition with any row in T1, a joined row
with null values in the columns of T1 is added.

The ON clause is the most general kind of join condition: it takes a Boolean value expression of
the same kind as is used in a WHERE clause. A pair of rows from T1 and T2 match if the ON
expression evaluates to true.

The USING clause is a shorthand that allows you to take advantage of the specific situation where
both sides of the join use the same name for the joining column(s). It takes a comma-separated
list of the shared column names and forms a join condition that includes an equality comparison
for each one. For example, joining T1 and T2 with USING (a, b) produces the join condition
ON T1.a = T2.a AND T1.b = T2.b.

Furthermore, the output of JOIN USING suppresses redundant columns: there is no need to print
both of the matched columns, since they must have equal values. While JOIN ON produces all
columns from T1 followed by all columns from T2, JOIN USING produces one output column
for each of the listed column pairs (in the listed order), followed by any remaining columns from
T1, followed by any remaining columns from T2.

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 Queries

Finally, NATURAL is a shorthand form of USING: it forms a USING list consisting of all column
names that appear in both input tables. As with USING, these columns appear only once in the
output table. If there are no common column names, NATURAL JOIN behaves like JOIN ...
ON TRUE, producing a cross-product join.

Note
USING is reasonably safe from column changes in the joined relations since only
the listed columns are combined. NATURAL is considerably more risky since any
schema changes to either relation that cause a new matching column name to be
present will cause the join to combine that new column as well.

To put this together, assume we have tables t1:

num | name
-----+------
1 | a
2 | b
3 | c

and t2:

num | value
-----+-------
1 | xxx
3 | yyy
5 | zzz

then we get the following results for the various joins:

=> SELECT * FROM t1 CROSS JOIN t2;

num | name | num | value
-----+------+-----+-------
1 | a | 1 | xxx
1 | a | 3 | yyy
1 | a | 5 | zzz
2 | b | 1 | xxx
2 | b | 3 | yyy
2 | b | 5 | zzz
3 | c | 1 | xxx
3 | c | 3 | yyy
3 | c | 5 | zzz
(9 rows)

=> SELECT * FROM t1 INNER JOIN t2 ON t1.num = t2.num;

num | name | num | value
-----+------+-----+-------
1 | a | 1 | xxx
3 | c | 3 | yyy
(2 rows)

=> SELECT * FROM t1 INNER JOIN t2 USING (num);

num | name | value
-----+------+-------
1 | a | xxx

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 Queries

3 | c | yyy
(2 rows)

=> SELECT * FROM t1 NATURAL INNER JOIN t2;

num | name | value
-----+------+-------
1 | a | xxx
3 | c | yyy
(2 rows)

=> SELECT * FROM t1 LEFT JOIN t2 ON t1.num = t2.num;

num | name | num | value
-----+------+-----+-------
1 | a | 1 | xxx
2 | b | |
3 | c | 3 | yyy
(3 rows)

=> SELECT * FROM t1 LEFT JOIN t2 USING (num);

num | name | value
-----+------+-------
1 | a | xxx
2 | b |
3 | c | yyy
(3 rows)

=> SELECT * FROM t1 RIGHT JOIN t2 ON t1.num = t2.num;

num | name | num | value
-----+------+-----+-------
1 | a | 1 | xxx
3 | c | 3 | yyy
| | 5 | zzz
(3 rows)

=> SELECT * FROM t1 FULL JOIN t2 ON t1.num = t2.num;

num | name | num | value
-----+------+-----+-------
1 | a | 1 | xxx
2 | b | |
3 | c | 3 | yyy
| | 5 | zzz
(4 rows)

The join condition specified with ON can also contain conditions that do not relate directly to the join.
This can prove useful for some queries but needs to be thought out carefully. For example:

=> SELECT * FROM t1 LEFT JOIN t2 ON t1.num = t2.num AND t2.value =

'xxx';
num | name | num | value
-----+------+-----+-------
1 | a | 1 | xxx
2 | b | |
3 | c | |
(3 rows)

Notice that placing the restriction in the WHERE clause produces a different result:

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 Queries

=> SELECT * FROM t1 LEFT JOIN t2 ON t1.num = t2.num WHERE t2.value

= 'xxx';
num | name | num | value
-----+------+-----+-------
1 | a | 1 | xxx
(1 row)

This is because a restriction placed in the ON clause is processed before the join, while a restriction
placed in the WHERE clause is processed after the join. That does not matter with inner joins, but it
matters a lot with outer joins.

7.2.1.2. Table and Column Aliases

A temporary name can be given to tables and complex table references to be used for references to
the derived table in the rest of the query. This is called a table alias.

To create a table alias, write

FROM table_reference AS alias

or

FROM table_reference alias

The AS key word is optional noise. alias can be any identifier.

A typical application of table aliases is to assign short identifiers to long table names to keep the join
clauses readable. For example:

SELECT * FROM some_very_long_table_name s JOIN

another_fairly_long_name a ON s.id = a.num;

The alias becomes the new name of the table reference so far as the current query is concerned — it
is not allowed to refer to the table by the original name elsewhere in the query. Thus, this is not valid:

SELECT * FROM my_table AS m WHERE my_table.a > 5; -- wrong

Table aliases are mainly for notational convenience, but it is necessary to use them when joining a
table to itself, e.g.:

SELECT * FROM people AS mother JOIN people AS child ON mother.id =

child.mother_id;

Additionally, an alias is required if the table reference is a subquery (see Section 7.2.1.3).

Parentheses are used to resolve ambiguities. In the following example, the first statement assigns the
alias b to the second instance of my_table, but the second statement assigns the alias to the result
of the join:

SELECT * FROM my_table AS a CROSS JOIN my_table AS b ...

SELECT * FROM (my_table AS a CROSS JOIN my_table) AS b ...

Another form of table aliasing gives temporary names to the columns of the table, as well as the table
itself:

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FROM table_reference [AS] alias ( column1 [, column2 [, ...]] )

If fewer column aliases are specified than the actual table has columns, the remaining columns are not
renamed. This syntax is especially useful for self-joins or subqueries.

When an alias is applied to the output of a JOIN clause, the alias hides the original name(s) within
the JOIN. For example:

SELECT a.* FROM my_table AS a JOIN your_table AS b ON ...

is valid SQL, but:

SELECT a.* FROM (my_table AS a JOIN your_table AS b ON ...) AS c

is not valid; the table alias a is not visible outside the alias c.

7.2.1.3. Subqueries
Subqueries specifying a derived table must be enclosed in parentheses and must be assigned a table
alias name (as in Section 7.2.1.2). For example:

FROM (SELECT * FROM table1) AS alias_name

This example is equivalent to FROM table1 AS alias_name. More interesting cases, which
cannot be reduced to a plain join, arise when the subquery involves grouping or aggregation.

A subquery can also be a VALUES list:

FROM (VALUES ('anne', 'smith'), ('bob', 'jones'), ('joe', 'blow'))

AS names(first, last)

Again, a table alias is required. Assigning alias names to the columns of the VALUES list is optional,
but is good practice. For more information see Section 7.7.

7.2.1.4. Table Functions

Table functions are functions that produce a set of rows, made up of either base data types (scalar
types) or composite data types (table rows). They are used like a table, view, or subquery in the FROM
clause of a query. Columns returned by table functions can be included in SELECT, JOIN, or WHERE
clauses in the same manner as columns of a table, view, or subquery.

Table functions may also be combined using the ROWS FROM syntax, with the results returned in
parallel columns; the number of result rows in this case is that of the largest function result, with
smaller results padded with null values to match.

function_call [WITH ORDINALITY] [[AS] table_alias [(column_alias

[, ... ])]]
ROWS FROM( function_call [, ... ] ) [WITH ORDINALITY]
[[AS] table_alias [(column_alias [, ... ])]]

If the WITH ORDINALITY clause is specified, an additional column of type bigint will be added
to the function result columns. This column numbers the rows of the function result set, starting from
1. (This is a generalization of the SQL-standard syntax for UNNEST ... WITH ORDINALITY.)

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By default, the ordinal column is called ordinality, but a different column name can be assigned
to it using an AS clause.

The special table function UNNEST may be called with any number of array parameters, and it returns
a corresponding number of columns, as if UNNEST (Section 9.18) had been called on each parameter
separately and combined using the ROWS FROM construct.

UNNEST( array_expression [, ... ] ) [WITH ORDINALITY]

[[AS] table_alias [(column_alias [, ... ])]]

If no table_alias is specified, the function name is used as the table name; in the case of a ROWS
FROM() construct, the first function's name is used.

If column aliases are not supplied, then for a function returning a base data type, the column name is
also the same as the function name. For a function returning a composite type, the result columns get
the names of the individual attributes of the type.

Some examples:

CREATE TABLE foo (fooid int, foosubid int, fooname text);

CREATE FUNCTION getfoo(int) RETURNS SETOF foo AS $$

SELECT * FROM foo WHERE fooid = $1;
$$ LANGUAGE SQL;

SELECT * FROM getfoo(1) AS t1;

SELECT * FROM foo

WHERE foosubid IN (
SELECT foosubid
FROM getfoo(foo.fooid) z
WHERE z.fooid = foo.fooid
);

CREATE VIEW vw_getfoo AS SELECT * FROM getfoo(1);

SELECT * FROM vw_getfoo;

In some cases it is useful to define table functions that can return different column sets depending on
how they are invoked. To support this, the table function can be declared as returning the pseudo-type
record. When such a function is used in a query, the expected row structure must be specified in the
query itself, so that the system can know how to parse and plan the query. This syntax looks like:

function_call [AS] alias (column_definition [, ... ])

function_call AS [alias] (column_definition [, ... ])
ROWS FROM( ... function_call AS (column_definition [, ... ])
[, ... ] )

When not using the ROWS FROM() syntax, the column_definition list replaces the column
alias list that could otherwise be attached to the FROM item; the names in the column definitions serve
as column aliases. When using the ROWS FROM() syntax, a column_definition list can be
attached to each member function separately; or if there is only one member function and no WITH
ORDINALITY clause, a column_definition list can be written in place of a column alias list
following ROWS FROM().

Consider this example:

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SELECT *
FROM dblink('dbname=mydb', 'SELECT proname, prosrc FROM
pg_proc')
AS t1(proname name, prosrc text)
WHERE proname LIKE 'bytea%';

The dblink function (part of the dblink module) executes a remote query. It is declared to return
record since it might be used for any kind of query. The actual column set must be specified in the
calling query so that the parser knows, for example, what * should expand to.

7.2.1.5. LATERAL Subqueries

Subqueries appearing in FROM can be preceded by the key word LATERAL. This allows them to ref-
erence columns provided by preceding FROM items. (Without LATERAL, each subquery is evaluated
independently and so cannot cross-reference any other FROM item.)

Table functions appearing in FROM can also be preceded by the key word LATERAL, but for functions
the key word is optional; the function's arguments can contain references to columns provided by
preceding FROM items in any case.

A LATERAL item can appear at top level in the FROM list, or within a JOIN tree. In the latter case it
can also refer to any items that are on the left-hand side of a JOIN that it is on the right-hand side of.

When a FROM item contains LATERAL cross-references, evaluation proceeds as follows: for each
row of the FROM item providing the cross-referenced column(s), or set of rows of multiple FROM
items providing the columns, the LATERAL item is evaluated using that row or row set's values of
the columns. The resulting row(s) are joined as usual with the rows they were computed from. This is
repeated for each row or set of rows from the column source table(s).

A trivial example of LATERAL is

SELECT * FROM foo, LATERAL (SELECT * FROM bar WHERE bar.id =

foo.bar_id) ss;

This is not especially useful since it has exactly the same result as the more conventional

SELECT * FROM foo, bar WHERE bar.id = foo.bar_id;

LATERAL is primarily useful when the cross-referenced column is necessary for computing the row(s)
to be joined. A common application is providing an argument value for a set-returning function. For
example, supposing that vertices(polygon) returns the set of vertices of a polygon, we could
identify close-together vertices of polygons stored in a table with:

SELECT p1.id, p2.id, v1, v2

FROM polygons p1, polygons p2,
LATERAL vertices(p1.poly) v1,
LATERAL vertices(p2.poly) v2
WHERE (v1 <-> v2) < 10 AND p1.id != p2.id;

This query could also be written

SELECT p1.id, p2.id, v1, v2

FROM polygons p1 CROSS JOIN LATERAL vertices(p1.poly) v1,
polygons p2 CROSS JOIN LATERAL vertices(p2.poly) v2
WHERE (v1 <-> v2) < 10 AND p1.id != p2.id;

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or in several other equivalent formulations. (As already mentioned, the LATERAL key word is unnec-
essary in this example, but we use it for clarity.)

It is often particularly handy to LEFT JOIN to a LATERAL subquery, so that source rows will appear
in the result even if the LATERAL subquery produces no rows for them. For example, if get_prod-
uct_names() returns the names of products made by a manufacturer, but some manufacturers in
our table currently produce no products, we could find out which ones those are like this:

SELECT m.name
FROM manufacturers m LEFT JOIN LATERAL get_product_names(m.id)
pname ON true
WHERE pname IS NULL;

7.2.2. The WHERE Clause

The syntax of the WHERE Clause is

WHERE search_condition

where search_condition is any value expression (see Section 4.2) that returns a value of type
boolean.

After the processing of the FROM clause is done, each row of the derived virtual table is checked
against the search condition. If the result of the condition is true, the row is kept in the output table,
otherwise (i.e., if the result is false or null) it is discarded. The search condition typically references
at least one column of the table generated in the FROM clause; this is not required, but otherwise the
WHERE clause will be fairly useless.

Note
The join condition of an inner join can be written either in the WHERE clause or in the
JOIN clause. For example, these table expressions are equivalent:

FROM a, b WHERE a.id = b.id AND b.val > 5

and:

FROM a INNER JOIN b ON (a.id = b.id) WHERE b.val > 5

or perhaps even:

FROM a NATURAL JOIN b WHERE b.val > 5

Which one of these you use is mainly a matter of style. The JOIN syntax in the FROM
clause is probably not as portable to other SQL database management systems, even
though it is in the SQL standard. For outer joins there is no choice: they must be done
in the FROM clause. The ON or USING clause of an outer join is not equivalent to a
WHERE condition, because it results in the addition of rows (for unmatched input rows)
as well as the removal of rows in the final result.

Here are some examples of WHERE clauses:

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SELECT ... FROM fdt WHERE c1 > 5

SELECT ... FROM fdt WHERE c1 IN (1, 2, 3)

SELECT ... FROM fdt WHERE c1 IN (SELECT c1 FROM t2)

SELECT ... FROM fdt WHERE c1 IN (SELECT c3 FROM t2 WHERE c2 =

fdt.c1 + 10)

SELECT ... FROM fdt WHERE c1 BETWEEN (SELECT c3 FROM t2 WHERE c2 =

fdt.c1 + 10) AND 100

SELECT ... FROM fdt WHERE EXISTS (SELECT c1 FROM t2 WHERE c2 >
fdt.c1)

fdt is the table derived in the FROM clause. Rows that do not meet the search condition of the WHERE
clause are eliminated from fdt. Notice the use of scalar subqueries as value expressions. Just like any
other query, the subqueries can employ complex table expressions. Notice also how fdt is referenced
in the subqueries. Qualifying c1 as fdt.c1 is only necessary if c1 is also the name of a column
in the derived input table of the subquery. But qualifying the column name adds clarity even when
it is not needed. This example shows how the column naming scope of an outer query extends into
its inner queries.

7.2.3. The GROUP BY and HAVING Clauses

After passing the WHERE filter, the derived input table might be subject to grouping, using the GROUP
BY clause, and elimination of group rows using the HAVING clause.

SELECT select_list
FROM ...
[WHERE ...]
GROUP BY grouping_column_reference
[, grouping_column_reference]...

The GROUP BY Clause is used to group together those rows in a table that have the same values
in all the columns listed. The order in which the columns are listed does not matter. The effect is to
combine each set of rows having common values into one group row that represents all rows in the
group. This is done to eliminate redundancy in the output and/or compute aggregates that apply to
these groups. For instance:

=> SELECT * FROM test1;

x | y
---+---
a | 3
c | 2
b | 5
a | 1
(4 rows)

=> SELECT x FROM test1 GROUP BY x;

x
---
a
b
c
(3 rows)

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In the second query, we could not have written SELECT * FROM test1 GROUP BY x, because
there is no single value for the column y that could be associated with each group. The grouped-by
columns can be referenced in the select list since they have a single value in each group.

In general, if a table is grouped, columns that are not listed in GROUP BY cannot be referenced except
in aggregate expressions. An example with aggregate expressions is:

=> SELECT x, sum(y) FROM test1 GROUP BY x;

x | sum
---+-----
a | 4
b | 5
c | 2
(3 rows)

Here sum is an aggregate function that computes a single value over the entire group. More information
about the available aggregate functions can be found in Section 9.20.

Tip
Grouping without aggregate expressions effectively calculates the set of distinct values
in a column. This can also be achieved using the DISTINCT clause (see Section 7.3.3).

Here is another example: it calculates the total sales for each product (rather than the total sales of
all products):

SELECT product_id, p.name, (sum(s.units) * p.price) AS sales

FROM products p LEFT JOIN sales s USING (product_id)
GROUP BY product_id, p.name, p.price;

In this example, the columns product_id, p.name, and p.price must be in the GROUP BY
clause since they are referenced in the query select list (but see below). The column s.units does
not have to be in the GROUP BY list since it is only used in an aggregate expression (sum(...)),
which represents the sales of a product. For each product, the query returns a summary row about all
sales of the product.

If the products table is set up so that, say, product_id is the primary key, then it would be enough to
group by product_id in the above example, since name and price would be functionally dependent
on the product ID, and so there would be no ambiguity about which name and price value to return
for each product ID group.

In strict SQL, GROUP BY can only group by columns of the source table but PostgreSQL extends
this to also allow GROUP BY to group by columns in the select list. Grouping by value expressions
instead of simple column names is also allowed.

If a table has been grouped using GROUP BY, but only certain groups are of interest, the HAVING
clause can be used, much like a WHERE clause, to eliminate groups from the result. The syntax is:

SELECT select_list FROM ... [WHERE ...] GROUP BY ...

HAVING boolean_expression

Expressions in the HAVING clause can refer both to grouped expressions and to ungrouped expressions
(which necessarily involve an aggregate function).

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Example:

=> SELECT x, sum(y) FROM test1 GROUP BY x HAVING sum(y) > 3;

x | sum
---+-----
a | 4
b | 5
(2 rows)

=> SELECT x, sum(y) FROM test1 GROUP BY x HAVING x < 'c';

x | sum
---+-----
a | 4
b | 5
(2 rows)

Again, a more realistic example:

SELECT product_id, p.name, (sum(s.units) * (p.price - p.cost)) AS

profit
FROM products p LEFT JOIN sales s USING (product_id)
WHERE s.date > CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '4 weeks'
GROUP BY product_id, p.name, p.price, p.cost
HAVING sum(p.price * s.units) > 5000;

In the example above, the WHERE clause is selecting rows by a column that is not grouped (the ex-
pression is only true for sales during the last four weeks), while the HAVING clause restricts the output
to groups with total gross sales over 5000. Note that the aggregate expressions do not necessarily need
to be the same in all parts of the query.

If a query contains aggregate function calls, but no GROUP BY clause, grouping still occurs: the result
is a single group row (or perhaps no rows at all, if the single row is then eliminated by HAVING).
The same is true if it contains a HAVING clause, even without any aggregate function calls or GROUP
BY clause.

7.2.4. GROUPING SETS, CUBE, and ROLLUP

More complex grouping operations than those described above are possible using the concept of group-
ing sets. The data selected by the FROM and WHERE clauses is grouped separately by each specified
grouping set, aggregates computed for each group just as for simple GROUP BY clauses, and then
the results returned. For example:

=> SELECT * FROM items_sold;

brand | size | sales
-------+------+-------
Foo | L | 10
Foo | M | 20
Bar | M | 15
Bar | L | 5
(4 rows)

=> SELECT brand, size, sum(sales) FROM items_sold GROUP BY GROUPING

SETS ((brand), (size), ());
brand | size | sum
-------+------+-----

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Foo | | 30
Bar | | 20
| L | 15
| M | 35
| | 50
(5 rows)

Each sublist of GROUPING SETS may specify zero or more columns or expressions and is interpreted
the same way as though it were directly in the GROUP BY clause. An empty grouping set means that
all rows are aggregated down to a single group (which is output even if no input rows were present),
as described above for the case of aggregate functions with no GROUP BY clause.

References to the grouping columns or expressions are replaced by null values in result rows for
grouping sets in which those columns do not appear. To distinguish which grouping a particular output
row resulted from, see Table 9.59.

A shorthand notation is provided for specifying two common types of grouping set. A clause of the
form

ROLLUP ( e1, e2, e3, ... )

represents the given list of expressions and all prefixes of the list including the empty list; thus it is
equivalent to

GROUPING SETS (
( e1, e2, e3, ... ),
...
( e1, e2 ),
( e1 ),
( )
)

This is commonly used for analysis over hierarchical data; e.g. total salary by department, division,
and company-wide total.

A clause of the form

CUBE ( e1, e2, ... )

represents the given list and all of its possible subsets (i.e. the power set). Thus

CUBE ( a, b, c )

is equivalent to

GROUPING SETS (
( a, b, c ),
( a, b ),
( a, c ),
( a ),
( b, c ),
( b ),
( c ),
( )
)

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The individual elements of a CUBE or ROLLUP clause may be either individual expressions, or sublists
of elements in parentheses. In the latter case, the sublists are treated as single units for the purposes
of generating the individual grouping sets. For example:

CUBE ( (a, b), (c, d) )

is equivalent to

GROUPING SETS (
( a, b, c, d ),
( a, b ),
( c, d ),
( )
)

and

ROLLUP ( a, (b, c), d )

is equivalent to

GROUPING SETS (
( a, b, c, d ),
( a, b, c ),
( a ),
( )
)

The CUBE and ROLLUP constructs can be used either directly in the GROUP BY clause, or nested
inside a GROUPING SETS clause. If one GROUPING SETS clause is nested inside another, the
effect is the same as if all the elements of the inner clause had been written directly in the outer clause.

If multiple grouping items are specified in a single GROUP BY clause, then the final list of grouping
sets is the cross product of the individual items. For example:

GROUP BY a, CUBE (b, c), GROUPING SETS ((d), (e))

is equivalent to

GROUP BY GROUPING SETS (

(a, b, c, d), (a, b, c, e),
(a, b, d), (a, b, e),
(a, c, d), (a, c, e),
(a, d), (a, e)
)

Note
The construct (a, b) is normally recognized in expressions as a row constructor.
Within the GROUP BY clause, this does not apply at the top levels of expressions, and
(a, b) is parsed as a list of expressions as described above. If for some reason you
need a row constructor in a grouping expression, use ROW(a, b).

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7.2.5. Window Function Processing

If the query contains any window functions (see Section 3.5, Section 9.21 and Section 4.2.8), these
functions are evaluated after any grouping, aggregation, and HAVING filtering is performed. That is, if
the query uses any aggregates, GROUP BY, or HAVING, then the rows seen by the window functions
are the group rows instead of the original table rows from FROM/WHERE.

When multiple window functions are used, all the window functions having syntactically equivalent
PARTITION BY and ORDER BY clauses in their window definitions are guaranteed to be evaluated
in a single pass over the data. Therefore they will see the same sort ordering, even if the ORDER BY
does not uniquely determine an ordering. However, no guarantees are made about the evaluation of
functions having different PARTITION BY or ORDER BY specifications. (In such cases a sort step is
typically required between the passes of window function evaluations, and the sort is not guaranteed
to preserve ordering of rows that its ORDER BY sees as equivalent.)

Currently, window functions always require presorted data, and so the query output will be ordered
according to one or another of the window functions' PARTITION BY/ORDER BY clauses. It is not
recommended to rely on this, however. Use an explicit top-level ORDER BY clause if you want to be
sure the results are sorted in a particular way.

7.3. Select Lists

As shown in the previous section, the table expression in the SELECT command constructs an inter-
mediate virtual table by possibly combining tables, views, eliminating rows, grouping, etc. This table
is finally passed on to processing by the select list. The select list determines which columns of the
intermediate table are actually output.

7.3.1. Select-List Items

The simplest kind of select list is * which emits all columns that the table expression produces. Oth-
erwise, a select list is a comma-separated list of value expressions (as defined in Section 4.2). For
instance, it could be a list of column names:

SELECT a, b, c FROM ...

The columns names a, b, and c are either the actual names of the columns of tables referenced in the
FROM clause, or the aliases given to them as explained in Section 7.2.1.2. The name space available
in the select list is the same as in the WHERE clause, unless grouping is used, in which case it is the
same as in the HAVING clause.

If more than one table has a column of the same name, the table name must also be given, as in:

SELECT tbl1.a, tbl2.a, tbl1.b FROM ...

When working with multiple tables, it can also be useful to ask for all the columns of a particular table:

SELECT tbl1.*, tbl2.a FROM ...

See Section 8.16.5 for more about the table_name.* notation.

If an arbitrary value expression is used in the select list, it conceptually adds a new virtual column to
the returned table. The value expression is evaluated once for each result row, with the row's values
substituted for any column references. But the expressions in the select list do not have to reference
any columns in the table expression of the FROM clause; they can be constant arithmetic expressions,
for instance.

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7.3.2. Column Labels

The entries in the select list can be assigned names for subsequent processing, such as for use in an
ORDER BY clause or for display by the client application. For example:

SELECT a AS value, b + c AS sum FROM ...

If no output column name is specified using AS, the system assigns a default column name. For simple
column references, this is the name of the referenced column. For function calls, this is the name of
the function. For complex expressions, the system will generate a generic name.

The AS keyword is optional, but only if the new column name does not match any PostgreSQL key-
word (see Appendix C). To avoid an accidental match to a keyword, you can double-quote the column
name. For example, VALUE is a keyword, so this does not work:

SELECT a value, b + c AS sum FROM ...

but this does:

SELECT a "value", b + c AS sum FROM ...

For protection against possible future keyword additions, it is recommended that you always either
write AS or double-quote the output column name.

Note
The naming of output columns here is different from that done in the FROM clause (see
Section 7.2.1.2). It is possible to rename the same column twice, but the name assigned
in the select list is the one that will be passed on.

7.3.3. DISTINCT
After the select list has been processed, the result table can optionally be subject to the elimination of
duplicate rows. The DISTINCT key word is written directly after SELECT to specify this:

SELECT DISTINCT select_list ...

(Instead of DISTINCT the key word ALL can be used to specify the default behavior of retaining
all rows.)

Obviously, two rows are considered distinct if they differ in at least one column value. Null values
are considered equal in this comparison.

Alternatively, an arbitrary expression can determine what rows are to be considered distinct:

SELECT DISTINCT ON (expression [, expression ...]) select_list ...

Here expression is an arbitrary value expression that is evaluated for all rows. A set of rows for
which all the expressions are equal are considered duplicates, and only the first row of the set is kept
in the output. Note that the “first row” of a set is unpredictable unless the query is sorted on enough
columns to guarantee a unique ordering of the rows arriving at the DISTINCT filter. (DISTINCT
ON processing occurs after ORDER BY sorting.)

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The DISTINCT ON clause is not part of the SQL standard and is sometimes considered bad style
because of the potentially indeterminate nature of its results. With judicious use of GROUP BY and
subqueries in FROM, this construct can be avoided, but it is often the most convenient alternative.

7.4. Combining Queries

The results of two queries can be combined using the set operations union, intersection, and difference.
The syntax is

query1 UNION [ALL] query2

query1 INTERSECT [ALL] query2
query1 EXCEPT [ALL] query2

query1 and query2 are queries that can use any of the features discussed up to this point. Set
operations can also be nested and chained, for example

query1 UNION query2 UNION query3

which is executed as:

(query1 UNION query2) UNION query3

UNION effectively appends the result of query2 to the result of query1 (although there is no guar-
antee that this is the order in which the rows are actually returned). Furthermore, it eliminates duplicate
rows from its result, in the same way as DISTINCT, unless UNION ALL is used.

INTERSECT returns all rows that are both in the result of query1 and in the result of query2.
Duplicate rows are eliminated unless INTERSECT ALL is used.

EXCEPT returns all rows that are in the result of query1 but not in the result of query2. (This is
sometimes called the difference between two queries.) Again, duplicates are eliminated unless EX-
CEPT ALL is used.

In order to calculate the union, intersection, or difference of two queries, the two queries must be
“union compatible”, which means that they return the same number of columns and the corresponding
columns have compatible data types, as described in Section 10.5.

7.5. Sorting Rows

After a query has produced an output table (after the select list has been processed) it can optionally
be sorted. If sorting is not chosen, the rows will be returned in an unspecified order. The actual order
in that case will depend on the scan and join plan types and the order on disk, but it must not be relied
on. A particular output ordering can only be guaranteed if the sort step is explicitly chosen.

The ORDER BY clause specifies the sort order:

SELECT select_list
FROM table_expression
ORDER BY sort_expression1 [ASC | DESC] [NULLS { FIRST | LAST }]
[, sort_expression2 [ASC | DESC] [NULLS { FIRST |
LAST }] ...]

The sort expression(s) can be any expression that would be valid in the query's select list. An example
is:

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 Queries

SELECT a, b FROM table1 ORDER BY a + b, c;

When more than one expression is specified, the later values are used to sort rows that are equal
according to the earlier values. Each expression can be followed by an optional ASC or DESC keyword
to set the sort direction to ascending or descending. ASC order is the default. Ascending order puts
smaller values first, where “smaller” is defined in terms of the < operator. Similarly, descending order
is determined with the > operator. 1

The NULLS FIRST and NULLS LAST options can be used to determine whether nulls appear before
or after non-null values in the sort ordering. By default, null values sort as if larger than any non-null
value; that is, NULLS FIRST is the default for DESC order, and NULLS LAST otherwise.

Note that the ordering options are considered independently for each sort column. For example ORDER
BY x, y DESC means ORDER BY x ASC, y DESC, which is not the same as ORDER BY
x DESC, y DESC.

A sort_expression can also be the column label or number of an output column, as in:

SELECT a + b AS sum, c FROM table1 ORDER BY sum;

SELECT a, max(b) FROM table1 GROUP BY a ORDER BY 1;

both of which sort by the first output column. Note that an output column name has to stand alone,
that is, it cannot be used in an expression — for example, this is not correct:

SELECT a + b AS sum, c FROM table1 ORDER BY sum + c; --

wrong

This restriction is made to reduce ambiguity. There is still ambiguity if an ORDER BY item is a simple
name that could match either an output column name or a column from the table expression. The
output column is used in such cases. This would only cause confusion if you use AS to rename an
output column to match some other table column's name.

ORDER BY can be applied to the result of a UNION, INTERSECT, or EXCEPT combination, but in
this case it is only permitted to sort by output column names or numbers, not by expressions.

7.6. LIMIT and OFFSET

LIMIT and OFFSET allow you to retrieve just a portion of the rows that are generated by the rest
of the query:

SELECT select_list
FROM table_expression
[ ORDER BY ... ]
[ LIMIT { number | ALL } ] [ OFFSET number ]

If a limit count is given, no more than that many rows will be returned (but possibly fewer, if the
query itself yields fewer rows). LIMIT ALL is the same as omitting the LIMIT clause, as is LIMIT
with a NULL argument.

OFFSET says to skip that many rows before beginning to return rows. OFFSET 0 is the same as
omitting the OFFSET clause, as is OFFSET with a NULL argument.

If both OFFSET and LIMIT appear, then OFFSET rows are skipped before starting to count the
LIMIT rows that are returned.
1
Actually, PostgreSQL uses the default B-tree operator class for the expression's data type to determine the sort ordering for ASC and DESC.
Conventionally, data types will be set up so that the < and > operators correspond to this sort ordering, but a user-defined data type's designer
could choose to do something different.

129
 Queries

When using LIMIT, it is important to use an ORDER BY clause that constrains the result rows into a
unique order. Otherwise you will get an unpredictable subset of the query's rows. You might be asking
for the tenth through twentieth rows, but tenth through twentieth in what ordering? The ordering is
unknown, unless you specified ORDER BY.

The query optimizer takes LIMIT into account when generating query plans, so you are very likely
to get different plans (yielding different row orders) depending on what you give for LIMIT and
OFFSET. Thus, using different LIMIT/OFFSET values to select different subsets of a query result
will give inconsistent results unless you enforce a predictable result ordering with ORDER BY. This
is not a bug; it is an inherent consequence of the fact that SQL does not promise to deliver the results
of a query in any particular order unless ORDER BY is used to constrain the order.

The rows skipped by an OFFSET clause still have to be computed inside the server; therefore a large
OFFSET might be inefficient.

7.7. VALUES Lists

VALUES provides a way to generate a “constant table” that can be used in a query without having to
actually create and populate a table on-disk. The syntax is

VALUES ( expression [, ...] ) [, ...]

Each parenthesized list of expressions generates a row in the table. The lists must all have the same
number of elements (i.e., the number of columns in the table), and corresponding entries in each
list must have compatible data types. The actual data type assigned to each column of the result is
determined using the same rules as for UNION (see Section 10.5).

As an example:

VALUES (1, 'one'), (2, 'two'), (3, 'three');

will return a table of two columns and three rows. It's effectively equivalent to:

SELECT 1 AS column1, 'one' AS column2

UNION ALL
SELECT 2, 'two'
UNION ALL
SELECT 3, 'three';

By default, PostgreSQL assigns the names column1, column2, etc. to the columns of a VALUES
table. The column names are not specified by the SQL standard and different database systems do it
differently, so it's usually better to override the default names with a table alias list, like this:

=> SELECT * FROM (VALUES (1, 'one'), (2, 'two'), (3, 'three')) AS t
(num,letter);
num | letter
-----+--------
1 | one
2 | two
3 | three
(3 rows)

Syntactically, VALUES followed by expression lists is treated as equivalent to:

130
 Queries

SELECT select_list FROM table_expression

and can appear anywhere a SELECT can. For example, you can use it as part of a UNION, or attach a
sort_specification (ORDER BY, LIMIT, and/or OFFSET) to it. VALUES is most commonly
used as the data source in an INSERT command, and next most commonly as a subquery.

For more information see VALUES.

7.8. WITH Queries (Common Table Expres-

sions)
WITH provides a way to write auxiliary statements for use in a larger query. These statements, which
are often referred to as Common Table Expressions or CTEs, can be thought of as defining temporary
tables that exist just for one query. Each auxiliary statement in a WITH clause can be a SELECT,
INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE; and the WITH clause itself is attached to a primary statement that
can also be a SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE.

7.8.1. SELECT in WITH

The basic value of SELECT in WITH is to break down complicated queries into simpler parts. An
example is:

WITH regional_sales AS (
SELECT region, SUM(amount) AS total_sales
FROM orders
GROUP BY region
), top_regions AS (
SELECT region
FROM regional_sales
WHERE total_sales > (SELECT SUM(total_sales)/10 FROM
regional_sales)
)
SELECT region,
product,
SUM(quantity) AS product_units,
SUM(amount) AS product_sales
FROM orders
WHERE region IN (SELECT region FROM top_regions)
GROUP BY region, product;

which displays per-product sales totals in only the top sales regions. The WITH clause defines two
auxiliary statements named regional_sales and top_regions, where the output of region-
al_sales is used in top_regions and the output of top_regions is used in the primary
SELECT query. This example could have been written without WITH, but we'd have needed two levels
of nested sub-SELECTs. It's a bit easier to follow this way.

The optional RECURSIVE modifier changes WITH from a mere syntactic convenience into a feature
that accomplishes things not otherwise possible in standard SQL. Using RECURSIVE, a WITH query
can refer to its own output. A very simple example is this query to sum the integers from 1 through 100:

WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS (

VALUES (1)
UNION ALL
SELECT n+1 FROM t WHERE n < 100
)

131
 Queries

SELECT sum(n) FROM t;

The general form of a recursive WITH query is always a non-recursive term, then UNION (or UNION
ALL), then a recursive term, where only the recursive term can contain a reference to the query's own
output. Such a query is executed as follows:

Recursive Query Evaluation

1. Evaluate the non-recursive term. For UNION (but not UNION ALL), discard duplicate rows.
Include all remaining rows in the result of the recursive query, and also place them in a temporary
working table.

2. So long as the working table is not empty, repeat these steps:

a. Evaluate the recursive term, substituting the current contents of the working table for the
recursive self-reference. For UNION (but not UNION ALL), discard duplicate rows and
rows that duplicate any previous result row. Include all remaining rows in the result of the
recursive query, and also place them in a temporary intermediate table.

b. Replace the contents of the working table with the contents of the intermediate table, then
empty the intermediate table.

Note
Strictly speaking, this process is iteration not recursion, but RECURSIVE is the termi-
nology chosen by the SQL standards committee.

In the example above, the working table has just a single row in each step, and it takes on the values
from 1 through 100 in successive steps. In the 100th step, there is no output because of the WHERE
clause, and so the query terminates.

Recursive queries are typically used to deal with hierarchical or tree-structured data. A useful example
is this query to find all the direct and indirect sub-parts of a product, given only a table that shows
immediate inclusions:

WITH RECURSIVE included_parts(sub_part, part, quantity) AS (

SELECT sub_part, part, quantity FROM parts WHERE part =
'our_product'
UNION ALL
SELECT p.sub_part, p.part, p.quantity
FROM included_parts pr, parts p
WHERE p.part = pr.sub_part
)
SELECT sub_part, SUM(quantity) as total_quantity
FROM included_parts
GROUP BY sub_part

When working with recursive queries it is important to be sure that the recursive part of the query will
eventually return no tuples, or else the query will loop indefinitely. Sometimes, using UNION instead
of UNION ALL can accomplish this by discarding rows that duplicate previous output rows. However,
often a cycle does not involve output rows that are completely duplicate: it may be necessary to check
just one or a few fields to see if the same point has been reached before. The standard method for
handling such situations is to compute an array of the already-visited values. For example, consider
the following query that searches a table graph using a link field:

WITH RECURSIVE search_graph(id, link, data, depth) AS (

132
 Queries

SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, 1

FROM graph g
UNION ALL
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, sg.depth + 1
FROM graph g, search_graph sg
WHERE g.id = sg.link
)
SELECT * FROM search_graph;

This query will loop if the link relationships contain cycles. Because we require a “depth” output,
just changing UNION ALL to UNION would not eliminate the looping. Instead we need to recognize
whether we have reached the same row again while following a particular path of links. We add two
columns path and cycle to the loop-prone query:

WITH RECURSIVE search_graph(id, link, data, depth, path, cycle) AS

(
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, 1,
ARRAY[g.id],
false
FROM graph g
UNION ALL
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, sg.depth + 1,
path || g.id,
g.id = ANY(path)
FROM graph g, search_graph sg
WHERE g.id = sg.link AND NOT cycle
)
SELECT * FROM search_graph;

Aside from preventing cycles, the array value is often useful in its own right as representing the “path”
taken to reach any particular row.

In the general case where more than one field needs to be checked to recognize a cycle, use an array
of rows. For example, if we needed to compare fields f1 and f2:

WITH RECURSIVE search_graph(id, link, data, depth, path, cycle) AS

(
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, 1,
ARRAY[ROW(g.f1, g.f2)],
false
FROM graph g
UNION ALL
SELECT g.id, g.link, g.data, sg.depth + 1,
path || ROW(g.f1, g.f2),
ROW(g.f1, g.f2) = ANY(path)
FROM graph g, search_graph sg
WHERE g.id = sg.link AND NOT cycle
)
SELECT * FROM search_graph;

Tip
Omit the ROW() syntax in the common case where only one field needs to be checked
to recognize a cycle. This allows a simple array rather than a composite-type array to
be used, gaining efficiency.

133
 Queries

Tip
The recursive query evaluation algorithm produces its output in breadth-first search
order. You can display the results in depth-first search order by making the outer query
ORDER BY a “path” column constructed in this way.

A helpful trick for testing queries when you are not certain if they might loop is to place a LIMIT in
the parent query. For example, this query would loop forever without the LIMIT:

WITH RECURSIVE t(n) AS (

SELECT 1
UNION ALL
SELECT n+1 FROM t
)
SELECT n FROM t LIMIT 100;

This works because PostgreSQL's implementation evaluates only as many rows of a WITH query as
are actually fetched by the parent query. Using this trick in production is not recommended, because
other systems might work differently. Also, it usually won't work if you make the outer query sort the
recursive query's results or join them to some other table, because in such cases the outer query will
usually try to fetch all of the WITH query's output anyway.

A useful property of WITH queries is that they are normally evaluated only once per execution of the
parent query, even if they are referred to more than once by the parent query or sibling WITH queries.
Thus, expensive calculations that are needed in multiple places can be placed within a WITH query
to avoid redundant work. Another possible application is to prevent unwanted multiple evaluations
of functions with side-effects. However, the other side of this coin is that the optimizer is not able to
push restrictions from the parent query down into a multiply-referenced WITH query, since that might
affect all uses of the WITH query's output when it should affect only one. The multiply-referenced
WITH query will be evaluated as written, without suppression of rows that the parent query might
discard afterwards. (But, as mentioned above, evaluation might stop early if the reference(s) to the
query demand only a limited number of rows.)

However, if a WITH query is non-recursive and side-effect-free (that is, it is a SELECT contain-
ing no volatile functions) then it can be folded into the parent query, allowing joint optimization of
the two query levels. By default, this happens if the parent query references the WITH query just
once, but not if it references the WITH query more than once. You can override that decision by
specifying MATERIALIZED to force separate calculation of the WITH query, or by specifying NOT
MATERIALIZED to force it to be merged into the parent query. The latter choice risks duplicate com-
putation of the WITH query, but it can still give a net savings if each usage of the WITH query needs
only a small part of the WITH query's full output.

A simple example of these rules is

WITH w AS (
SELECT * FROM big_table
)
SELECT * FROM w WHERE key = 123;

This WITH query will be folded, producing the same execution plan as

SELECT * FROM big_table WHERE key = 123;

In particular, if there's an index on key, it will probably be used to fetch just the rows having key
= 123. On the other hand, in

134
 Queries

WITH w AS (
SELECT * FROM big_table
)
SELECT * FROM w AS w1 JOIN w AS w2 ON w1.key = w2.ref
WHERE w2.key = 123;

the WITH query will be materialized, producing a temporary copy of big_table that is then joined
with itself — without benefit of any index. This query will be executed much more efficiently if
written as

WITH w AS NOT MATERIALIZED (

SELECT * FROM big_table
)
SELECT * FROM w AS w1 JOIN w AS w2 ON w1.key = w2.ref
WHERE w2.key = 123;

so that the parent query's restrictions can be applied directly to scans of big_table.

An example where NOT MATERIALIZED could be undesirable is

WITH w AS (
SELECT key, very_expensive_function(val) as f FROM some_table
)
SELECT * FROM w AS w1 JOIN w AS w2 ON w1.f = w2.f;

Here, materialization of the WITH query ensures that very_expensive_function is evaluated

only once per table row, not twice.

The examples above only show WITH being used with SELECT, but it can be attached in the same
way to INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE. In each case it effectively provides temporary table(s) that
can be referred to in the main command.

7.8.2. Data-Modifying Statements in WITH

You can use data-modifying statements (INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE) in WITH. This allows you
to perform several different operations in the same query. An example is:

WITH moved_rows AS (
DELETE FROM products
WHERE
"date" >= '2010-10-01' AND
"date" < '2010-11-01'
RETURNING *
)
INSERT INTO products_log
SELECT * FROM moved_rows;

This query effectively moves rows from products to products_log. The DELETE in WITH
deletes the specified rows from products, returning their contents by means of its RETURNING
clause; and then the primary query reads that output and inserts it into products_log.

A fine point of the above example is that the WITH clause is attached to the INSERT, not the sub-
SELECT within the INSERT. This is necessary because data-modifying statements are only allowed
in WITH clauses that are attached to the top-level statement. However, normal WITH visibility rules
apply, so it is possible to refer to the WITH statement's output from the sub-SELECT.

135
 Queries

Data-modifying statements in WITH usually have RETURNING clauses (see Section 6.4), as shown
in the example above. It is the output of the RETURNING clause, not the target table of the data-mod-
ifying statement, that forms the temporary table that can be referred to by the rest of the query. If a
data-modifying statement in WITH lacks a RETURNING clause, then it forms no temporary table and
cannot be referred to in the rest of the query. Such a statement will be executed nonetheless. A not-
particularly-useful example is:

WITH t AS (
DELETE FROM foo
)
DELETE FROM bar;

This example would remove all rows from tables foo and bar. The number of affected rows reported
to the client would only include rows removed from bar.

Recursive self-references in data-modifying statements are not allowed. In some cases it is possible
to work around this limitation by referring to the output of a recursive WITH, for example:

WITH RECURSIVE included_parts(sub_part, part) AS (

SELECT sub_part, part FROM parts WHERE part = 'our_product'
UNION ALL
SELECT p.sub_part, p.part
FROM included_parts pr, parts p
WHERE p.part = pr.sub_part
)
DELETE FROM parts
WHERE part IN (SELECT part FROM included_parts);

This query would remove all direct and indirect subparts of a product.

Data-modifying statements in WITH are executed exactly once, and always to completion, indepen-
dently of whether the primary query reads all (or indeed any) of their output. Notice that this is differ-
ent from the rule for SELECT in WITH: as stated in the previous section, execution of a SELECT is
carried only as far as the primary query demands its output.

The sub-statements in WITH are executed concurrently with each other and with the main query.
Therefore, when using data-modifying statements in WITH, the order in which the specified updates
actually happen is unpredictable. All the statements are executed with the same snapshot (see Chap-
ter 13), so they cannot “see” one another's effects on the target tables. This alleviates the effects of the
unpredictability of the actual order of row updates, and means that RETURNING data is the only way
to communicate changes between different WITH sub-statements and the main query. An example of
this is that in

WITH t AS (
UPDATE products SET price = price * 1.05
RETURNING *
)
SELECT * FROM products;

the outer SELECT would return the original prices before the action of the UPDATE, while in

WITH t AS (
UPDATE products SET price = price * 1.05
RETURNING *
)
SELECT * FROM t;

136
 Queries

the outer SELECT would return the updated data.

Trying to update the same row twice in a single statement is not supported. Only one of the modifica-
tions takes place, but it is not easy (and sometimes not possible) to reliably predict which one. This also
applies to deleting a row that was already updated in the same statement: only the update is performed.
Therefore you should generally avoid trying to modify a single row twice in a single statement. In
particular avoid writing WITH sub-statements that could affect the same rows changed by the main
statement or a sibling sub-statement. The effects of such a statement will not be predictable.

At present, any table used as the target of a data-modifying statement in WITH must not have a con-
ditional rule, nor an ALSO rule, nor an INSTEAD rule that expands to multiple statements.

137
Chapter 8. Data Types
PostgreSQL has a rich set of native data types available to users. Users can add new types to Post-
greSQL using the CREATE TYPE command.

Table 8.1 shows all the built-in general-purpose data types. Most of the alternative names listed in
the “Aliases” column are the names used internally by PostgreSQL for historical reasons. In addition,
some internally used or deprecated types are available, but are not listed here.

Table 8.1. Data Types

Name Aliases Description
bigint int8 signed eight-byte integer
bigserial serial8 autoincrementing eight-byte in-
teger
bit [ (n) ] fixed-length bit string
bit varying [ (n) ] varbit [ (n) ] variable-length bit string
boolean bool logical Boolean (true/false)
box rectangular box on a plane
bytea binary data (“byte array”)
character [ (n) ] char [ (n) ] fixed-length character string
character varying varchar [ (n) ] variable-length character string
[ (n) ]
cidr IPv4 or IPv6 network address
circle circle on a plane
date calendar date (year, month, day)
double precision float8 double precision floating-point
number (8 bytes)
inet IPv4 or IPv6 host address
integer int, int4 signed four-byte integer
interval [ fields ] time span
[ (p) ]
json textual JSON data
jsonb binary JSON data, decomposed
line infinite line on a plane
lseg line segment on a plane
macaddr MAC (Media Access Control)
address
macaddr8 MAC (Media Access Control)
address (EUI-64 format)
money currency amount
numeric [ (p, s) ] decimal [ (p, s) ] exact numeric of selectable pre-
cision
path geometric path on a plane
pg_lsn PostgreSQL Log Sequence
Number
point geometric point on a plane

138
 Data Types

Name Aliases Description

polygon closed geometric path on a plane
real float4 single precision floating-point
number (4 bytes)
smallint int2 signed two-byte integer
smallserial serial2 autoincrementing two-byte inte-
ger
serial serial4 autoincrementing four-byte inte-
ger
text variable-length character string
time [ (p) ] [ without time of day (no time zone)
time zone ]
time [ (p) ] with time timetz time of day, including time zone
zone
timestamp [ (p) ] date and time (no time zone)
[ without time zone ]
timestamp [ (p) ] with timestamptz date and time, including time
time zone zone
tsquery text search query
tsvector text search document
txid_snapshot user-level transaction ID snap-
shot
uuid universally unique identifier
xml XML data

Compatibility
The following types (or spellings thereof) are specified by SQL: bigint, bit, bit
varying, boolean, char, character varying, character, varchar,
date, double precision, integer, interval, numeric, decimal, re-
al, smallint, time (with or without time zone), timestamp (with or without
time zone), xml.

Each data type has an external representation determined by its input and output functions. Many of the
built-in types have obvious external formats. However, several types are either unique to PostgreSQL,
such as geometric paths, or have several possible formats, such as the date and time types. Some of the
input and output functions are not invertible, i.e., the result of an output function might lose accuracy
when compared to the original input.

8.1. Numeric Types

Numeric types consist of two-, four-, and eight-byte integers, four- and eight-byte floating-point num-
bers, and selectable-precision decimals. Table 8.2 lists the available types.

Table 8.2. Numeric Types

Name Storage Size Description Range
smallint 2 bytes small-range integer -32768 to +32767

139
 Data Types

Name Storage Size Description Range

integer 4 bytes typical choice for inte- -2147483648 to
ger +2147483647
bigint 8 bytes large-range integer -9223372036854775808
to
+9223372036854775807
decimal variable user-specified preci- up to 131072 digits be-
sion, exact fore the decimal point;
up to 16383 digits after
the decimal point
numeric variable user-specified preci- up to 131072 digits be-
sion, exact fore the decimal point;
up to 16383 digits after
the decimal point
real 4 bytes variable-precision, in- 6 decimal digits preci-
exact sion
double precision 8 bytes variable-precision, in- 15 decimal digits preci-
exact sion
smallserial 2 bytes small autoincrementing 1 to 32767
integer
serial 4 bytes autoincrementing inte- 1 to 2147483647
ger
bigserial 8 bytes large autoincrementing 1 to
integer 9223372036854775807

The syntax of constants for the numeric types is described in Section 4.1.2. The numeric types have a
full set of corresponding arithmetic operators and functions. Refer to Chapter 9 for more information.
The following sections describe the types in detail.

8.1.1. Integer Types

The types smallint, integer, and bigint store whole numbers, that is, numbers without frac-
tional components, of various ranges. Attempts to store values outside of the allowed range will result
in an error.

The type integer is the common choice, as it offers the best balance between range, storage size, and
performance. The smallint type is generally only used if disk space is at a premium. The bigint
type is designed to be used when the range of the integer type is insufficient.

SQL only specifies the integer types integer (or int), smallint, and bigint. The type names
int2, int4, and int8 are extensions, which are also used by some other SQL database systems.

8.1.2. Arbitrary Precision Numbers

The type numeric can store numbers with a very large number of digits. It is especially recommend-
ed for storing monetary amounts and other quantities where exactness is required. Calculations with
numeric values yield exact results where possible, e.g. addition, subtraction, multiplication. How-
ever, calculations on numeric values are very slow compared to the integer types, or to the float-
ing-point types described in the next section.

We use the following terms below: The precision of a numeric is the total count of significant digits
in the whole number, that is, the number of digits to both sides of the decimal point. The scale of a
numeric is the count of decimal digits in the fractional part, to the right of the decimal point. So the
number 23.5141 has a precision of 6 and a scale of 4. Integers can be considered to have a scale of zero.

140
 Data Types

Both the maximum precision and the maximum scale of a numeric column can be configured. To
declare a column of type numeric use the syntax:

NUMERIC(precision, scale)

The precision must be positive, the scale zero or positive. Alternatively:

NUMERIC(precision)

selects a scale of 0. Specifying:

NUMERIC

without any precision or scale creates a column in which numeric values of any precision and scale
can be stored, up to the implementation limit on precision. A column of this kind will not coerce input
values to any particular scale, whereas numeric columns with a declared scale will coerce input
values to that scale. (The SQL standard requires a default scale of 0, i.e., coercion to integer precision.
We find this a bit useless. If you're concerned about portability, always specify the precision and scale
explicitly.)

Note
The maximum allowed precision when explicitly specified in the type declaration is
1000; NUMERIC without a specified precision is subject to the limits described in
Table 8.2.

If the scale of a value to be stored is greater than the declared scale of the column, the system will
round the value to the specified number of fractional digits. Then, if the number of digits to the left of
the decimal point exceeds the declared precision minus the declared scale, an error is raised.

Numeric values are physically stored without any extra leading or trailing zeroes. Thus, the declared
precision and scale of a column are maximums, not fixed allocations. (In this sense the numeric
type is more akin to varchar(n) than to char(n).) The actual storage requirement is two bytes
for each group of four decimal digits, plus three to eight bytes overhead.

In addition to ordinary numeric values, the numeric type allows the special value NaN, meaning
“not-a-number”. Any operation on NaN yields another NaN. When writing this value as a constant in
an SQL command, you must put quotes around it, for example UPDATE table SET x = 'NaN'.
On input, the string NaN is recognized in a case-insensitive manner.

Note
In most implementations of the “not-a-number” concept, NaN is not considered equal
to any other numeric value (including NaN). In order to allow numeric values to
be sorted and used in tree-based indexes, PostgreSQL treats NaN values as equal, and
greater than all non-NaN values.

The types decimal and numeric are equivalent. Both types are part of the SQL standard.

When rounding values, the numeric type rounds ties away from zero, while (on most machines) the
real and double precision types round ties to the nearest even number. For example:

141
 Data Types

SELECT x,
round(x::numeric) AS num_round,
round(x::double precision) AS dbl_round
FROM generate_series(-3.5, 3.5, 1) as x;
x | num_round | dbl_round
------+-----------+-----------
-3.5 | -4 | -4
-2.5 | -3 | -2
-1.5 | -2 | -2
-0.5 | -1 | -0
0.5 | 1 | 0
1.5 | 2 | 2
2.5 | 3 | 2
3.5 | 4 | 4
(8 rows)

8.1.3. Floating-Point Types

The data types real and double precision are inexact, variable-precision numeric types. On
all currently supported platforms, these types are implementations of IEEE Standard 754 for Binary
Floating-Point Arithmetic (single and double precision, respectively), to the extent that the underlying
processor, operating system, and compiler support it.

Inexact means that some values cannot be converted exactly to the internal format and are stored as
approximations, so that storing and retrieving a value might show slight discrepancies. Managing these
errors and how they propagate through calculations is the subject of an entire branch of mathematics
and computer science and will not be discussed here, except for the following points:

• If you require exact storage and calculations (such as for monetary amounts), use the numeric
type instead.

• If you want to do complicated calculations with these types for anything important, especially if
you rely on certain behavior in boundary cases (infinity, underflow), you should evaluate the im-
plementation carefully.

• Comparing two floating-point values for equality might not always work as expected.

On all currently supported platforms, the real type has a range of around 1E-37 to 1E+37 with a
precision of at least 6 decimal digits. The double precision type has a range of around 1E-307
to 1E+308 with a precision of at least 15 digits. Values that are too large or too small will cause an
error. Rounding might take place if the precision of an input number is too high. Numbers too close
to zero that are not representable as distinct from zero will cause an underflow error.

By default, floating point values are output in text form in their shortest precise decimal representa-
tion; the decimal value produced is closer to the true stored binary value than to any other value rep-
resentable in the same binary precision. (However, the output value is currently never exactly midway
between two representable values, in order to avoid a widespread bug where input routines do not
properly respect the round-to-even rule.) This value will use at most 17 significant decimal digits for
float8 values, and at most 9 digits for float4 values.

Note
This shortest-precise output format is much faster to generate than the historical round-
ed format.

For compatibility with output generated by older versions of PostgreSQL, and to allow the output
precision to be reduced, the extra_float_digits parameter can be used to select rounded decimal output

142
 Data Types

instead. Setting a value of 0 restores the previous default of rounding the value to 6 (for float4)
or 15 (for float8) significant decimal digits. Setting a negative value reduces the number of digits
further; for example -2 would round output to 4 or 13 digits respectively.

Any value of extra_float_digits greater than 0 selects the shortest-precise format.

Note
Applications that wanted precise values have historically had to set extra_float_digits
to 3 to obtain them. For maximum compatibility between versions, they should con-
tinue to do so.

In addition to ordinary numeric values, the floating-point types have several special values:

Infinity
-Infinity
NaN

These represent the IEEE 754 special values “infinity”, “negative infinity”, and “not-a-number”, re-
spectively. When writing these values as constants in an SQL command, you must put quotes around
them, for example UPDATE table SET x = '-Infinity'. On input, these strings are recog-
nized in a case-insensitive manner.

Note
IEEE754 specifies that NaN should not compare equal to any other floating-point value
(including NaN). In order to allow floating-point values to be sorted and used in tree-
based indexes, PostgreSQL treats NaN values as equal, and greater than all non-NaN
values.

PostgreSQL also supports the SQL-standard notations float and float(p) for specifying inexact
numeric types. Here, p specifies the minimum acceptable precision in binary digits. PostgreSQL ac-
cepts float(1) to float(24) as selecting the real type, while float(25) to float(53)
select double precision. Values of p outside the allowed range draw an error. float with no
precision specified is taken to mean double precision.

8.1.4. Serial Types

Note
This section describes a PostgreSQL-specific way to create an autoincrementing col-
umn. Another way is to use the SQL-standard identity column feature, described at
CREATE TABLE.

The data types smallserial, serial and bigserial are not true types, but merely a notation-
al convenience for creating unique identifier columns (similar to the AUTO_INCREMENT property
supported by some other databases). In the current implementation, specifying:

CREATE TABLE tablename (

colname SERIAL
);

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 Data Types

is equivalent to specifying:

CREATE SEQUENCE tablename_colname_seq AS integer;

CREATE TABLE tablename (
colname integer NOT NULL DEFAULT
nextval('tablename_colname_seq')
);
ALTER SEQUENCE tablename_colname_seq OWNED BY tablename.colname;

Thus, we have created an integer column and arranged for its default values to be assigned from a
sequence generator. A NOT NULL constraint is applied to ensure that a null value cannot be inserted.
(In most cases you would also want to attach a UNIQUE or PRIMARY KEY constraint to prevent
duplicate values from being inserted by accident, but this is not automatic.) Lastly, the sequence is
marked as “owned by” the column, so that it will be dropped if the column or table is dropped.

Note
Because smallserial, serial and bigserial are implemented using se-
quences, there may be "holes" or gaps in the sequence of values which appears in the
column, even if no rows are ever deleted. A value allocated from the sequence is still
"used up" even if a row containing that value is never successfully inserted into the
table column. This may happen, for example, if the inserting transaction rolls back.
See nextval() in Section 9.16 for details.

To insert the next value of the sequence into the serial column, specify that the serial column
should be assigned its default value. This can be done either by excluding the column from the list of
columns in the INSERT statement, or through the use of the DEFAULT key word.

The type names serial and serial4 are equivalent: both create integer columns. The type
names bigserial and serial8 work the same way, except that they create a bigint column.
bigserial should be used if you anticipate the use of more than 231 identifiers over the lifetime of
the table. The type names smallserial and serial2 also work the same way, except that they
create a smallint column.

The sequence created for a serial column is automatically dropped when the owning column is
dropped. You can drop the sequence without dropping the column, but this will force removal of the
column default expression.

8.2. Monetary Types

The money type stores a currency amount with a fixed fractional precision; see Table 8.3. The frac-
tional precision is determined by the database's lc_monetary setting. The range shown in the table
assumes there are two fractional digits. Input is accepted in a variety of formats, including integer
and floating-point literals, as well as typical currency formatting, such as '$1,000.00'. Output is
generally in the latter form but depends on the locale.

Table 8.3. Monetary Types

Name Storage Size Description Range
money 8 bytes currency amount -92233720368547758.08
to
+92233720368547758.07

Since the output of this data type is locale-sensitive, it might not work to load money data into a
database that has a different setting of lc_monetary. To avoid problems, before restoring a dump

144
 Data Types

into a new database make sure lc_monetary has the same or equivalent value as in the database
that was dumped.

Values of the numeric, int, and bigint data types can be cast to money. Conversion from the
real and double precision data types can be done by casting to numeric first, for example:

SELECT '12.34'::float8::numeric::money;

However, this is not recommended. Floating point numbers should not be used to handle money due
to the potential for rounding errors.

A money value can be cast to numeric without loss of precision. Conversion to other types could
potentially lose precision, and must also be done in two stages:

SELECT '52093.89'::money::numeric::float8;

Division of a money value by an integer value is performed with truncation of the fractional part
towards zero. To get a rounded result, divide by a floating-point value, or cast the money value to
numeric before dividing and back to money afterwards. (The latter is preferable to avoid risking
precision loss.) When a money value is divided by another money value, the result is double pre-
cision (i.e., a pure number, not money); the currency units cancel each other out in the division.

8.3. Character Types

Table 8.4. Character Types
Name Description
character varying(n), varchar(n) variable-length with limit
character(n), char(n) fixed-length, blank padded
text variable unlimited length

Table 8.4 shows the general-purpose character types available in PostgreSQL.

SQL defines two primary character types: character varying(n) and character(n), where
n is a positive integer. Both of these types can store strings up to n characters (not bytes) in length. An
attempt to store a longer string into a column of these types will result in an error, unless the excess
characters are all spaces, in which case the string will be truncated to the maximum length. (This
somewhat bizarre exception is required by the SQL standard.) If the string to be stored is shorter than
the declared length, values of type character will be space-padded; values of type character
varying will simply store the shorter string.

If one explicitly casts a value to character varying(n) or character(n), then an over-

length value will be truncated to n characters without raising an error. (This too is required by the
SQL standard.)

The notations varchar(n) and char(n) are aliases for character varying(n) and char-
acter(n), respectively. character without length specifier is equivalent to character(1).
If character varying is used without length specifier, the type accepts strings of any size. The
latter is a PostgreSQL extension.

In addition, PostgreSQL provides the text type, which stores strings of any length. Although the type
text is not in the SQL standard, several other SQL database management systems have it as well.

Values of type character are physically padded with spaces to the specified width n, and are stored
and displayed that way. However, trailing spaces are treated as semantically insignificant and disre-
garded when comparing two values of type character. In collations where whitespace is signifi-

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 Data Types

cant, this behavior can produce unexpected results; for example SELECT 'a '::CHAR(2) col-
late "C" < E'a\n'::CHAR(2) returns true, even though C locale would consider a space
to be greater than a newline. Trailing spaces are removed when converting a character value to
one of the other string types. Note that trailing spaces are semantically significant in character
varying and text values, and when using pattern matching, that is LIKE and regular expressions.

The storage requirement for a short string (up to 126 bytes) is 1 byte plus the actual string, which
includes the space padding in the case of character. Longer strings have 4 bytes of overhead instead
of 1. Long strings are compressed by the system automatically, so the physical requirement on disk
might be less. Very long values are also stored in background tables so that they do not interfere with
rapid access to shorter column values. In any case, the longest possible character string that can be
stored is about 1 GB. (The maximum value that will be allowed for n in the data type declaration is less
than that. It wouldn't be useful to change this because with multibyte character encodings the number
of characters and bytes can be quite different. If you desire to store long strings with no specific upper
limit, use text or character varying without a length specifier, rather than making up an
arbitrary length limit.)

Tip
There is no performance difference among these three types, apart from increased stor-
age space when using the blank-padded type, and a few extra CPU cycles to check the
length when storing into a length-constrained column. While character(n) has
performance advantages in some other database systems, there is no such advantage
in PostgreSQL; in fact character(n) is usually the slowest of the three because
of its additional storage costs. In most situations text or character varying
should be used instead.

Refer to Section 4.1.2.1 for information about the syntax of string literals, and to Chapter 9 for infor-
mation about available operators and functions. The database character set determines the character
set used to store textual values; for more information on character set support, refer to Section 23.3.

Example 8.1. Using the Character Types

CREATE TABLE test1 (a character(4));

INSERT INTO test1 VALUES ('ok');
SELECT a, char_length(a) FROM test1; -- 1

a | char_length
------+-------------
ok | 2

CREATE TABLE test2 (b varchar(5));

INSERT INTO test2 VALUES ('ok');
INSERT INTO test2 VALUES ('good ');
INSERT INTO test2 VALUES ('too long');
ERROR: value too long for type character varying(5)
INSERT INTO test2 VALUES ('too long'::varchar(5)); -- explicit
truncation
SELECT b, char_length(b) FROM test2;

b | char_length
-------+-------------
ok | 2
good | 5

146
 Data Types

too l | 5

1 The char_length function is discussed in Section 9.4.

There are two other fixed-length character types in PostgreSQL, shown in Table 8.5. The name type
exists only for the storage of identifiers in the internal system catalogs and is not intended for use
by the general user. Its length is currently defined as 64 bytes (63 usable characters plus terminator)
but should be referenced using the constant NAMEDATALEN in C source code. The length is set at
compile time (and is therefore adjustable for special uses); the default maximum length might change
in a future release. The type "char" (note the quotes) is different from char(1) in that it only uses
one byte of storage. It is internally used in the system catalogs as a simplistic enumeration type.

Table 8.5. Special Character Types

Name Storage Size Description
"char" 1 byte single-byte internal type
name 64 bytes internal type for object names

8.4. Binary Data Types

The bytea data type allows storage of binary strings; see Table 8.6.

Table 8.6. Binary Data Types

Name Storage Size Description
bytea 1 or 4 bytes plus the actual binary variable-length binary string
string

A binary string is a sequence of octets (or bytes). Binary strings are distinguished from character
strings in two ways. First, binary strings specifically allow storing octets of value zero and other “non-
printable” octets (usually, octets outside the decimal range 32 to 126). Character strings disallow zero
octets, and also disallow any other octet values and sequences of octet values that are invalid according
to the database's selected character set encoding. Second, operations on binary strings process the
actual bytes, whereas the processing of character strings depends on locale settings. In short, binary
strings are appropriate for storing data that the programmer thinks of as “raw bytes”, whereas character
strings are appropriate for storing text.

The bytea type supports two formats for input and output: “hex” format and PostgreSQL's histori-
cal “escape” format. Both of these are always accepted on input. The output format depends on the
configuration parameter bytea_output; the default is hex. (Note that the hex format was introduced in
PostgreSQL 9.0; earlier versions and some tools don't understand it.)

The SQL standard defines a different binary string type, called BLOB or BINARY LARGE OBJECT.
The input format is different from bytea, but the provided functions and operators are mostly the
same.

8.4.1. bytea Hex Format

The “hex” format encodes binary data as 2 hexadecimal digits per byte, most significant nibble first.
The entire string is preceded by the sequence \x (to distinguish it from the escape format). In some
contexts, the initial backslash may need to be escaped by doubling it (see Section 4.1.2.1). For input,
the hexadecimal digits can be either upper or lower case, and whitespace is permitted between digit
pairs (but not within a digit pair nor in the starting \x sequence). The hex format is compatible with a
wide range of external applications and protocols, and it tends to be faster to convert than the escape
format, so its use is preferred.

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 Data Types

Example:

SELECT '\xDEADBEEF';

8.4.2. bytea Escape Format

The “escape” format is the traditional PostgreSQL format for the bytea type. It takes the approach of
representing a binary string as a sequence of ASCII characters, while converting those bytes that cannot
be represented as an ASCII character into special escape sequences. If, from the point of view of the
application, representing bytes as characters makes sense, then this representation can be convenient.
But in practice it is usually confusing because it fuzzes up the distinction between binary strings and
character strings, and also the particular escape mechanism that was chosen is somewhat unwieldy.
Therefore, this format should probably be avoided for most new applications.

When entering bytea values in escape format, octets of certain values must be escaped, while all
octet values can be escaped. In general, to escape an octet, convert it into its three-digit octal value and
precede it by a backslash. Backslash itself (octet decimal value 92) can alternatively be represented
by double backslashes. Table 8.7 shows the characters that must be escaped, and gives the alternative
escape sequences where applicable.

Table 8.7. bytea Literal Escaped Octets

Decimal Octet Description Escaped Input Example Hex Representa-
Value Representation tion
0 zero octet '\000' SELECT \x00
'\000'::bytea;
39 single quote '''' or '\047' SELECT \x27
''''::bytea;
92 backslash '\\' or '\134' SELECT '\ \x5c
\'::bytea;
0 to 31 and 127 to “non-printable” '\xxx' (octal SELECT \x01
255 octets value) '\001'::bytea;

The requirement to escape non-printable octets varies depending on locale settings. In some instances
you can get away with leaving them unescaped.

The reason that single quotes must be doubled, as shown in Table 8.7, is that this is true for any string
literal in a SQL command. The generic string-literal parser consumes the outermost single quotes and
reduces any pair of single quotes to one data character. What the bytea input function sees is just
one single quote, which it treats as a plain data character. However, the bytea input function treats
backslashes as special, and the other behaviors shown in Table 8.7 are implemented by that function.

In some contexts, backslashes must be doubled compared to what is shown above, because the generic
string-literal parser will also reduce pairs of backslashes to one data character; see Section 4.1.2.1.

Bytea octets are output in hex format by default. If you change bytea_output to escape, “non-
printable” octets are converted to their equivalent three-digit octal value and preceded by one back-
slash. Most “printable” octets are output by their standard representation in the client character set, e.g.:

SET bytea_output = 'escape';

SELECT 'abc \153\154\155 \052\251\124'::bytea;

bytea
----------------

148
 Data Types

abc klm *\251T

The octet with decimal value 92 (backslash) is doubled in the output. Details are in Table 8.8.

Table 8.8. bytea Output Escaped Octets

Decimal Octet Description Escaped Output Example Output Result
Value Representation
92 backslash \\ SELECT \\
'\134'::bytea;
0 to 31 and 127 to “non-printable” \xxx (octal value) SELECT \001
255 octets '\001'::bytea;
32 to 126 “printable” octets client character set SELECT ~
representation '\176'::bytea;

Depending on the front end to PostgreSQL you use, you might have additional work to do in terms of
escaping and unescaping bytea strings. For example, you might also have to escape line feeds and
carriage returns if your interface automatically translates these.

8.5. Date/Time Types

PostgreSQL supports the full set of SQL date and time types, shown in Table 8.9. The operations
available on these data types are described in Section 9.9. Dates are counted according to the Gregorian
calendar, even in years before that calendar was introduced (see Section B.5 for more information).

Table 8.9. Date/Time Types

Name Storage Size Description Low Value High Value Resolution
timestamp 8 bytes both date and 4713 BC 294276 AD 1 microsecond
[ (p) ] time (no time
[ without zone)
time zone ]
timestamp 8 bytes both date and 4713 BC 294276 AD 1 microsecond
[ (p) ] time, with time
with time zone
zone
date 4 bytes date (no time of 4713 BC 5874897 AD 1 day
day)
time 8 bytes time of day (no 00:00:00 24:00:00 1 microsecond
[ (p) ] date)
[ without
time zone ]
time 12 bytes time of day (no 00:00:00+1459 24:00:00-1459 1 microsecond
[ (p) ] date), with time
with time zone
zone
interval [ 16 bytes time interval -178000000 178000000 1 microsecond
fields ] years years
[ (p) ]

Note
The SQL standard requires that writing just timestamp be equivalent to time-
stamp without time zone, and PostgreSQL honors that behavior. time-

149
 Data Types

stamptz is accepted as an abbreviation for timestamp with time zone; this

is a PostgreSQL extension.

time, timestamp, and interval accept an optional precision value p which specifies the number
of fractional digits retained in the seconds field. By default, there is no explicit bound on precision.
The allowed range of p is from 0 to 6.

The interval type has an additional option, which is to restrict the set of stored fields by writing
one of these phrases:

YEAR
MONTH
DAY
HOUR
MINUTE
SECOND
YEAR TO MONTH
DAY TO HOUR
DAY TO MINUTE
DAY TO SECOND
HOUR TO MINUTE
HOUR TO SECOND
MINUTE TO SECOND

Note that if both fields and p are specified, the fields must include SECOND, since the precision
applies only to the seconds.

The type time with time zone is defined by the SQL standard, but the definition exhibits prop-
erties which lead to questionable usefulness. In most cases, a combination of date, time, time-
stamp without time zone, and timestamp with time zone should provide a complete
range of date/time functionality required by any application.

8.5.1. Date/Time Input

Date and time input is accepted in almost any reasonable format, including ISO 8601, SQL-compati-
ble, traditional POSTGRES, and others. For some formats, ordering of day, month, and year in date
input is ambiguous and there is support for specifying the expected ordering of these fields. Set the
DateStyle parameter to MDY to select month-day-year interpretation, DMY to select day-month-year
interpretation, or YMD to select year-month-day interpretation.

PostgreSQL is more flexible in handling date/time input than the SQL standard requires. See Appen-
dix B for the exact parsing rules of date/time input and for the recognized text fields including months,
days of the week, and time zones.

Remember that any date or time literal input needs to be enclosed in single quotes, like text strings.
Refer to Section 4.1.2.7 for more information. SQL requires the following syntax

type [ (p) ] 'value'

where p is an optional precision specification giving the number of fractional digits in the seconds
field. Precision can be specified for time, timestamp, and interval types, and can range from
0 to 6. If no precision is specified in a constant specification, it defaults to the precision of the literal
value (but not more than 6 digits).

8.5.1.1. Dates

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 Data Types

Table 8.10 shows some possible inputs for the date type.

Table 8.10. Date Input

Example Description
1999-01-08 ISO 8601; January 8 in any mode (recommended
format)
January 8, 1999 unambiguous in any datestyle input mode
1/8/1999 January 8 in MDY mode; August 1 in DMY mode
1/18/1999 January 18 in MDY mode; rejected in other modes
01/02/03 January 2, 2003 in MDY mode; February 1, 2003
in DMY mode; February 3, 2001 in YMD mode
1999-Jan-08 January 8 in any mode
Jan-08-1999 January 8 in any mode
08-Jan-1999 January 8 in any mode
99-Jan-08 January 8 in YMD mode, else error
08-Jan-99 January 8, except error in YMD mode
Jan-08-99 January 8, except error in YMD mode
19990108 ISO 8601; January 8, 1999 in any mode
990108 ISO 8601; January 8, 1999 in any mode
1999.008 year and day of year
J2451187 Julian date
January 8, 99 BC year 99 BC

8.5.1.2. Times
The time-of-day types are time [ (p) ] without time zone and time [ (p) ] with
time zone. time alone is equivalent to time without time zone.

Valid input for these types consists of a time of day followed by an optional time zone. (See Table 8.11
and Table 8.12.) If a time zone is specified in the input for time without time zone, it is silently
ignored. You can also specify a date but it will be ignored, except when you use a time zone name
that involves a daylight-savings rule, such as America/New_York. In this case specifying the date
is required in order to determine whether standard or daylight-savings time applies. The appropriate
time zone offset is recorded in the time with time zone value.

Table 8.11. Time Input

Example Description
04:05:06.789 ISO 8601
04:05:06 ISO 8601
04:05 ISO 8601
040506 ISO 8601
04:05 AM same as 04:05; AM does not affect value
04:05 PM same as 16:05; input hour must be <= 12
04:05:06.789-8 ISO 8601
04:05:06-08:00 ISO 8601
04:05-08:00 ISO 8601

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 Data Types

Example Description
040506-08 ISO 8601
04:05:06 PST time zone specified by abbreviation
2003-04-12 04:05:06 Ameri- time zone specified by full name
ca/New_York

Table 8.12. Time Zone Input

Example Description
PST Abbreviation (for Pacific Standard Time)
America/New_York Full time zone name
PST8PDT POSIX-style time zone specification
-8:00 ISO-8601 offset for PST
-800 ISO-8601 offset for PST
-8 ISO-8601 offset for PST
zulu Military abbreviation for UTC
z Short form of zulu

Refer to Section 8.5.3 for more information on how to specify time zones.

8.5.1.3. Time Stamps

Valid input for the time stamp types consists of the concatenation of a date and a time, followed by
an optional time zone, followed by an optional AD or BC. (Alternatively, AD/BC can appear before the
time zone, but this is not the preferred ordering.) Thus:

1999-01-08 04:05:06

and:

1999-01-08 04:05:06 -8:00

are valid values, which follow the ISO 8601 standard. In addition, the common format:

January 8 04:05:06 1999 PST

is supported.

The SQL standard differentiates timestamp without time zone and timestamp with
time zone literals by the presence of a “+” or “-” symbol and time zone offset after the time. Hence,
according to the standard,

TIMESTAMP '2004-10-19 10:23:54'

is a timestamp without time zone, while

TIMESTAMP '2004-10-19 10:23:54+02'

is a timestamp with time zone. PostgreSQL never examines the content of a literal string
before determining its type, and therefore will treat both of the above as timestamp without
time zone. To ensure that a literal is treated as timestamp with time zone, give it the
correct explicit type:

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 Data Types

TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2004-10-19 10:23:54+02'

In a literal that has been determined to be timestamp without time zone, PostgreSQL will
silently ignore any time zone indication. That is, the resulting value is derived from the date/time fields
in the input value, and is not adjusted for time zone.

For timestamp with time zone, the internally stored value is always in UTC (Universal
Coordinated Time, traditionally known as Greenwich Mean Time, GMT). An input value that has an
explicit time zone specified is converted to UTC using the appropriate offset for that time zone. If
no time zone is stated in the input string, then it is assumed to be in the time zone indicated by the
system's TimeZone parameter, and is converted to UTC using the offset for the timezone zone.

When a timestamp with time zone value is output, it is always converted from UTC to the
current timezone zone, and displayed as local time in that zone. To see the time in another time
zone, either change timezone or use the AT TIME ZONE construct (see Section 9.9.3).

Conversions between timestamp without time zone and timestamp with time zone
normally assume that the timestamp without time zone value should be taken or given as
timezone local time. A different time zone can be specified for the conversion using AT TIME
ZONE.

8.5.1.4. Special Values

PostgreSQL supports several special date/time input values for convenience, as shown in Table 8.13.
The values infinity and -infinity are specially represented inside the system and will be
displayed unchanged; but the others are simply notational shorthands that will be converted to ordinary
date/time values when read. (In particular, now and related strings are converted to a specific time
value as soon as they are read.) All of these values need to be enclosed in single quotes when used
as constants in SQL commands.

Table 8.13. Special Date/Time Inputs

Input String Valid Types Description
epoch date, timestamp 1970-01-01 00:00:00+00 (Unix
system time zero)
infinity date, timestamp later than all other time stamps
-infinity date, timestamp earlier than all other time stamps
now date, time, timestamp current transaction's start time
today date, timestamp midnight today
tomorrow date, timestamp midnight tomorrow
yesterday date, timestamp midnight yesterday
allballs time 00:00:00.00 UTC

The following SQL-compatible functions can also be used to obtain the current time value for the cor-
responding data type: CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, LOCALTIME,
LOCALTIMESTAMP. The latter four accept an optional subsecond precision specification. (See Sec-
tion 9.9.4.) Note that these are SQL functions and are not recognized in data input strings.

8.5.2. Date/Time Output

The output format of the date/time types can be set to one of the four styles ISO 8601, SQL (Ingres),
traditional POSTGRES (Unix date format), or German. The default is the ISO format. (The SQL
standard requires the use of the ISO 8601 format. The name of the “SQL” output format is a historical
accident.) Table 8.14 shows examples of each output style. The output of the date and time types is
generally only the date or time part in accordance with the given examples. However, the POSTGRES
style outputs date-only values in ISO format.

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 Data Types

Table 8.14. Date/Time Output Styles

Style Specification Description Example
ISO ISO 8601, SQL standard 1997-12-17
07:37:16-08
SQL traditional style 12/17/1997
07:37:16.00 PST
Postgres original style Wed Dec 17 07:37:16
1997 PST
German regional style 17.12.1997
07:37:16.00 PST

Note
ISO 8601 specifies the use of uppercase letter T to separate the date and time. Post-
greSQL accepts that format on input, but on output it uses a space rather than T, as
shown above. This is for readability and for consistency with RFC 3339 as well as
some other database systems.

In the SQL and POSTGRES styles, day appears before month if DMY field ordering has been spec-
ified, otherwise month appears before day. (See Section 8.5.1 for how this setting also affects inter-
pretation of input values.) Table 8.15 shows examples.

Table 8.15. Date Order Conventions

datestyle Setting Input Ordering Example Output
SQL, DMY day/month/year 17/12/1997
15:37:16.00 CET
SQL, MDY month/day/year 12/17/1997
07:37:16.00 PST
Postgres, DMY day/month/year Wed 17 Dec 07:37:16
1997 PST

The date/time style can be selected by the user using the SET datestyle command, the DateStyle
parameter in the postgresql.conf configuration file, or the PGDATESTYLE environment vari-
able on the server or client.

The formatting function to_char (see Section 9.8) is also available as a more flexible way to format
date/time output.

8.5.3. Time Zones

Time zones, and time-zone conventions, are influenced by political decisions, not just earth geometry.
Time zones around the world became somewhat standardized during the 1900s, but continue to be
prone to arbitrary changes, particularly with respect to daylight-savings rules. PostgreSQL uses the
widely-used IANA (Olson) time zone database for information about historical time zone rules. For
times in the future, the assumption is that the latest known rules for a given time zone will continue
to be observed indefinitely far into the future.

PostgreSQL endeavors to be compatible with the SQL standard definitions for typical usage. However,
the SQL standard has an odd mix of date and time types and capabilities. Two obvious problems are:

• Although the date type cannot have an associated time zone, the time type can. Time zones in
the real world have little meaning unless associated with a date as well as a time, since the offset
can vary through the year with daylight-saving time boundaries.

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 Data Types

• The default time zone is specified as a constant numeric offset from UTC. It is therefore impossible
to adapt to daylight-saving time when doing date/time arithmetic across DST boundaries.

To address these difficulties, we recommend using date/time types that contain both date and time
when using time zones. We do not recommend using the type time with time zone (though
it is supported by PostgreSQL for legacy applications and for compliance with the SQL standard).
PostgreSQL assumes your local time zone for any type containing only date or time.

All timezone-aware dates and times are stored internally in UTC. They are converted to local time in
the zone specified by the TimeZone configuration parameter before being displayed to the client.

PostgreSQL allows you to specify time zones in three different forms:

• A full time zone name, for example America/New_York. The recognized time zone names are
listed in the pg_timezone_names view (see Section 51.92). PostgreSQL uses the widely-used
IANA time zone data for this purpose, so the same time zone names are also recognized by other
software.

• A time zone abbreviation, for example PST. Such a specification merely defines a particular offset
from UTC, in contrast to full time zone names which can imply a set of daylight savings transi-
tion-date rules as well. The recognized abbreviations are listed in the pg_timezone_abbrevs
view (see Section 51.91). You cannot set the configuration parameters TimeZone or log_timezone
to a time zone abbreviation, but you can use abbreviations in date/time input values and with the
AT TIME ZONE operator.

• In addition to the timezone names and abbreviations, PostgreSQL will accept POSIX-style time
zone specifications of the form STDoffset or STDoffsetDST, where STD is a zone abbrevi-
ation, offset is a numeric offset in hours west from UTC, and DST is an optional daylight-sav-
ings zone abbreviation, assumed to stand for one hour ahead of the given offset. For example, if
EST5EDT were not already a recognized zone name, it would be accepted and would be function-
ally equivalent to United States East Coast time. In this syntax, a zone abbreviation can be a string
of letters, or an arbitrary string surrounded by angle brackets (<>). When a daylight-savings zone
abbreviation is present, it is assumed to be used according to the same daylight-savings transition
rules used in the IANA time zone database's posixrules entry. In a standard PostgreSQL in-
stallation, posixrules is the same as US/Eastern, so that POSIX-style time zone specifica-
tions follow USA daylight-savings rules. If needed, you can adjust this behavior by replacing the
posixrules file.

In short, this is the difference between abbreviations and full names: abbreviations represent a specific
offset from UTC, whereas many of the full names imply a local daylight-savings time rule, and so have
two possible UTC offsets. As an example, 2014-06-04 12:00 America/New_York represents
noon local time in New York, which for this particular date was Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4). So
2014-06-04 12:00 EDT specifies that same time instant. But 2014-06-04 12:00 EST
specifies noon Eastern Standard Time (UTC-5), regardless of whether daylight savings was nominally
in effect on that date.

To complicate matters, some jurisdictions have used the same timezone abbreviation to mean different
UTC offsets at different times; for example, in Moscow MSK has meant UTC+3 in some years and
UTC+4 in others. PostgreSQL interprets such abbreviations according to whatever they meant (or had
most recently meant) on the specified date; but, as with the EST example above, this is not necessarily
the same as local civil time on that date.

One should be wary that the POSIX-style time zone feature can lead to silently accepting bogus input,
since there is no check on the reasonableness of the zone abbreviations. For example, SET TIME-
ZONE TO FOOBAR0 will work, leaving the system effectively using a rather peculiar abbreviation
for UTC. Another issue to keep in mind is that in POSIX time zone names, positive offsets are used
for locations west of Greenwich. Everywhere else, PostgreSQL follows the ISO-8601 convention that
positive timezone offsets are east of Greenwich.

In all cases, timezone names and abbreviations are recognized case-insensitively. (This is a change
from PostgreSQL versions prior to 8.2, which were case-sensitive in some contexts but not others.)

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 Data Types

Neither timezone names nor abbreviations are hard-wired into the server; they are obtained from con-
figuration files stored under .../share/timezone/ and .../share/timezonesets/ of
the installation directory (see Section B.4).

The TimeZone configuration parameter can be set in the file postgresql.conf, or in any of the
other standard ways described in Chapter 19. There are also some special ways to set it:

• The SQL command SET TIME ZONE sets the time zone for the session. This is an alternative
spelling of SET TIMEZONE TO with a more SQL-spec-compatible syntax.

• The PGTZ environment variable is used by libpq clients to send a SET TIME ZONE command
to the server upon connection.

8.5.4. Interval Input

interval values can be written using the following verbose syntax:

[@] quantity unit [quantity unit...] [direction]

where quantity is a number (possibly signed); unit is microsecond, millisecond, sec-

ond, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, decade, century, millennium, or abbrevi-
ations or plurals of these units; direction can be ago or empty. The at sign (@) is optional noise.
The amounts of the different units are implicitly added with appropriate sign accounting. ago negates
all the fields. This syntax is also used for interval output, if IntervalStyle is set to postgres_ver-
bose.

Quantities of days, hours, minutes, and seconds can be specified without explicit unit markings. For
example, '1 12:59:10' is read the same as '1 day 12 hours 59 min 10 sec'. Also,
a combination of years and months can be specified with a dash; for example '200-10' is read the
same as '200 years 10 months'. (These shorter forms are in fact the only ones allowed by the
SQL standard, and are used for output when IntervalStyle is set to sql_standard.)

Interval values can also be written as ISO 8601 time intervals, using either the “format with designa-
tors” of the standard's section 4.4.3.2 or the “alternative format” of section 4.4.3.3. The format with
designators looks like this:

P quantity unit [ quantity unit ...] [ T [ quantity unit ...]]

The string must start with a P, and may include a T that introduces the time-of-day units. The available
unit abbreviations are given in Table 8.16. Units may be omitted, and may be specified in any order,
but units smaller than a day must appear after T. In particular, the meaning of M depends on whether
it is before or after T.

Table 8.16. ISO 8601 Interval Unit Abbreviations

Abbreviation Meaning
Y Years
M Months (in the date part)
W Weeks
D Days
H Hours
M Minutes (in the time part)
S Seconds

In the alternative format:

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 Data Types

P [ years-months-days ] [ T hours:minutes:seconds ]

the string must begin with P, and a T separates the date and time parts of the interval. The values are
given as numbers similar to ISO 8601 dates.

When writing an interval constant with a fields specification, or when assigning a string to an in-
terval column that was defined with a fields specification, the interpretation of unmarked quantities
depends on the fields. For example INTERVAL '1' YEAR is read as 1 year, whereas INTER-
VAL '1' means 1 second. Also, field values “to the right” of the least significant field allowed by the
fields specification are silently discarded. For example, writing INTERVAL '1 day 2:03:04'
HOUR TO MINUTE results in dropping the seconds field, but not the day field.

According to the SQL standard all fields of an interval value must have the same sign, so a leading
negative sign applies to all fields; for example the negative sign in the interval literal '-1 2:03:04'
applies to both the days and hour/minute/second parts. PostgreSQL allows the fields to have different
signs, and traditionally treats each field in the textual representation as independently signed, so that
the hour/minute/second part is considered positive in this example. If IntervalStyle is set to
sql_standard then a leading sign is considered to apply to all fields (but only if no additional
signs appear). Otherwise the traditional PostgreSQL interpretation is used. To avoid ambiguity, it's
recommended to attach an explicit sign to each field if any field is negative.

In the verbose input format, and in some fields of the more compact input formats, field values can
have fractional parts; for example '1.5 week' or '01:02:03.45'. Such input is converted to the
appropriate number of months, days, and seconds for storage. When this would result in a fractional
number of months or days, the fraction is added to the lower-order fields using the conversion factors
1 month = 30 days and 1 day = 24 hours. For example, '1.5 month' becomes 1 month and 15
days. Only seconds will ever be shown as fractional on output.

Table 8.17 shows some examples of valid interval input.

Table 8.17. Interval Input

Example Description
1-2 SQL standard format: 1 year 2 months
3 4:05:06 SQL standard format: 3 days 4 hours 5 minutes 6
seconds
1 year 2 months 3 days 4 hours 5 minutes 6 sec- Traditional Postgres format: 1 year 2 months 3
onds days 4 hours 5 minutes 6 seconds
P1Y2M3DT4H5M6S ISO 8601 “format with designators”: same mean-
ing as above
P0001-02-03T04:05:06 ISO 8601 “alternative format”: same meaning as
above

Internally interval values are stored as months, days, and seconds. This is done because the number
of days in a month varies, and a day can have 23 or 25 hours if a daylight savings time adjustment is
involved. The months and days fields are integers while the seconds field can store fractions. Because
intervals are usually created from constant strings or timestamp subtraction, this storage method
works well in most cases, but can cause unexpected results:

SELECT EXTRACT(hours from '80 minutes'::interval);

date_part
-----------
1

SELECT EXTRACT(days from '80 hours'::interval);

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 Data Types

date_part
-----------
0

Functions justify_days and justify_hours are available for adjusting days and hours that
overflow their normal ranges.

8.5.5. Interval Output

The output format of the interval type can be set to one of the four styles sql_standard, post-
gres, postgres_verbose, or iso_8601, using the command SET intervalstyle. The
default is the postgres format. Table 8.18 shows examples of each output style.

The sql_standard style produces output that conforms to the SQL standard's specification for
interval literal strings, if the interval value meets the standard's restrictions (either year-month only or
day-time only, with no mixing of positive and negative components). Otherwise the output looks like
a standard year-month literal string followed by a day-time literal string, with explicit signs added to
disambiguate mixed-sign intervals.

The output of the postgres style matches the output of PostgreSQL releases prior to 8.4 when the
DateStyle parameter was set to ISO.

The output of the postgres_verbose style matches the output of PostgreSQL releases prior to
8.4 when the DateStyle parameter was set to non-ISO output.

The output of the iso_8601 style matches the “format with designators” described in section 4.4.3.2
of the ISO 8601 standard.

Table 8.18. Interval Output Style Examples

Style Specification Year-Month Interval Day-Time Interval Mixed Interval
sql_standard 1-2 3 4:05:06 -1-2 +3 -4:05:06
postgres 1 year 2 mons 3 days 04:05:06 -1 year -2 mons +3 days
-04:05:06
postgres_verbose @ 1 year 2 mons @ 3 days 4 hours 5 mins @ 1 year 2 mons -3 days
6 secs 4 hours 5 mins 6 secs
ago
iso_8601 P1Y2M P3DT4H5M6S P-1Y-2M3DT-4H-5M-6S

8.6. Boolean Type

PostgreSQL provides the standard SQL type boolean; see Table 8.19. The boolean type can have
several states: “true”, “false”, and a third state, “unknown”, which is represented by the SQL null value.

Table 8.19. Boolean Data Type

Name Storage Size Description
boolean 1 byte state of true or false

Boolean constants can be represented in SQL queries by the SQL key words TRUE, FALSE, and NULL.

The datatype input function for type boolean accepts these string representations for the “true” state:

true
yes
on
1

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 Data Types

and these representations for the “false” state:

false
no
off
0

Unique prefixes of these strings are also accepted, for example t or n. Leading or trailing whitespace
is ignored, and case does not matter.

The datatype output function for type boolean always emits either t or f, as shown in Example 8.2.

Example 8.2. Using the boolean Type

CREATE TABLE test1 (a boolean, b text);

INSERT INTO test1 VALUES (TRUE, 'sic est');
INSERT INTO test1 VALUES (FALSE, 'non est');
SELECT * FROM test1;
a | b
---+---------
t | sic est
f | non est

SELECT * FROM test1 WHERE a;

a | b
---+---------
t | sic est

The key words TRUE and FALSE are the preferred (SQL-compliant) method for writing Boolean
constants in SQL queries. But you can also use the string representations by following the generic
string-literal constant syntax described in Section 4.1.2.7, for example 'yes'::boolean.

Note that the parser automatically understands that TRUE and FALSE are of type boolean, but this
is not so for NULL because that can have any type. So in some contexts you might have to cast NULL
to boolean explicitly, for example NULL::boolean. Conversely, the cast can be omitted from a
string-literal Boolean value in contexts where the parser can deduce that the literal must be of type
boolean.

8.7. Enumerated Types

Enumerated (enum) types are data types that comprise a static, ordered set of values. They are equiv-
alent to the enum types supported in a number of programming languages. An example of an enum
type might be the days of the week, or a set of status values for a piece of data.

8.7.1. Declaration of Enumerated Types

Enum types are created using the CREATE TYPE command, for example:

CREATE TYPE mood AS ENUM ('sad', 'ok', 'happy');

Once created, the enum type can be used in table and function definitions much like any other type:

CREATE TYPE mood AS ENUM ('sad', 'ok', 'happy');

CREATE TABLE person (
name text,
current_mood mood

159
 Data Types

);
INSERT INTO person VALUES ('Moe', 'happy');
SELECT * FROM person WHERE current_mood = 'happy';
name | current_mood
------+--------------
Moe | happy
(1 row)

8.7.2. Ordering
The ordering of the values in an enum type is the order in which the values were listed when the
type was created. All standard comparison operators and related aggregate functions are supported
for enums. For example:

INSERT INTO person VALUES ('Larry', 'sad');

INSERT INTO person VALUES ('Curly', 'ok');
SELECT * FROM person WHERE current_mood > 'sad';
name | current_mood
-------+--------------
Moe | happy
Curly | ok
(2 rows)

SELECT * FROM person WHERE current_mood > 'sad' ORDER BY

current_mood;
name | current_mood
-------+--------------
Curly | ok
Moe | happy
(2 rows)

SELECT name
FROM person
WHERE current_mood = (SELECT MIN(current_mood) FROM person);
name
-------
Larry
(1 row)

8.7.3. Type Safety

Each enumerated data type is separate and cannot be compared with other enumerated types. See this
example:

CREATE TYPE happiness AS ENUM ('happy', 'very happy', 'ecstatic');

CREATE TABLE holidays (
num_weeks integer,
happiness happiness
);
INSERT INTO holidays(num_weeks,happiness) VALUES (4, 'happy');
INSERT INTO holidays(num_weeks,happiness) VALUES (6, 'very happy');
INSERT INTO holidays(num_weeks,happiness) VALUES (8, 'ecstatic');
INSERT INTO holidays(num_weeks,happiness) VALUES (2, 'sad');
ERROR: invalid input value for enum happiness: "sad"
SELECT person.name, holidays.num_weeks FROM person, holidays
WHERE person.current_mood = holidays.happiness;

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 Data Types

ERROR: operator does not exist: mood = happiness

If you really need to do something like that, you can either write a custom operator or add explicit
casts to your query:

SELECT person.name, holidays.num_weeks FROM person, holidays

WHERE person.current_mood::text = holidays.happiness::text;
name | num_weeks
------+-----------
Moe | 4
(1 row)

8.7.4. Implementation Details

Enum labels are case sensitive, so 'happy' is not the same as 'HAPPY'. White space in the labels
is significant too.

Although enum types are primarily intended for static sets of values, there is support for adding new
values to an existing enum type, and for renaming values (see ALTER TYPE). Existing values cannot
be removed from an enum type, nor can the sort ordering of such values be changed, short of dropping
and re-creating the enum type.

An enum value occupies four bytes on disk. The length of an enum value's textual label is limited by
the NAMEDATALEN setting compiled into PostgreSQL; in standard builds this means at most 63 bytes.

The translations from internal enum values to textual labels are kept in the system catalog pg_enum.
Querying this catalog directly can be useful.

8.8. Geometric Types

Geometric data types represent two-dimensional spatial objects. Table 8.20 shows the geometric types
available in PostgreSQL.

Table 8.20. Geometric Types

Name Storage Size Description Representation
point 16 bytes Point on a plane (x,y)
line 32 bytes Infinite line {A,B,C}
lseg 32 bytes Finite line segment ((x1,y1),(x2,y2))
box 32 bytes Rectangular box ((x1,y1),(x2,y2))
path 16+16n bytes Closed path (similar to ((x1,y1),...)
polygon)
path 16+16n bytes Open path [(x1,y1),...]
polygon 40+16n bytes Polygon (similar to ((x1,y1),...)
closed path)
circle 24 bytes Circle <(x,y),r> (center point
and radius)

A rich set of functions and operators is available to perform various geometric operations such as
scaling, translation, rotation, and determining intersections. They are explained in Section 9.11.

8.8.1. Points

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 Data Types

Points are the fundamental two-dimensional building block for geometric types. Values of type point
are specified using either of the following syntaxes:

( x , y )
x , y

where x and y are the respective coordinates, as floating-point numbers.

Points are output using the first syntax.

8.8.2. Lines
Lines are represented by the linear equation Ax + By + C = 0, where A and B are not both zero. Values
of type line are input and output in the following form:

{ A, B, C }

Alternatively, any of the following forms can be used for input:

[ ( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 ) ]
( ( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 ) )
( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 )
x1 , y1 , x2 , y2

where (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) are two different points on the line.

8.8.3. Line Segments

Line segments are represented by pairs of points that are the endpoints of the segment. Values of type
lseg are specified using any of the following syntaxes:

[ ( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 ) ]
( ( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 ) )
( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 )
x1 , y1 , x2 , y2

where (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) are the end points of the line segment.

Line segments are output using the first syntax.

8.8.4. Boxes
Boxes are represented by pairs of points that are opposite corners of the box. Values of type box are
specified using any of the following syntaxes:

( ( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 ) )
( x1 , y1 ) , ( x2 , y2 )
x1 , y1 , x2 , y2

where (x1,y1) and (x2,y2) are any two opposite corners of the box.

Boxes are output using the second syntax.

Any two opposite corners can be supplied on input, but the values will be reordered as needed to store
the upper right and lower left corners, in that order.

162
 Data Types

8.8.5. Paths
Paths are represented by lists of connected points. Paths can be open, where the first and last points in
the list are considered not connected, or closed, where the first and last points are considered connected.

Values of type path are specified using any of the following syntaxes:

[ ( x1 , y1 ) , ... , ( xn , yn ) ]
( ( x1 , y1 ) , ... , ( xn , yn ) )
( x1 , y1 ) , ... , ( xn , yn )
( x1 , y1 , ... , xn , yn )
x1 , y1 , ... , xn , yn

where the points are the end points of the line segments comprising the path. Square brackets ([])
indicate an open path, while parentheses (()) indicate a closed path. When the outermost parentheses
are omitted, as in the third through fifth syntaxes, a closed path is assumed.

Paths are output using the first or second syntax, as appropriate.

8.8.6. Polygons
Polygons are represented by lists of points (the vertexes of the polygon). Polygons are very similar to
closed paths, but are stored differently and have their own set of support routines.

Values of type polygon are specified using any of the following syntaxes:

( ( x1 , y1 ) , ... , ( xn , yn ) )
( x1 , y1 ) , ... , ( xn , yn )
( x1 , y1 , ... , xn , yn )
x1 , y1 , ... , xn , yn

where the points are the end points of the line segments comprising the boundary of the polygon.

Polygons are output using the first syntax.

8.8.7. Circles
Circles are represented by a center point and radius. Values of type circle are specified using any
of the following syntaxes:

< ( x , y ) , r >
( ( x , y ) , r )
( x , y ) , r
x , y , r

where (x,y) is the center point and r is the radius of the circle.

Circles are output using the first syntax.

8.9. Network Address Types

PostgreSQL offers data types to store IPv4, IPv6, and MAC addresses, as shown in Table 8.21. It is
better to use these types instead of plain text types to store network addresses, because these types
offer input error checking and specialized operators and functions (see Section 9.12).

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 Data Types

Table 8.21. Network Address Types

Name Storage Size Description
cidr 7 or 19 bytes IPv4 and IPv6 networks
inet 7 or 19 bytes IPv4 and IPv6 hosts and net-
works
macaddr 6 bytes MAC addresses
macaddr8 8 bytes MAC addresses (EUI-64 format)

When sorting inet or cidr data types, IPv4 addresses will always sort before IPv6 addresses, in-
cluding IPv4 addresses encapsulated or mapped to IPv6 addresses, such as ::10.2.3.4 or ::ffff:10.4.3.2.

8.9.1. inet
The inet type holds an IPv4 or IPv6 host address, and optionally its subnet, all in one field. The subnet
is represented by the number of network address bits present in the host address (the “netmask”). If
the netmask is 32 and the address is IPv4, then the value does not indicate a subnet, only a single host.
In IPv6, the address length is 128 bits, so 128 bits specify a unique host address. Note that if you want
to accept only networks, you should use the cidr type rather than inet.

The input format for this type is address/y where address is an IPv4 or IPv6 address and y is
the number of bits in the netmask. If the /y portion is missing, the netmask is 32 for IPv4 and 128
for IPv6, so the value represents just a single host. On display, the /y portion is suppressed if the
netmask specifies a single host.

8.9.2. cidr
The cidr type holds an IPv4 or IPv6 network specification. Input and output formats follow Classless
Internet Domain Routing conventions. The format for specifying networks is address/y where
address is the network represented as an IPv4 or IPv6 address, and y is the number of bits in the
netmask. If y is omitted, it is calculated using assumptions from the older classful network numbering
system, except it will be at least large enough to include all of the octets written in the input. It is an
error to specify a network address that has bits set to the right of the specified netmask.

Table 8.22 shows some examples.

Table 8.22. cidr Type Input Examples

cidr Input cidr Output abbrev(cidr)
192.168.100.128/25 192.168.100.128/25 192.168.100.128/25
192.168/24 192.168.0.0/24 192.168.0/24
192.168/25 192.168.0.0/25 192.168.0.0/25
192.168.1 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.1/24
192.168 192.168.0.0/24 192.168.0/24
128.1 128.1.0.0/16 128.1/16
128 128.0.0.0/16 128.0/16
128.1.2 128.1.2.0/24 128.1.2/24
10.1.2 10.1.2.0/24 10.1.2/24
10.1 10.1.0.0/16 10.1/16
10 10.0.0.0/8 10/8
10.1.2.3/32 10.1.2.3/32 10.1.2.3/32

164
 Data Types

cidr Input cidr Output abbrev(cidr)

2001:4f8:3:ba::/64 2001:4f8:3:ba::/64 2001:4f8:3:ba::/64
2001:4f8:3:ba:2e0:81f- 2001:4f8:3:ba:2e0:81f- 2001:4f8:3:ba:2e0:81f-
f:fe22:d1f1/128 f:fe22:d1f1/128 f:fe22:d1f1
::ffff:1.2.3.0/120 ::ffff:1.2.3.0/120 ::ffff:1.2.3/120
::ffff:1.2.3.0/128 ::ffff:1.2.3.0/128 ::ffff:1.2.3.0/128

8.9.3. inet vs. cidr

The essential difference between inet and cidr data types is that inet accepts values with nonzero
bits to the right of the netmask, whereas cidr does not. For example, 192.168.0.1/24 is valid
for inet but not for cidr.

Tip
If you do not like the output format for inet or cidr values, try the functions host,
text, and abbrev.

8.9.4. macaddr
The macaddr type stores MAC addresses, known for example from Ethernet card hardware addresses
(although MAC addresses are used for other purposes as well). Input is accepted in the following
formats:

'08:00:2b:01:02:03'
'08-00-2b-01-02-03'
'08002b:010203'
'08002b-010203'
'0800.2b01.0203'
'0800-2b01-0203'
'08002b010203'

These examples would all specify the same address. Upper and lower case is accepted for the digits
a through f. Output is always in the first of the forms shown.

IEEE Std 802-2001 specifies the second shown form (with hyphens) as the canonical form for
MAC addresses, and specifies the first form (with colons) as the bit-reversed notation, so that
08-00-2b-01-02-03 = 01:00:4D:08:04:0C. This convention is widely ignored nowadays, and it is rel-
evant only for obsolete network protocols (such as Token Ring). PostgreSQL makes no provisions for
bit reversal, and all accepted formats use the canonical LSB order.

The remaining five input formats are not part of any standard.

8.9.5. macaddr8
The macaddr8 type stores MAC addresses in EUI-64 format, known for example from Ethernet
card hardware addresses (although MAC addresses are used for other purposes as well). This type
can accept both 6 and 8 byte length MAC addresses and stores them in 8 byte length format. MAC
addresses given in 6 byte format will be stored in 8 byte length format with the 4th and 5th bytes set
to FF and FE, respectively. Note that IPv6 uses a modified EUI-64 format where the 7th bit should
be set to one after the conversion from EUI-48. The function macaddr8_set7bit is provided to
make this change. Generally speaking, any input which is comprised of pairs of hex digits (on byte
boundaries), optionally separated consistently by one of ':', '-' or '.', is accepted. The number

165
 Data Types

of hex digits must be either 16 (8 bytes) or 12 (6 bytes). Leading and trailing whitespace is ignored.
The following are examples of input formats that are accepted:

'08:00:2b:01:02:03:04:05'
'08-00-2b-01-02-03-04-05'
'08002b:0102030405'
'08002b-0102030405'
'0800.2b01.0203.0405'
'0800-2b01-0203-0405'
'08002b01:02030405'
'08002b0102030405'

These examples would all specify the same address. Upper and lower case is accepted for the digits
a through f. Output is always in the first of the forms shown. The last six input formats that are
mentioned above are not part of any standard. To convert a traditional 48 bit MAC address in EUI-48
format to modified EUI-64 format to be included as the host portion of an IPv6 address, use macad-
dr8_set7bit as shown:

SELECT macaddr8_set7bit('08:00:2b:01:02:03');

macaddr8_set7bit
-------------------------
0a:00:2b:ff:fe:01:02:03
(1 row)

8.10. Bit String Types

Bit strings are strings of 1's and 0's. They can be used to store or visualize bit masks. There are two
SQL bit types: bit(n) and bit varying(n), where n is a positive integer.

bit type data must match the length n exactly; it is an error to attempt to store shorter or longer bit
strings. bit varying data is of variable length up to the maximum length n; longer strings will
be rejected. Writing bit without a length is equivalent to bit(1), while bit varying without
a length specification means unlimited length.

Note
If one explicitly casts a bit-string value to bit(n), it will be truncated or zero-padded
on the right to be exactly n bits, without raising an error. Similarly, if one explicitly
casts a bit-string value to bit varying(n), it will be truncated on the right if it
is more than n bits.

Refer to Section 4.1.2.5 for information about the syntax of bit string constants. Bit-logical operators
and string manipulation functions are available; see Section 9.6.

Example 8.3. Using the Bit String Types

CREATE TABLE test (a BIT(3), b BIT VARYING(5));

INSERT INTO test VALUES (B'101', B'00');
INSERT INTO test VALUES (B'10', B'101');

ERROR: bit string length 2 does not match type bit(3)

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INSERT INTO test VALUES (B'10'::bit(3), B'101');

SELECT * FROM test;

a | b
-----+-----
101 | 00
100 | 101

A bit string value requires 1 byte for each group of 8 bits, plus 5 or 8 bytes overhead depending on
the length of the string (but long values may be compressed or moved out-of-line, as explained in
Section 8.3 for character strings).

8.11. Text Search Types

PostgreSQL provides two data types that are designed to support full text search, which is the activity
of searching through a collection of natural-language documents to locate those that best match a
query. The tsvector type represents a document in a form optimized for text search; the tsquery
type similarly represents a text query. Chapter 12 provides a detailed explanation of this facility, and
Section 9.13 summarizes the related functions and operators.

8.11.1. tsvector
A tsvector value is a sorted list of distinct lexemes, which are words that have been normalized
to merge different variants of the same word (see Chapter 12 for details). Sorting and duplicate-elim-
ination are done automatically during input, as shown in this example:

SELECT 'a fat cat sat on a mat and ate a fat rat'::tsvector;
tsvector
----------------------------------------------------
'a' 'and' 'ate' 'cat' 'fat' 'mat' 'on' 'rat' 'sat'

To represent lexemes containing whitespace or punctuation, surround them with quotes:

SELECT $$the lexeme ' ' contains spaces$$::tsvector;

tsvector
-------------------------------------------
' ' 'contains' 'lexeme' 'spaces' 'the'

(We use dollar-quoted string literals in this example and the next one to avoid the confusion of having
to double quote marks within the literals.) Embedded quotes and backslashes must be doubled:

SELECT $$the lexeme 'Joe''s' contains a quote$$::tsvector;

tsvector
------------------------------------------------
'Joe''s' 'a' 'contains' 'lexeme' 'quote' 'the'

Optionally, integer positions can be attached to lexemes:

SELECT 'a:1 fat:2 cat:3 sat:4 on:5 a:6 mat:7 and:8 ate:9 a:10
fat:11 rat:12'::tsvector;
tsvector
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'a':1,6,10 'and':8 'ate':9 'cat':3 'fat':2,11 'mat':7 'on':5
'rat':12 'sat':4

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 Data Types

A position normally indicates the source word's location in the document. Positional information can
be used for proximity ranking. Position values can range from 1 to 16383; larger numbers are silently
set to 16383. Duplicate positions for the same lexeme are discarded.

Lexemes that have positions can further be labeled with a weight, which can be A, B, C, or D. D is the
default and hence is not shown on output:

SELECT 'a:1A fat:2B,4C cat:5D'::tsvector;

tsvector
----------------------------
'a':1A 'cat':5 'fat':2B,4C

Weights are typically used to reflect document structure, for example by marking title words differ-
ently from body words. Text search ranking functions can assign different priorities to the different
weight markers.

It is important to understand that the tsvector type itself does not perform any word normalization;
it assumes the words it is given are normalized appropriately for the application. For example,

SELECT 'The Fat Rats'::tsvector;

tsvector
--------------------
'Fat' 'Rats' 'The'

For most English-text-searching applications the above words would be considered non-normalized,
but tsvector doesn't care. Raw document text should usually be passed through to_tsvector
to normalize the words appropriately for searching:

SELECT to_tsvector('english', 'The Fat Rats');

to_tsvector
-----------------
'fat':2 'rat':3

Again, see Chapter 12 for more detail.

8.11.2. tsquery
A tsquery value stores lexemes that are to be searched for, and can combine them using the Boolean
operators & (AND), | (OR), and ! (NOT), as well as the phrase search operator <-> (FOLLOWED
BY). There is also a variant <N> of the FOLLOWED BY operator, where N is an integer constant that
specifies the distance between the two lexemes being searched for. <-> is equivalent to <1>.

Parentheses can be used to enforce grouping of these operators. In the absence of parentheses, ! (NOT)
binds most tightly, <-> (FOLLOWED BY) next most tightly, then & (AND), with | (OR) binding
the least tightly.

Here are some examples:

SELECT 'fat & rat'::tsquery;

tsquery
---------------
'fat' & 'rat'

SELECT 'fat & (rat | cat)'::tsquery;

tsquery
---------------------------

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 Data Types

'fat' & ( 'rat' | 'cat' )

SELECT 'fat & rat & ! cat'::tsquery;

tsquery
------------------------
'fat' & 'rat' & !'cat'

Optionally, lexemes in a tsquery can be labeled with one or more weight letters, which restricts
them to match only tsvector lexemes with one of those weights:

SELECT 'fat:ab & cat'::tsquery;

tsquery
------------------
'fat':AB & 'cat'

Also, lexemes in a tsquery can be labeled with * to specify prefix matching:

SELECT 'super:*'::tsquery;
tsquery
-----------
'super':*

This query will match any word in a tsvector that begins with “super”.

Quoting rules for lexemes are the same as described previously for lexemes in tsvector; and, as with
tsvector, any required normalization of words must be done before converting to the tsquery
type. The to_tsquery function is convenient for performing such normalization:

SELECT to_tsquery('Fat:ab & Cats');

to_tsquery
------------------
'fat':AB & 'cat'

Note that to_tsquery will process prefixes in the same way as other words, which means this
comparison returns true:

SELECT to_tsvector( 'postgraduate' ) @@ to_tsquery( 'postgres:*' );

?column?
----------
t

because postgres gets stemmed to postgr:

SELECT to_tsvector( 'postgraduate' ), to_tsquery( 'postgres:*' );

to_tsvector | to_tsquery
---------------+------------
'postgradu':1 | 'postgr':*

which will match the stemmed form of postgraduate.

8.12. UUID Type

The data type uuid stores Universally Unique Identifiers (UUID) as defined by RFC 4122, ISO/
IEC 9834-8:2005, and related standards. (Some systems refer to this data type as a globally unique
identifier, or GUID, instead.) This identifier is a 128-bit quantity that is generated by an algorithm

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chosen to make it very unlikely that the same identifier will be generated by anyone else in the known
universe using the same algorithm. Therefore, for distributed systems, these identifiers provide a better
uniqueness guarantee than sequence generators, which are only unique within a single database.

A UUID is written as a sequence of lower-case hexadecimal digits, in several groups separated by

hyphens, specifically a group of 8 digits followed by three groups of 4 digits followed by a group of 12
digits, for a total of 32 digits representing the 128 bits. An example of a UUID in this standard form is:

a0eebc99-9c0b-4ef8-bb6d-6bb9bd380a11

PostgreSQL also accepts the following alternative forms for input: use of upper-case digits, the stan-
dard format surrounded by braces, omitting some or all hyphens, adding a hyphen after any group of
four digits. Examples are:

A0EEBC99-9C0B-4EF8-BB6D-6BB9BD380A11
{a0eebc99-9c0b-4ef8-bb6d-6bb9bd380a11}
a0eebc999c0b4ef8bb6d6bb9bd380a11
a0ee-bc99-9c0b-4ef8-bb6d-6bb9-bd38-0a11
{a0eebc99-9c0b4ef8-bb6d6bb9-bd380a11}

Output is always in the standard form.

PostgreSQL provides storage and comparison functions for UUIDs, but the core database does not
include any function for generating UUIDs, because no single algorithm is well suited for every ap-
plication. The uuid-ossp module provides functions that implement several standard algorithms. The
pgcrypto module also provides a generation function for random UUIDs. Alternatively, UUIDs could
be generated by client applications or other libraries invoked through a server-side function.

8.13. XML Type

The xml data type can be used to store XML data. Its advantage over storing XML data in a text
field is that it checks the input values for well-formedness, and there are support functions to perform
type-safe operations on it; see Section 9.14. Use of this data type requires the installation to have been
built with configure --with-libxml.

The xml type can store well-formed “documents”, as defined by the XML standard, as well as “con-
tent” fragments, which are defined by reference to the more permissive “document node”1 of the
XQuery and XPath data model. Roughly, this means that content fragments can have more than one
top-level element or character node. The expression xmlvalue IS DOCUMENT can be used to
evaluate whether a particular xml value is a full document or only a content fragment.

Limits and compatibility notes for the xml data type can be found in Section D.3.

8.13.1. Creating XML Values

To produce a value of type xml from character data, use the function xmlparse:

XMLPARSE ( { DOCUMENT | CONTENT } value)

Examples:

XMLPARSE (DOCUMENT '<?xml version="1.0"?><book><title>Manual</

title><chapter>...</chapter></book>')
XMLPARSE (CONTENT 'abc<foo>bar</foo><bar>foo</bar>')
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While this is the only way to convert character strings into XML values according to the SQL standard,
the PostgreSQL-specific syntaxes:

xml '<foo>bar</foo>'
'<foo>bar</foo>'::xml

can also be used.

The xml type does not validate input values against a document type declaration (DTD), even when
the input value specifies a DTD. There is also currently no built-in support for validating against other
XML schema languages such as XML Schema.

The inverse operation, producing a character string value from xml, uses the function xmlserial-
ize:

XMLSERIALIZE ( { DOCUMENT | CONTENT } value AS type )

type can be character, character varying, or text (or an alias for one of those). Again,
according to the SQL standard, this is the only way to convert between type xml and character types,
but PostgreSQL also allows you to simply cast the value.

When a character string value is cast to or from type xml without going through XMLPARSE or XM-
LSERIALIZE, respectively, the choice of DOCUMENT versus CONTENT is determined by the “XML
option” session configuration parameter, which can be set using the standard command:

SET XML OPTION { DOCUMENT | CONTENT };

or the more PostgreSQL-like syntax

SET xmloption TO { DOCUMENT | CONTENT };

The default is CONTENT, so all forms of XML data are allowed.

8.13.2. Encoding Handling

Care must be taken when dealing with multiple character encodings on the client, server, and in the
XML data passed through them. When using the text mode to pass queries to the server and query
results to the client (which is the normal mode), PostgreSQL converts all character data passed be-
tween the client and the server and vice versa to the character encoding of the respective end; see
Section 23.3. This includes string representations of XML values, such as in the above examples. This
would ordinarily mean that encoding declarations contained in XML data can become invalid as the
character data is converted to other encodings while traveling between client and server, because the
embedded encoding declaration is not changed. To cope with this behavior, encoding declarations
contained in character strings presented for input to the xml type are ignored, and content is assumed
to be in the current server encoding. Consequently, for correct processing, character strings of XML
data must be sent from the client in the current client encoding. It is the responsibility of the client
to either convert documents to the current client encoding before sending them to the server, or to
adjust the client encoding appropriately. On output, values of type xml will not have an encoding
declaration, and clients should assume all data is in the current client encoding.

When using binary mode to pass query parameters to the server and query results back to the client, no
encoding conversion is performed, so the situation is different. In this case, an encoding declaration
in the XML data will be observed, and if it is absent, the data will be assumed to be in UTF-8 (as
required by the XML standard; note that PostgreSQL does not support UTF-16). On output, data will
have an encoding declaration specifying the client encoding, unless the client encoding is UTF-8, in
which case it will be omitted.

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 Data Types

Needless to say, processing XML data with PostgreSQL will be less error-prone and more efficient if
the XML data encoding, client encoding, and server encoding are the same. Since XML data is inter-
nally processed in UTF-8, computations will be most efficient if the server encoding is also UTF-8.

Caution
Some XML-related functions may not work at all on non-ASCII data when the server
encoding is not UTF-8. This is known to be an issue for xmltable() and xpath()
in particular.

8.13.3. Accessing XML Values

The xml data type is unusual in that it does not provide any comparison operators. This is because
there is no well-defined and universally useful comparison algorithm for XML data. One consequence
of this is that you cannot retrieve rows by comparing an xml column against a search value. XML
values should therefore typically be accompanied by a separate key field such as an ID. An alternative
solution for comparing XML values is to convert them to character strings first, but note that character
string comparison has little to do with a useful XML comparison method.

Since there are no comparison operators for the xml data type, it is not possible to create an index
directly on a column of this type. If speedy searches in XML data are desired, possible workarounds
include casting the expression to a character string type and indexing that, or indexing an XPath ex-
pression. Of course, the actual query would have to be adjusted to search by the indexed expression.

The text-search functionality in PostgreSQL can also be used to speed up full-document searches of
XML data. The necessary preprocessing support is, however, not yet available in the PostgreSQL
distribution.

8.14. JSON Types

JSON data types are for storing JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data, as specified in RFC 71592.
Such data can also be stored as text, but the JSON data types have the advantage of enforcing that
each stored value is valid according to the JSON rules. There are also assorted JSON-specific functions
and operators available for data stored in these data types; see Section 9.15.

PostgreSQL offers two types for storing JSON data: json and jsonb. To implement efficient query
mechanisms for these data types, PostgreSQL also provides the jsonpath data type described in
Section 8.14.6.

The json and jsonb data types accept almost identical sets of values as input. The major practical
difference is one of efficiency. The json data type stores an exact copy of the input text, which pro-
cessing functions must reparse on each execution; while jsonb data is stored in a decomposed binary
format that makes it slightly slower to input due to added conversion overhead, but significantly faster
to process, since no reparsing is needed. jsonb also supports indexing, which can be a significant
advantage.

Because the json type stores an exact copy of the input text, it will preserve semantically-insignificant
white space between tokens, as well as the order of keys within JSON objects. Also, if a JSON object
within the value contains the same key more than once, all the key/value pairs are kept. (The processing
functions consider the last value as the operative one.) By contrast, jsonb does not preserve white
space, does not preserve the order of object keys, and does not keep duplicate object keys. If duplicate
keys are specified in the input, only the last value is kept.

In general, most applications should prefer to store JSON data as jsonb, unless there are quite spe-
cialized needs, such as legacy assumptions about ordering of object keys.
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 Data Types

PostgreSQL allows only one character set encoding per database. It is therefore not possible for the
JSON types to conform rigidly to the JSON specification unless the database encoding is UTF8. At-
tempts to directly include characters that cannot be represented in the database encoding will fail; con-
versely, characters that can be represented in the database encoding but not in UTF8 will be allowed.

RFC 7159 permits JSON strings to contain Unicode escape sequences denoted by \uXXXX. In the in-
put function for the json type, Unicode escapes are allowed regardless of the database encoding, and
are checked only for syntactic correctness (that is, that four hex digits follow \u). However, the input
function for jsonb is stricter: it disallows Unicode escapes for non-ASCII characters (those above U
+007F) unless the database encoding is UTF8. The jsonb type also rejects \u0000 (because that
cannot be represented in PostgreSQL's text type), and it insists that any use of Unicode surrogate
pairs to designate characters outside the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane be correct. Valid Unicode
escapes are converted to the equivalent ASCII or UTF8 character for storage; this includes folding
surrogate pairs into a single character.

Note
Many of the JSON processing functions described in Section 9.15 will convert Unicode
escapes to regular characters, and will therefore throw the same types of errors just
described even if their input is of type json not jsonb. The fact that the json input
function does not make these checks may be considered a historical artifact, although
it does allow for simple storage (without processing) of JSON Unicode escapes in a
non-UTF8 database encoding. In general, it is best to avoid mixing Unicode escapes
in JSON with a non-UTF8 database encoding, if possible.

When converting textual JSON input into jsonb, the primitive types described by RFC 7159 are
effectively mapped onto native PostgreSQL types, as shown in Table 8.23. Therefore, there are some
minor additional constraints on what constitutes valid jsonb data that do not apply to the json type,
nor to JSON in the abstract, corresponding to limits on what can be represented by the underlying data
type. Notably, jsonb will reject numbers that are outside the range of the PostgreSQL numeric
data type, while json will not. Such implementation-defined restrictions are permitted by RFC 7159.
However, in practice such problems are far more likely to occur in other implementations, as it is
common to represent JSON's number primitive type as IEEE 754 double precision floating point
(which RFC 7159 explicitly anticipates and allows for). When using JSON as an interchange format
with such systems, the danger of losing numeric precision compared to data originally stored by Post-
greSQL should be considered.

Conversely, as noted in the table there are some minor restrictions on the input format of JSON prim-
itive types that do not apply to the corresponding PostgreSQL types.

Table 8.23. JSON Primitive Types and Corresponding PostgreSQL Types

JSON primitive type PostgreSQL type Notes
string text \u0000 is disallowed, as are
non-ASCII Unicode escapes if
database encoding is not UTF8
number numeric NaN and infinity values are
disallowed
boolean boolean Only lowercase true and
false spellings are accepted
null (none) SQL NULL is a different concept

8.14.1. JSON Input and Output Syntax

The input/output syntax for the JSON data types is as specified in RFC 7159.

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 Data Types

The following are all valid json (or jsonb) expressions:

-- Simple scalar/primitive value

-- Primitive values can be numbers, quoted strings, true, false, or
null
SELECT '5'::json;

-- Array of zero or more elements (elements need not be of same

type)
SELECT '[1, 2, "foo", null]'::json;

-- Object containing pairs of keys and values

-- Note that object keys must always be quoted strings
SELECT '{"bar": "baz", "balance": 7.77, "active": false}'::json;

-- Arrays and objects can be nested arbitrarily

SELECT '{"foo": [true, "bar"], "tags": {"a": 1, "b": null}}'::json;

As previously stated, when a JSON value is input and then printed without any additional processing,
json outputs the same text that was input, while jsonb does not preserve semantically-insignificant
details such as whitespace. For example, note the differences here:

SELECT '{"bar": "baz", "balance": 7.77, "active":false}'::json;

json
-------------------------------------------------
{"bar": "baz", "balance": 7.77, "active":false}
(1 row)

SELECT '{"bar": "baz", "balance": 7.77, "active":false}'::jsonb;

jsonb
--------------------------------------------------
{"bar": "baz", "active": false, "balance": 7.77}
(1 row)

One semantically-insignificant detail worth noting is that in jsonb, numbers will be printed according
to the behavior of the underlying numeric type. In practice this means that numbers entered with E
notation will be printed without it, for example:

SELECT '{"reading": 1.230e-5}'::json, '{"reading":

1.230e-5}'::jsonb;
json | jsonb
-----------------------+-------------------------
{"reading": 1.230e-5} | {"reading": 0.00001230}
(1 row)

However, jsonb will preserve trailing fractional zeroes, as seen in this example, even though those
are semantically insignificant for purposes such as equality checks.

For the list of built-in functions and operators available for constructing and processing JSON values,
see Section 9.15.

8.14.2. Designing JSON Documents

Representing data as JSON can be considerably more flexible than the traditional relational data mod-
el, which is compelling in environments where requirements are fluid. It is quite possible for both
approaches to co-exist and complement each other within the same application. However, even for

174
 Data Types

applications where maximal flexibility is desired, it is still recommended that JSON documents have
a somewhat fixed structure. The structure is typically unenforced (though enforcing some business
rules declaratively is possible), but having a predictable structure makes it easier to write queries that
usefully summarize a set of “documents” (datums) in a table.

JSON data is subject to the same concurrency-control considerations as any other data type when
stored in a table. Although storing large documents is practicable, keep in mind that any update ac-
quires a row-level lock on the whole row. Consider limiting JSON documents to a manageable size
in order to decrease lock contention among updating transactions. Ideally, JSON documents should
each represent an atomic datum that business rules dictate cannot reasonably be further subdivided
into smaller datums that could be modified independently.

8.14.3. jsonb Containment and Existence

Testing containment is an important capability of jsonb. There is no parallel set of facilities for the
json type. Containment tests whether one jsonb document has contained within it another one.
These examples return true except as noted:

-- Simple scalar/primitive values contain only the identical value:

SELECT '"foo"'::jsonb @> '"foo"'::jsonb;

-- The array on the right side is contained within the one on the
left:
SELECT '[1, 2, 3]'::jsonb @> '[1, 3]'::jsonb;

-- Order of array elements is not significant, so this is also

true:
SELECT '[1, 2, 3]'::jsonb @> '[3, 1]'::jsonb;

-- Duplicate array elements don't matter either:

SELECT '[1, 2, 3]'::jsonb @> '[1, 2, 2]'::jsonb;

-- The object with a single pair on the right side is contained

-- within the object on the left side:
SELECT '{"product": "PostgreSQL", "version": 9.4, "jsonb":
true}'::jsonb @> '{"version": 9.4}'::jsonb;

-- The array on the right side is not considered contained within

the
-- array on the left, even though a similar array is nested within
it:
SELECT '[1, 2, [1, 3]]'::jsonb @> '[1, 3]'::jsonb; -- yields false

-- But with a layer of nesting, it is contained:

SELECT '[1, 2, [1, 3]]'::jsonb @> '[[1, 3]]'::jsonb;

-- Similarly, containment is not reported here:

SELECT '{"foo": {"bar": "baz"}}'::jsonb @> '{"bar": "baz"}'::jsonb;
-- yields false

-- A top-level key and an empty object is contained:

SELECT '{"foo": {"bar": "baz"}}'::jsonb @> '{"foo": {}}'::jsonb;

The general principle is that the contained object must match the containing object as to structure and
data contents, possibly after discarding some non-matching array elements or object key/value pairs
from the containing object. But remember that the order of array elements is not significant when
doing a containment match, and duplicate array elements are effectively considered only once.

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 Data Types

As a special exception to the general principle that the structures must match, an array may contain
a primitive value:

-- This array contains the primitive string value:

SELECT '["foo", "bar"]'::jsonb @> '"bar"'::jsonb;

-- This exception is not reciprocal -- non-containment is reported

here:
SELECT '"bar"'::jsonb @> '["bar"]'::jsonb; -- yields false

jsonb also has an existence operator, which is a variation on the theme of containment: it tests
whether a string (given as a text value) appears as an object key or array element at the top level of
the jsonb value. These examples return true except as noted:

-- String exists as array element:

SELECT '["foo", "bar", "baz"]'::jsonb ? 'bar';

-- String exists as object key:

SELECT '{"foo": "bar"}'::jsonb ? 'foo';

-- Object values are not considered:

SELECT '{"foo": "bar"}'::jsonb ? 'bar'; -- yields false

-- As with containment, existence must match at the top level:

SELECT '{"foo": {"bar": "baz"}}'::jsonb ? 'bar'; -- yields false

-- A string is considered to exist if it matches a primitive JSON

string:
SELECT '"foo"'::jsonb ? 'foo';

JSON objects are better suited than arrays for testing containment or existence when there are many
keys or elements involved, because unlike arrays they are internally optimized for searching, and do
not need to be searched linearly.

Tip
Because JSON containment is nested, an appropriate query can skip explicit selection
of sub-objects. As an example, suppose that we have a doc column containing ob-
jects at the top level, with most objects containing tags fields that contain arrays
of sub-objects. This query finds entries in which sub-objects containing both "ter-
m":"paris" and "term":"food" appear, while ignoring any such keys outside
the tags array:

SELECT doc->'site_name' FROM websites

WHERE doc @> '{"tags":[{"term":"paris"},
{"term":"food"}]}';

One could accomplish the same thing with, say,

SELECT doc->'site_name' FROM websites

WHERE doc->'tags' @> '[{"term":"paris"},
{"term":"food"}]';

but that approach is less flexible, and often less efficient as well.

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 Data Types

On the other hand, the JSON existence operator is not nested: it will only look for the
specified key or array element at top level of the JSON value.

The various containment and existence operators, along with all other JSON operators and functions
are documented in Section 9.15.

8.14.4. jsonb Indexing

GIN indexes can be used to efficiently search for keys or key/value pairs occurring within a large
number of jsonb documents (datums). Two GIN “operator classes” are provided, offering different
performance and flexibility trade-offs.

The default GIN operator class for jsonb supports queries with top-level key-exists operators ?, ?&
and ?| operators and path/value-exists operator @>. (For details of the semantics that these operators
implement, see Table 9.45.) An example of creating an index with this operator class is:

CREATE INDEX idxgin ON api USING GIN (jdoc);

The non-default GIN operator class jsonb_path_ops supports indexing the @> operator only. An
example of creating an index with this operator class is:

CREATE INDEX idxginp ON api USING GIN (jdoc jsonb_path_ops);

Consider the example of a table that stores JSON documents retrieved from a third-party web service,
with a documented schema definition. A typical document is:

{
"guid": "9c36adc1-7fb5-4d5b-83b4-90356a46061a",
"name": "Angela Barton",
"is_active": true,
"company": "Magnafone",
"address": "178 Howard Place, Gulf, Washington, 702",
"registered": "2009-11-07T08:53:22 +08:00",
"latitude": 19.793713,
"longitude": 86.513373,
"tags": [
"enim",
"aliquip",
"qui"
]
}

We store these documents in a table named api, in a jsonb column named jdoc. If a GIN index is
created on this column, queries like the following can make use of the index:

-- Find documents in which the key "company" has value "Magnafone"

SELECT jdoc->'guid', jdoc->'name' FROM api WHERE jdoc @>
'{"company": "Magnafone"}';

However, the index could not be used for queries like the following, because though the operator ? is
indexable, it is not applied directly to the indexed column jdoc:

-- Find documents in which the key "tags" contains key or array

element "qui"

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 Data Types

SELECT jdoc->'guid', jdoc->'name' FROM api WHERE jdoc -> 'tags' ?

'qui';

Still, with appropriate use of expression indexes, the above query can use an index. If querying for
particular items within the "tags" key is common, defining an index like this may be worthwhile:

CREATE INDEX idxgintags ON api USING GIN ((jdoc -> 'tags'));

Now, the WHERE clause jdoc -> 'tags' ? 'qui' will be recognized as an application of the
indexable operator ? to the indexed expression jdoc -> 'tags'. (More information on expression
indexes can be found in Section 11.7.)

Also, GIN index supports @@ and @? operators, which perform jsonpath matching.

SELECT jdoc->'guid', jdoc->'name' FROM api WHERE jdoc @@ '$.tags[*]

== "qui"';

SELECT jdoc->'guid', jdoc->'name' FROM api WHERE jdoc @@

'$.tags[*] ? (@ == "qui")';

GIN index extracts statements of following form out of jsonpath: accessors_chain = con-
st. Accessors chain may consist of .key, [*], and [index] accessors. jsonb_ops additionally
supports .* and .** accessors.

Another approach to querying is to exploit containment, for example:

-- Find documents in which the key "tags" contains array element

"qui"
SELECT jdoc->'guid', jdoc->'name' FROM api WHERE jdoc @> '{"tags":
["qui"]}';

A simple GIN index on the jdoc column can support this query. But note that such an index will
store copies of every key and value in the jdoc column, whereas the expression index of the previous
example stores only data found under the tags key. While the simple-index approach is far more
flexible (since it supports queries about any key), targeted expression indexes are likely to be smaller
and faster to search than a simple index.

Although the jsonb_path_ops operator class supports only queries with the @>, @@ and @? oper-
ators, it has notable performance advantages over the default operator class jsonb_ops. A json-
b_path_ops index is usually much smaller than a jsonb_ops index over the same data, and the
specificity of searches is better, particularly when queries contain keys that appear frequently in the
data. Therefore search operations typically perform better than with the default operator class.

The technical difference between a jsonb_ops and a jsonb_path_ops GIN index is that the
former creates independent index items for each key and value in the data, while the latter creates
index items only for each value in the data. 3 Basically, each jsonb_path_ops index item is a
hash of the value and the key(s) leading to it; for example to index {"foo": {"bar": "baz"}},
a single index item would be created incorporating all three of foo, bar, and baz into the hash
value. Thus a containment query looking for this structure would result in an extremely specific index
search; but there is no way at all to find out whether foo appears as a key. On the other hand, a
jsonb_ops index would create three index items representing foo, bar, and baz separately; then
to do the containment query, it would look for rows containing all three of these items. While GIN
indexes can perform such an AND search fairly efficiently, it will still be less specific and slower
3
For this purpose, the term “value” includes array elements, though JSON terminology sometimes considers array elements distinct from
values within objects.

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 Data Types

than the equivalent jsonb_path_ops search, especially if there are a very large number of rows
containing any single one of the three index items.

A disadvantage of the jsonb_path_ops approach is that it produces no index entries for JSON
structures not containing any values, such as {"a": {}}. If a search for documents containing such
a structure is requested, it will require a full-index scan, which is quite slow. jsonb_path_ops is
therefore ill-suited for applications that often perform such searches.

jsonb also supports btree and hash indexes. These are usually useful only if it's important to
check equality of complete JSON documents. The btree ordering for jsonb datums is seldom of
great interest, but for completeness it is:

Object > Array > Boolean > Number > String > Null

Object with n pairs > object with n - 1 pairs

Array with n elements > array with n - 1 elements

Objects with equal numbers of pairs are compared in the order:

key-1, value-1, key-2 ...

Note that object keys are compared in their storage order; in particular, since shorter keys are stored
before longer keys, this can lead to results that might be unintuitive, such as:

{ "aa": 1, "c": 1} > {"b": 1, "d": 1}

Similarly, arrays with equal numbers of elements are compared in the order:

element-1, element-2 ...

Primitive JSON values are compared using the same comparison rules as for the underlying Post-
greSQL data type. Strings are compared using the default database collation.

8.14.5. Transforms
Additional extensions are available that implement transforms for the jsonb type for different pro-
cedural languages.

The extensions for PL/Perl are called jsonb_plperl and jsonb_plperlu. If you use them,
jsonb values are mapped to Perl arrays, hashes, and scalars, as appropriate.

The extensions for PL/Python are called jsonb_plpythonu, jsonb_plpython2u, and json-
b_plpython3u (see Section 45.1 for the PL/Python naming convention). If you use them, jsonb
values are mapped to Python dictionaries, lists, and scalars, as appropriate.

8.14.6. jsonpath Type

The jsonpath type implements support for the SQL/JSON path language in PostgreSQL to effi-
ciently query JSON data. It provides a binary representation of the parsed SQL/JSON path expression
that specifies the items to be retrieved by the path engine from the JSON data for further processing
with the SQL/JSON query functions.

The semantics of SQL/JSON path predicates and operators generally follow SQL. At the same time,
to provide a most natural way of working with JSON data, SQL/JSON path syntax uses some of the
JavaScript conventions:

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 Data Types

• Dot (.) is used for member access.

• Square brackets ([]) are used for array access.

• SQL/JSON arrays are 0-relative, unlike regular SQL arrays that start from 1.

An SQL/JSON path expression is typically written in an SQL query as an SQL character string literal,
so it must be enclosed in single quotes, and any single quotes desired within the value must be doubled
(see Section 4.1.2.1). Some forms of path expressions require string literals within them. These em-
bedded string literals follow JavaScript/ECMAScript conventions: they must be surrounded by double
quotes, and backslash escapes may be used within them to represent otherwise-hard-to-type charac-
ters. In particular, the way to write a double quote within an embedded string literal is \", and to write
a backslash itself, you must write \\. Other special backslash sequences include those recognized in
JSON strings: \b, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v for various ASCII control characters, and \uNNNN for a Uni-
code character identified by its 4-hex-digit code point. The backslash syntax also includes two cases
not allowed by JSON: \xNN for a character code written with only two hex digits, and \u{N...}
for a character code written with 1 to 6 hex digits.

A path expression consists of a sequence of path elements, which can be the following:

• Path literals of JSON primitive types: Unicode text, numeric, true, false, or null.

• Path variables listed in Table 8.24.

• Accessor operators listed in Table 8.25.

• jsonpath operators and methods listed in Section 9.15.2.3

• Parentheses, which can be used to provide filter expressions or define the order of path evaluation.

For details on using jsonpath expressions with SQL/JSON query functions, see Section 9.15.2.

Table 8.24. jsonpath Variables

Variable Description
$ A variable representing the JSON text to be
queried (the context item).
$varname A named variable. Its value can be set by the pa-
rameter vars of several JSON processing func-
tions. See Table 9.47 and its notes for details.
@ A variable representing the result of path evalua-
tion in filter expressions.

Table 8.25. jsonpath Accessors

Accessor Operator Description
.key Member accessor that returns an object mem-
ber with the specified key. If the key name is a
."$varname" named variable starting with $ or does not meet
the JavaScript rules of an identifier, it must be en-
closed in double quotes as a character string liter-
al.
.* Wildcard member accessor that returns the values
of all members located at the top level of the cur-
rent object.
.** Recursive wildcard member accessor that
processes all levels of the JSON hierarchy of the

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 Data Types

Accessor Operator Description

current object and returns all the member values,
regardless of their nesting level. This is a Post-
greSQL extension of the SQL/JSON standard.
.**{level} Same as .**, but with a filter over nesting levels
of JSON hierarchy. Nesting levels are specified as
.**{start_level to end_level} integers. Zero level corresponds to the current ob-
ject. To access the lowest nesting level, you can
use the last keyword. This is a PostgreSQL ex-
tension of the SQL/JSON standard.
[subscript, ...] Array element accessor. subscript can be giv-
en in two forms: index or start_index to
end_index. The first form returns a single ar-
ray element by its index. The second form returns
an array slice by the range of indexes, includ-
ing the elements that correspond to the provided
start_index and end_index.

The specified index can be an integer, as well

as an expression returning a single numeric value,
which is automatically cast to integer. Zero index
corresponds to the first array element. You can al-
so use the last keyword to denote the last array
element, which is useful for handling arrays of un-
known length.
[*] Wildcard array element accessor that returns all
array elements.

8.15. Arrays
PostgreSQL allows columns of a table to be defined as variable-length multidimensional arrays. Arrays
of any built-in or user-defined base type, enum type, composite type, range type, or domain can be
created.

8.15.1. Declaration of Array Types

To illustrate the use of array types, we create this table:

CREATE TABLE sal_emp (

name text,
pay_by_quarter integer[],
schedule text[][]
);

As shown, an array data type is named by appending square brackets ([]) to the data type name of
the array elements. The above command will create a table named sal_emp with a column of type
text (name), a one-dimensional array of type integer (pay_by_quarter), which represents
the employee's salary by quarter, and a two-dimensional array of text (schedule), which repre-
sents the employee's weekly schedule.

The syntax for CREATE TABLE allows the exact size of arrays to be specified, for example:

CREATE TABLE tictactoe (

squares integer[3][3]

181
 Data Types

);

However, the current implementation ignores any supplied array size limits, i.e., the behavior is the
same as for arrays of unspecified length.

The current implementation does not enforce the declared number of dimensions either. Arrays of
a particular element type are all considered to be of the same type, regardless of size or number of
dimensions. So, declaring the array size or number of dimensions in CREATE TABLE is simply
documentation; it does not affect run-time behavior.

An alternative syntax, which conforms to the SQL standard by using the keyword ARRAY, can be used
for one-dimensional arrays. pay_by_quarter could have been defined as:

pay_by_quarter integer ARRAY[4],

Or, if no array size is to be specified:

pay_by_quarter integer ARRAY,

As before, however, PostgreSQL does not enforce the size restriction in any case.

8.15.2. Array Value Input

To write an array value as a literal constant, enclose the element values within curly braces and separate
them by commas. (If you know C, this is not unlike the C syntax for initializing structures.) You can
put double quotes around any element value, and must do so if it contains commas or curly braces.
(More details appear below.) Thus, the general format of an array constant is the following:

'{ val1 delim val2 delim ... }'

where delim is the delimiter character for the type, as recorded in its pg_type entry. Among the
standard data types provided in the PostgreSQL distribution, all use a comma (,), except for type box
which uses a semicolon (;). Each val is either a constant of the array element type, or a subarray.
An example of an array constant is:

'{{1,2,3},{4,5,6},{7,8,9}}'

This constant is a two-dimensional, 3-by-3 array consisting of three subarrays of integers.

To set an element of an array constant to NULL, write NULL for the element value. (Any upper- or
lower-case variant of NULL will do.) If you want an actual string value “NULL”, you must put double
quotes around it.

(These kinds of array constants are actually only a special case of the generic type constants discussed
in Section 4.1.2.7. The constant is initially treated as a string and passed to the array input conversion
routine. An explicit type specification might be necessary.)

Now we can show some INSERT statements:

INSERT INTO sal_emp

VALUES ('Bill',
'{10000, 10000, 10000, 10000}',
'{{"meeting", "lunch"}, {"training", "presentation"}}');

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 Data Types

INSERT INTO sal_emp

VALUES ('Carol',
'{20000, 25000, 25000, 25000}',
'{{"breakfast", "consulting"}, {"meeting", "lunch"}}');

The result of the previous two inserts looks like this:

SELECT * FROM sal_emp;

name | pay_by_quarter | schedule
-------+---------------------------
+-------------------------------------------
Bill | {10000,10000,10000,10000} | {{meeting,lunch},
{training,presentation}}
Carol | {20000,25000,25000,25000} | {{breakfast,consulting},
{meeting,lunch}}
(2 rows)

Multidimensional arrays must have matching extents for each dimension. A mismatch causes an error,
for example:

INSERT INTO sal_emp

VALUES ('Bill',
'{10000, 10000, 10000, 10000}',
'{{"meeting", "lunch"}, {"meeting"}}');
ERROR: multidimensional arrays must have array expressions with
matching dimensions

The ARRAY constructor syntax can also be used:

INSERT INTO sal_emp

VALUES ('Bill',
ARRAY[10000, 10000, 10000, 10000],
ARRAY[['meeting', 'lunch'], ['training', 'presentation']]);

INSERT INTO sal_emp

VALUES ('Carol',
ARRAY[20000, 25000, 25000, 25000],
ARRAY[['breakfast', 'consulting'], ['meeting', 'lunch']]);

Notice that the array elements are ordinary SQL constants or expressions; for instance, string literals
are single quoted, instead of double quoted as they would be in an array literal. The ARRAY constructor
syntax is discussed in more detail in Section 4.2.12.

8.15.3. Accessing Arrays

Now, we can run some queries on the table. First, we show how to access a single element of an array.
This query retrieves the names of the employees whose pay changed in the second quarter:

SELECT name FROM sal_emp WHERE pay_by_quarter[1] <>

pay_by_quarter[2];

name
-------
Carol
(1 row)

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 Data Types

The array subscript numbers are written within square brackets. By default PostgreSQL uses a one-
based numbering convention for arrays, that is, an array of n elements starts with array[1] and
ends with array[n].

This query retrieves the third quarter pay of all employees:

SELECT pay_by_quarter[3] FROM sal_emp;

pay_by_quarter
----------------
10000
25000
(2 rows)

We can also access arbitrary rectangular slices of an array, or subarrays. An array slice is denoted by
writing lower-bound:upper-bound for one or more array dimensions. For example, this query
retrieves the first item on Bill's schedule for the first two days of the week:

SELECT schedule[1:2][1:1] FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Bill';

schedule
------------------------
{{meeting},{training}}
(1 row)

If any dimension is written as a slice, i.e., contains a colon, then all dimensions are treated as slices.
Any dimension that has only a single number (no colon) is treated as being from 1 to the number
specified. For example, [2] is treated as [1:2], as in this example:

SELECT schedule[1:2][2] FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Bill';

schedule
-------------------------------------------
{{meeting,lunch},{training,presentation}}
(1 row)

To avoid confusion with the non-slice case, it's best to use slice syntax for all dimensions, e.g., [1:2]
[1:1], not [2][1:1].

It is possible to omit the lower-bound and/or upper-bound of a slice specifier; the missing
bound is replaced by the lower or upper limit of the array's subscripts. For example:

SELECT schedule[:2][2:] FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Bill';

schedule
------------------------
{{lunch},{presentation}}
(1 row)

SELECT schedule[:][1:1] FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Bill';

schedule
------------------------
{{meeting},{training}}
(1 row)

184
 Data Types

An array subscript expression will return null if either the array itself or any of the subscript expressions
are null. Also, null is returned if a subscript is outside the array bounds (this case does not raise
an error). For example, if schedule currently has the dimensions [1:3][1:2] then referencing
schedule[3][3] yields NULL. Similarly, an array reference with the wrong number of subscripts
yields a null rather than an error.

An array slice expression likewise yields null if the array itself or any of the subscript expressions are
null. However, in other cases such as selecting an array slice that is completely outside the current array
bounds, a slice expression yields an empty (zero-dimensional) array instead of null. (This does not
match non-slice behavior and is done for historical reasons.) If the requested slice partially overlaps
the array bounds, then it is silently reduced to just the overlapping region instead of returning null.

The current dimensions of any array value can be retrieved with the array_dims function:

SELECT array_dims(schedule) FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Carol';

array_dims
------------
[1:2][1:2]
(1 row)

array_dims produces a text result, which is convenient for people to read but perhaps incon-
venient for programs. Dimensions can also be retrieved with array_upper and array_lower,
which return the upper and lower bound of a specified array dimension, respectively:

SELECT array_upper(schedule, 1) FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Carol';

array_upper
-------------
2
(1 row)

array_length will return the length of a specified array dimension:

SELECT array_length(schedule, 1) FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Carol';

array_length
--------------
2
(1 row)

cardinality returns the total number of elements in an array across all dimensions. It is effectively
the number of rows a call to unnest would yield:

SELECT cardinality(schedule) FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Carol';

cardinality
-------------
4
(1 row)

8.15.4. Modifying Arrays

An array value can be replaced completely:

185
 Data Types

UPDATE sal_emp SET pay_by_quarter = '{25000,25000,27000,27000}'

WHERE name = 'Carol';

or using the ARRAY expression syntax:

UPDATE sal_emp SET pay_by_quarter = ARRAY[25000,25000,27000,27000]

WHERE name = 'Carol';

An array can also be updated at a single element:

UPDATE sal_emp SET pay_by_quarter[4] = 15000

WHERE name = 'Bill';

or updated in a slice:

UPDATE sal_emp SET pay_by_quarter[1:2] = '{27000,27000}'

WHERE name = 'Carol';

The slice syntaxes with omitted lower-bound and/or upper-bound can be used too, but only
when updating an array value that is not NULL or zero-dimensional (otherwise, there is no existing
subscript limit to substitute).

A stored array value can be enlarged by assigning to elements not already present. Any positions be-
tween those previously present and the newly assigned elements will be filled with nulls. For exam-
ple, if array myarray currently has 4 elements, it will have six elements after an update that assigns
to myarray[6]; myarray[5] will contain null. Currently, enlargement in this fashion is only al-
lowed for one-dimensional arrays, not multidimensional arrays.

Subscripted assignment allows creation of arrays that do not use one-based subscripts. For example
one might assign to myarray[-2:7] to create an array with subscript values from -2 to 7.

New array values can also be constructed using the concatenation operator, ||:

SELECT ARRAY[1,2] || ARRAY[3,4];

?column?
-----------
{1,2,3,4}
(1 row)

SELECT ARRAY[5,6] || ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]];

?column?
---------------------
{{5,6},{1,2},{3,4}}
(1 row)

The concatenation operator allows a single element to be pushed onto the beginning or end of a one-
dimensional array. It also accepts two N-dimensional arrays, or an N-dimensional and an N+1-dimen-
sional array.

When a single element is pushed onto either the beginning or end of a one-dimensional array, the
result is an array with the same lower bound subscript as the array operand. For example:

SELECT array_dims(1 || '[0:1]={2,3}'::int[]);

array_dims
------------

186
 Data Types

[0:2]
(1 row)

SELECT array_dims(ARRAY[1,2] || 3);

array_dims
------------
[1:3]
(1 row)

When two arrays with an equal number of dimensions are concatenated, the result retains the lower
bound subscript of the left-hand operand's outer dimension. The result is an array comprising every
element of the left-hand operand followed by every element of the right-hand operand. For example:

SELECT array_dims(ARRAY[1,2] || ARRAY[3,4,5]);

array_dims
------------
[1:5]
(1 row)

SELECT array_dims(ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]] || ARRAY[[5,6],[7,8],[9,0]]);

array_dims
------------
[1:5][1:2]
(1 row)

When an N-dimensional array is pushed onto the beginning or end of an N+1-dimensional array, the
result is analogous to the element-array case above. Each N-dimensional sub-array is essentially an
element of the N+1-dimensional array's outer dimension. For example:

SELECT array_dims(ARRAY[1,2] || ARRAY[[3,4],[5,6]]);

array_dims
------------
[1:3][1:2]
(1 row)

An array can also be constructed by using the functions array_prepend, array_append, or

array_cat. The first two only support one-dimensional arrays, but array_cat supports multidi-
mensional arrays. Some examples:

SELECT array_prepend(1, ARRAY[2,3]);

array_prepend
---------------
{1,2,3}
(1 row)

SELECT array_append(ARRAY[1,2], 3);

array_append
--------------
{1,2,3}
(1 row)

SELECT array_cat(ARRAY[1,2], ARRAY[3,4]);

array_cat
-----------
{1,2,3,4}
(1 row)

187
 Data Types

SELECT array_cat(ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]], ARRAY[5,6]);

array_cat
---------------------
{{1,2},{3,4},{5,6}}
(1 row)

SELECT array_cat(ARRAY[5,6], ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]]);

array_cat
---------------------
{{5,6},{1,2},{3,4}}

In simple cases, the concatenation operator discussed above is preferred over direct use of these func-
tions. However, because the concatenation operator is overloaded to serve all three cases, there are
situations where use of one of the functions is helpful to avoid ambiguity. For example consider:

SELECT ARRAY[1, 2] || '{3, 4}'; -- the untyped literal is taken as

an array
?column?
-----------
{1,2,3,4}

SELECT ARRAY[1, 2] || '7'; -- so is this one

ERROR: malformed array literal: "7"

SELECT ARRAY[1, 2] || NULL; -- so is an undecorated

NULL
?column?
----------
{1,2}
(1 row)

SELECT array_append(ARRAY[1, 2], NULL); -- this might have been

meant
array_append
--------------
{1,2,NULL}

In the examples above, the parser sees an integer array on one side of the concatenation operator,
and a constant of undetermined type on the other. The heuristic it uses to resolve the constant's type
is to assume it's of the same type as the operator's other input — in this case, integer array. So the
concatenation operator is presumed to represent array_cat, not array_append. When that's the
wrong choice, it could be fixed by casting the constant to the array's element type; but explicit use of
array_append might be a preferable solution.

8.15.5. Searching in Arrays

To search for a value in an array, each value must be checked. This can be done manually, if you know
the size of the array. For example:

SELECT * FROM sal_emp WHERE pay_by_quarter[1] = 10000 OR

pay_by_quarter[2] = 10000 OR
pay_by_quarter[3] = 10000 OR
pay_by_quarter[4] = 10000;

However, this quickly becomes tedious for large arrays, and is not helpful if the size of the array is
unknown. An alternative method is described in Section 9.23. The above query could be replaced by:

188
 Data Types

SELECT * FROM sal_emp WHERE 10000 = ANY (pay_by_quarter);

In addition, you can find rows where the array has all values equal to 10000 with:

SELECT * FROM sal_emp WHERE 10000 = ALL (pay_by_quarter);

Alternatively, the generate_subscripts function can be used. For example:

SELECT * FROM
(SELECT pay_by_quarter,
generate_subscripts(pay_by_quarter, 1) AS s
FROM sal_emp) AS foo
WHERE pay_by_quarter[s] = 10000;

This function is described in Table 9.62.

You can also search an array using the && operator, which checks whether the left operand overlaps
with the right operand. For instance:

SELECT * FROM sal_emp WHERE pay_by_quarter && ARRAY[10000];

This and other array operators are further described in Section 9.18. It can be accelerated by an ap-
propriate index, as described in Section 11.2.

You can also search for specific values in an array using the array_position and array_po-
sitions functions. The former returns the subscript of the first occurrence of a value in an array;
the latter returns an array with the subscripts of all occurrences of the value in the array. For example:

SELECT
array_position(ARRAY['sun','mon','tue','wed','thu','fri','sat'],
'mon');
array_positions
-----------------
2

SELECT array_positions(ARRAY[1, 4, 3, 1, 3, 4, 2, 1], 1);

array_positions
-----------------
{1,4,8}

Tip
Arrays are not sets; searching for specific array elements can be a sign of database
misdesign. Consider using a separate table with a row for each item that would be an
array element. This will be easier to search, and is likely to scale better for a large
number of elements.

8.15.6. Array Input and Output Syntax

The external text representation of an array value consists of items that are interpreted according to
the I/O conversion rules for the array's element type, plus decoration that indicates the array structure.
The decoration consists of curly braces ({ and }) around the array value plus delimiter characters
between adjacent items. The delimiter character is usually a comma (,) but can be something else: it

189
 Data Types

is determined by the typdelim setting for the array's element type. Among the standard data types
provided in the PostgreSQL distribution, all use a comma, except for type box, which uses a semicolon
(;). In a multidimensional array, each dimension (row, plane, cube, etc.) gets its own level of curly
braces, and delimiters must be written between adjacent curly-braced entities of the same level.

The array output routine will put double quotes around element values if they are empty strings, con-
tain curly braces, delimiter characters, double quotes, backslashes, or white space, or match the word
NULL. Double quotes and backslashes embedded in element values will be backslash-escaped. For
numeric data types it is safe to assume that double quotes will never appear, but for textual data types
one should be prepared to cope with either the presence or absence of quotes.

By default, the lower bound index value of an array's dimensions is set to one. To represent arrays
with other lower bounds, the array subscript ranges can be specified explicitly before writing the array
contents. This decoration consists of square brackets ([]) around each array dimension's lower and
upper bounds, with a colon (:) delimiter character in between. The array dimension decoration is
followed by an equal sign (=). For example:

SELECT f1[1][-2][3] AS e1, f1[1][-1][5] AS e2

FROM (SELECT '[1:1][-2:-1][3:5]={{{1,2,3},{4,5,6}}}'::int[] AS f1)
AS ss;

e1 | e2
----+----
1 | 6
(1 row)

The array output routine will include explicit dimensions in its result only when there are one or more
lower bounds different from one.

If the value written for an element is NULL (in any case variant), the element is taken to be NULL.
The presence of any quotes or backslashes disables this and allows the literal string value “NULL”
to be entered. Also, for backward compatibility with pre-8.2 versions of PostgreSQL, the array_nulls
configuration parameter can be turned off to suppress recognition of NULL as a NULL.

As shown previously, when writing an array value you can use double quotes around any individual
array element. You must do so if the element value would otherwise confuse the array-value parser.
For example, elements containing curly braces, commas (or the data type's delimiter character), dou-
ble quotes, backslashes, or leading or trailing whitespace must be double-quoted. Empty strings and
strings matching the word NULL must be quoted, too. To put a double quote or backslash in a quoted
array element value, precede it with a backslash. Alternatively, you can avoid quotes and use back-
slash-escaping to protect all data characters that would otherwise be taken as array syntax.

You can add whitespace before a left brace or after a right brace. You can also add whitespace before
or after any individual item string. In all of these cases the whitespace will be ignored. However,
whitespace within double-quoted elements, or surrounded on both sides by non-whitespace characters
of an element, is not ignored.

Tip
The ARRAY constructor syntax (see Section 4.2.12) is often easier to work with than
the array-literal syntax when writing array values in SQL commands. In ARRAY, indi-
vidual element values are written the same way they would be written when not mem-
bers of an array.

8.16. Composite Types

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 Data Types

A composite type represents the structure of a row or record; it is essentially just a list of field names
and their data types. PostgreSQL allows composite types to be used in many of the same ways that
simple types can be used. For example, a column of a table can be declared to be of a composite type.

8.16.1. Declaration of Composite Types

Here are two simple examples of defining composite types:

CREATE TYPE complex AS (

r double precision,
i double precision
);

CREATE TYPE inventory_item AS (

name text,
supplier_id integer,
price numeric
);

The syntax is comparable to CREATE TABLE, except that only field names and types can be specified;
no constraints (such as NOT NULL) can presently be included. Note that the AS keyword is essential;
without it, the system will think a different kind of CREATE TYPE command is meant, and you will
get odd syntax errors.

Having defined the types, we can use them to create tables:

CREATE TABLE on_hand (

item inventory_item,
count integer
);

INSERT INTO on_hand VALUES (ROW('fuzzy dice', 42, 1.99), 1000);

or functions:

CREATE FUNCTION price_extension(inventory_item, integer) RETURNS

numeric
AS 'SELECT $1.price * $2' LANGUAGE SQL;

SELECT price_extension(item, 10) FROM on_hand;

Whenever you create a table, a composite type is also automatically created, with the same name as
the table, to represent the table's row type. For example, had we said:

CREATE TABLE inventory_item (

name text,
supplier_id integer REFERENCES suppliers,
price numeric CHECK (price > 0)
);

then the same inventory_item composite type shown above would come into being as a byprod-
uct, and could be used just as above. Note however an important restriction of the current implemen-
tation: since no constraints are associated with a composite type, the constraints shown in the table
definition do not apply to values of the composite type outside the table. (To work around this, cre-
ate a domain over the composite type, and apply the desired constraints as CHECK constraints of the
domain.)

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 Data Types

8.16.2. Constructing Composite Values

To write a composite value as a literal constant, enclose the field values within parentheses and separate
them by commas. You can put double quotes around any field value, and must do so if it contains
commas or parentheses. (More details appear below.) Thus, the general format of a composite constant
is the following:

'( val1 , val2 , ... )'

An example is:

'("fuzzy dice",42,1.99)'

which would be a valid value of the inventory_item type defined above. To make a field be
NULL, write no characters at all in its position in the list. For example, this constant specifies a NULL
third field:

'("fuzzy dice",42,)'

If you want an empty string rather than NULL, write double quotes:

'("",42,)'

Here the first field is a non-NULL empty string, the third is NULL.

(These constants are actually only a special case of the generic type constants discussed in Sec-
tion 4.1.2.7. The constant is initially treated as a string and passed to the composite-type input con-
version routine. An explicit type specification might be necessary to tell which type to convert the
constant to.)

The ROW expression syntax can also be used to construct composite values. In most cases this is
considerably simpler to use than the string-literal syntax since you don't have to worry about multiple
layers of quoting. We already used this method above:

ROW('fuzzy dice', 42, 1.99)

ROW('', 42, NULL)

The ROW keyword is actually optional as long as you have more than one field in the expression,
so these can be simplified to:

('fuzzy dice', 42, 1.99)

('', 42, NULL)

The ROW expression syntax is discussed in more detail in Section 4.2.13.

8.16.3. Accessing Composite Types

To access a field of a composite column, one writes a dot and the field name, much like selecting a
field from a table name. In fact, it's so much like selecting from a table name that you often have to use
parentheses to keep from confusing the parser. For example, you might try to select some subfields
from our on_hand example table with something like:

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 Data Types

SELECT item.name FROM on_hand WHERE item.price > 9.99;

This will not work since the name item is taken to be a table name, not a column name of on_hand,
per SQL syntax rules. You must write it like this:

SELECT (item).name FROM on_hand WHERE (item).price > 9.99;

or if you need to use the table name as well (for instance in a multitable query), like this:

SELECT (on_hand.item).name FROM on_hand WHERE (on_hand.item).price

> 9.99;

Now the parenthesized object is correctly interpreted as a reference to the item column, and then the
subfield can be selected from it.

Similar syntactic issues apply whenever you select a field from a composite value. For instance, to
select just one field from the result of a function that returns a composite value, you'd need to write
something like:

SELECT (my_func(...)).field FROM ...

Without the extra parentheses, this will generate a syntax error.

The special field name * means “all fields”, as further explained in Section 8.16.5.

8.16.4. Modifying Composite Types

Here are some examples of the proper syntax for inserting and updating composite columns. First,
inserting or updating a whole column:

INSERT INTO mytab (complex_col) VALUES((1.1,2.2));

UPDATE mytab SET complex_col = ROW(1.1,2.2) WHERE ...;

The first example omits ROW, the second uses it; we could have done it either way.

We can update an individual subfield of a composite column:

UPDATE mytab SET complex_col.r = (complex_col).r + 1 WHERE ...;

Notice here that we don't need to (and indeed cannot) put parentheses around the column name ap-
pearing just after SET, but we do need parentheses when referencing the same column in the expres-
sion to the right of the equal sign.

And we can specify subfields as targets for INSERT, too:

INSERT INTO mytab (complex_col.r, complex_col.i) VALUES(1.1, 2.2);

Had we not supplied values for all the subfields of the column, the remaining subfields would have
been filled with null values.

8.16.5. Using Composite Types in Queries

There are various special syntax rules and behaviors associated with composite types in queries. These
rules provide useful shortcuts, but can be confusing if you don't know the logic behind them.

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 Data Types

In PostgreSQL, a reference to a table name (or alias) in a query is effectively a reference to the com-
posite value of the table's current row. For example, if we had a table inventory_item as shown
above, we could write:

SELECT c FROM inventory_item c;

This query produces a single composite-valued column, so we might get output like:

c
------------------------
("fuzzy dice",42,1.99)
(1 row)

Note however that simple names are matched to column names before table names, so this example
works only because there is no column named c in the query's tables.

The ordinary qualified-column-name syntax table_name.column_name can be understood as

applying field selection to the composite value of the table's current row. (For efficiency reasons, it's
not actually implemented that way.)

When we write

SELECT c.* FROM inventory_item c;

then, according to the SQL standard, we should get the contents of the table expanded into separate
columns:

name | supplier_id | price

------------+-------------+-------
fuzzy dice | 42 | 1.99
(1 row)

as if the query were

SELECT c.name, c.supplier_id, c.price FROM inventory_item c;

PostgreSQL will apply this expansion behavior to any composite-valued expression, although as
shown above, you need to write parentheses around the value that .* is applied to whenever it's not a
simple table name. For example, if myfunc() is a function returning a composite type with columns
a, b, and c, then these two queries have the same result:

SELECT (myfunc(x)).* FROM some_table;

SELECT (myfunc(x)).a, (myfunc(x)).b, (myfunc(x)).c FROM some_table;

Tip
PostgreSQL handles column expansion by actually transforming the first form into the
second. So, in this example, myfunc() would get invoked three times per row with
either syntax. If it's an expensive function you may wish to avoid that, which you can
do with a query like:

SELECT m.* FROM some_table, LATERAL myfunc(x) AS m;

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 Data Types

Placing the function in a LATERAL FROM item keeps it from being invoked more than
once per row. m.* is still expanded into m.a, m.b, m.c, but now those variables
are just references to the output of the FROM item. (The LATERAL keyword is optional
here, but we show it to clarify that the function is getting x from some_table.)

The composite_value.* syntax results in column expansion of this kind when it appears at the
top level of a SELECT output list, a RETURNING list in INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, a VALUES
clause, or a row constructor. In all other contexts (including when nested inside one of those con-
structs), attaching .* to a composite value does not change the value, since it means “all columns”
and so the same composite value is produced again. For example, if somefunc() accepts a com-
posite-valued argument, these queries are the same:

SELECT somefunc(c.*) FROM inventory_item c;

SELECT somefunc(c) FROM inventory_item c;

In both cases, the current row of inventory_item is passed to the function as a single compos-
ite-valued argument. Even though .* does nothing in such cases, using it is good style, since it makes
clear that a composite value is intended. In particular, the parser will consider c in c.* to refer to a
table name or alias, not to a column name, so that there is no ambiguity; whereas without .*, it is not
clear whether c means a table name or a column name, and in fact the column-name interpretation
will be preferred if there is a column named c.

Another example demonstrating these concepts is that all these queries mean the same thing:

SELECT * FROM inventory_item c ORDER BY c;

SELECT * FROM inventory_item c ORDER BY c.*;
SELECT * FROM inventory_item c ORDER BY ROW(c.*);

All of these ORDER BY clauses specify the row's composite value, resulting in sorting the rows ac-
cording to the rules described in Section 9.23.6. However, if inventory_item contained a column
named c, the first case would be different from the others, as it would mean to sort by that column
only. Given the column names previously shown, these queries are also equivalent to those above:

SELECT * FROM inventory_item c ORDER BY ROW(c.name, c.supplier_id,

c.price);
SELECT * FROM inventory_item c ORDER BY (c.name, c.supplier_id,
c.price);

(The last case uses a row constructor with the key word ROW omitted.)

Another special syntactical behavior associated with composite values is that we can use functional
notation for extracting a field of a composite value. The simple way to explain this is that the notations
field(table) and table.field are interchangeable. For example, these queries are equiva-
lent:

SELECT c.name FROM inventory_item c WHERE c.price > 1000;

SELECT name(c) FROM inventory_item c WHERE price(c) > 1000;

Moreover, if we have a function that accepts a single argument of a composite type, we can call it
with either notation. These queries are all equivalent:

SELECT somefunc(c) FROM inventory_item c;

SELECT somefunc(c.*) FROM inventory_item c;

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 Data Types

SELECT c.somefunc FROM inventory_item c;

This equivalence between functional notation and field notation makes it possible to use functions on
composite types to implement “computed fields”. An application using the last query above wouldn't
need to be directly aware that somefunc isn't a real column of the table.

Tip
Because of this behavior, it's unwise to give a function that takes a single compos-
ite-type argument the same name as any of the fields of that composite type. If there
is ambiguity, the field-name interpretation will be chosen if field-name syntax is used,
while the function will be chosen if function-call syntax is used. However, Post-
greSQL versions before 11 always chose the field-name interpretation, unless the syn-
tax of the call required it to be a function call. One way to force the function in-
terpretation in older versions is to schema-qualify the function name, that is, write
schema.func(compositevalue).

8.16.6. Composite Type Input and Output Syntax

The external text representation of a composite value consists of items that are interpreted according
to the I/O conversion rules for the individual field types, plus decoration that indicates the composite
structure. The decoration consists of parentheses (( and )) around the whole value, plus commas (,)
between adjacent items. Whitespace outside the parentheses is ignored, but within the parentheses it
is considered part of the field value, and might or might not be significant depending on the input
conversion rules for the field data type. For example, in:

'( 42)'

the whitespace will be ignored if the field type is integer, but not if it is text.

As shown previously, when writing a composite value you can write double quotes around any indi-
vidual field value. You must do so if the field value would otherwise confuse the composite-value
parser. In particular, fields containing parentheses, commas, double quotes, or backslashes must be
double-quoted. To put a double quote or backslash in a quoted composite field value, precede it with
a backslash. (Also, a pair of double quotes within a double-quoted field value is taken to represent a
double quote character, analogously to the rules for single quotes in SQL literal strings.) Alternatively,
you can avoid quoting and use backslash-escaping to protect all data characters that would otherwise
be taken as composite syntax.

A completely empty field value (no characters at all between the commas or parentheses) represents
a NULL. To write a value that is an empty string rather than NULL, write "".

The composite output routine will put double quotes around field values if they are empty strings or
contain parentheses, commas, double quotes, backslashes, or white space. (Doing so for white space
is not essential, but aids legibility.) Double quotes and backslashes embedded in field values will be
doubled.

Note
Remember that what you write in an SQL command will first be interpreted as a string
literal, and then as a composite. This doubles the number of backslashes you need
(assuming escape string syntax is used). For example, to insert a text field containing
a double quote and a backslash in a composite value, you'd need to write:

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 Data Types

INSERT ... VALUES ('("\"\\")');

The string-literal processor removes one level of backslashes, so that what arrives at
the composite-value parser looks like ("\"\\"). In turn, the string fed to the text
data type's input routine becomes "\. (If we were working with a data type whose
input routine also treated backslashes specially, bytea for example, we might need
as many as eight backslashes in the command to get one backslash into the stored
composite field.) Dollar quoting (see Section 4.1.2.4) can be used to avoid the need
to double backslashes.

Tip
The ROW constructor syntax is usually easier to work with than the composite-literal
syntax when writing composite values in SQL commands. In ROW, individual field val-
ues are written the same way they would be written when not members of a composite.

8.17. Range Types

Range types are data types representing a range of values of some element type (called the range's
subtype). For instance, ranges of timestamp might be used to represent the ranges of time that a
meeting room is reserved. In this case the data type is tsrange (short for “timestamp range”), and
timestamp is the subtype. The subtype must have a total order so that it is well-defined whether
element values are within, before, or after a range of values.

Range types are useful because they represent many element values in a single range value, and be-
cause concepts such as overlapping ranges can be expressed clearly. The use of time and date ranges
for scheduling purposes is the clearest example; but price ranges, measurement ranges from an instru-
ment, and so forth can also be useful.

8.17.1. Built-in Range Types

PostgreSQL comes with the following built-in range types:

• int4range — Range of integer

• int8range — Range of bigint

• numrange — Range of numeric

• tsrange — Range of timestamp without time zone

• tstzrange — Range of timestamp with time zone

• daterange — Range of date

In addition, you can define your own range types; see CREATE TYPE for more information.

8.17.2. Examples

CREATE TABLE reservation (room int, during tsrange);

INSERT INTO reservation VALUES
(1108, '[2010-01-01 14:30, 2010-01-01 15:30)');

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 Data Types

-- Containment
SELECT int4range(10, 20) @> 3;

-- Overlaps
SELECT numrange(11.1, 22.2) && numrange(20.0, 30.0);

-- Extract the upper bound

SELECT upper(int8range(15, 25));

-- Compute the intersection

SELECT int4range(10, 20) * int4range(15, 25);

-- Is the range empty?

SELECT isempty(numrange(1, 5));

See Table 9.53 and Table 9.54 for complete lists of operators and functions on range types.

8.17.3. Inclusive and Exclusive Bounds

Every non-empty range has two bounds, the lower bound and the upper bound. All points between
these values are included in the range. An inclusive bound means that the boundary point itself is
included in the range as well, while an exclusive bound means that the boundary point is not included
in the range.

In the text form of a range, an inclusive lower bound is represented by “[” while an exclusive lower
bound is represented by “(”. Likewise, an inclusive upper bound is represented by “]”, while an
exclusive upper bound is represented by “)”. (See Section 8.17.5 for more details.)

The functions lower_inc and upper_inc test the inclusivity of the lower and upper bounds of
a range value, respectively.

8.17.4. Infinite (Unbounded) Ranges

The lower bound of a range can be omitted, meaning that all points less than the upper bound are
included in the range. Likewise, if the upper bound of the range is omitted, then all points greater than
the lower bound are included in the range. If both lower and upper bounds are omitted, all values of
the element type are considered to be in the range.

This is equivalent to considering that the lower bound is “minus infinity”, or the upper bound is “plus
infinity”, respectively. But note that these infinite values are never values of the range's element type,
and can never be part of the range. (So there is no such thing as an inclusive infinite bound — if you
try to write one, it will automatically be converted to an exclusive bound.)

Also, some element types have a notion of “infinity”, but that is just another value so far as the range
type mechanisms are concerned. For example, in timestamp ranges, [today,] means the same thing
as [today,). But [today,infinity] means something different from [today,infinity)
— the latter excludes the special timestamp value infinity.

The functions lower_inf and upper_inf test for infinite lower and upper bounds of a range,
respectively.

8.17.5. Range Input/Output

The input for a range value must follow one of the following patterns:

(lower-bound,upper-bound)

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 Data Types

(lower-bound,upper-bound]
[lower-bound,upper-bound)
[lower-bound,upper-bound]
empty

The parentheses or brackets indicate whether the lower and upper bounds are exclusive or inclusive,
as described previously. Notice that the final pattern is empty, which represents an empty range (a
range that contains no points).

The lower-bound may be either a string that is valid input for the subtype, or empty to indicate
no lower bound. Likewise, upper-bound may be either a string that is valid input for the subtype,
or empty to indicate no upper bound.

Each bound value can be quoted using " (double quote) characters. This is necessary if the bound
value contains parentheses, brackets, commas, double quotes, or backslashes, since these characters
would otherwise be taken as part of the range syntax. To put a double quote or backslash in a quoted
bound value, precede it with a backslash. (Also, a pair of double quotes within a double-quoted bound
value is taken to represent a double quote character, analogously to the rules for single quotes in SQL
literal strings.) Alternatively, you can avoid quoting and use backslash-escaping to protect all data
characters that would otherwise be taken as range syntax. Also, to write a bound value that is an empty
string, write "", since writing nothing means an infinite bound.

Whitespace is allowed before and after the range value, but any whitespace between the parentheses
or brackets is taken as part of the lower or upper bound value. (Depending on the element type, it
might or might not be significant.)

Note
These rules are very similar to those for writing field values in composite-type literals.
See Section 8.16.6 for additional commentary.

Examples:

-- includes 3, does not include 7, and does include all points in

between
SELECT '[3,7)'::int4range;

-- does not include either 3 or 7, but includes all points in

between
SELECT '(3,7)'::int4range;

-- includes only the single point 4

SELECT '[4,4]'::int4range;

-- includes no points (and will be normalized to 'empty')

SELECT '[4,4)'::int4range;

8.17.6. Constructing Ranges

Each range type has a constructor function with the same name as the range type. Using the constructor
function is frequently more convenient than writing a range literal constant, since it avoids the need
for extra quoting of the bound values. The constructor function accepts two or three arguments. The
two-argument form constructs a range in standard form (lower bound inclusive, upper bound exclu-
sive), while the three-argument form constructs a range with bounds of the form specified by the third
argument. The third argument must be one of the strings “()”, “(]”, “[)”, or “[]”. For example:

199
 Data Types

-- The full form is: lower bound, upper bound, and text argument
indicating
-- inclusivity/exclusivity of bounds.
SELECT numrange(1.0, 14.0, '(]');

-- If the third argument is omitted, '[)' is assumed.

SELECT numrange(1.0, 14.0);

-- Although '(]' is specified here, on display the value will be

converted to
-- canonical form, since int8range is a discrete range type (see
below).
SELECT int8range(1, 14, '(]');

-- Using NULL for either bound causes the range to be unbounded on

that side.
SELECT numrange(NULL, 2.2);

8.17.7. Discrete Range Types

A discrete range is one whose element type has a well-defined “step”, such as integer or date.
In these types two elements can be said to be adjacent, when there are no valid values between them.
This contrasts with continuous ranges, where it's always (or almost always) possible to identify other
element values between two given values. For example, a range over the numeric type is continu-
ous, as is a range over timestamp. (Even though timestamp has limited precision, and so could
theoretically be treated as discrete, it's better to consider it continuous since the step size is normally
not of interest.)

Another way to think about a discrete range type is that there is a clear idea of a “next” or “previous”
value for each element value. Knowing that, it is possible to convert between inclusive and exclusive
representations of a range's bounds, by choosing the next or previous element value instead of the one
originally given. For example, in an integer range type [4,8] and (3,9) denote the same set of
values; but this would not be so for a range over numeric.

A discrete range type should have a canonicalization function that is aware of the desired step size for
the element type. The canonicalization function is charged with converting equivalent values of the
range type to have identical representations, in particular consistently inclusive or exclusive bounds.
If a canonicalization function is not specified, then ranges with different formatting will always be
treated as unequal, even though they might represent the same set of values in reality.

The built-in range types int4range, int8range, and daterange all use a canonical form that
includes the lower bound and excludes the upper bound; that is, [). User-defined range types can use
other conventions, however.

8.17.8. Defining New Range Types

Users can define their own range types. The most common reason to do this is to use ranges over
subtypes not provided among the built-in range types. For example, to define a new range type of
subtype float8:

CREATE TYPE floatrange AS RANGE (

subtype = float8,
subtype_diff = float8mi
);

SELECT '[1.234, 5.678]'::floatrange;

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 Data Types

Because float8 has no meaningful “step”, we do not define a canonicalization function in this ex-
ample.

Defining your own range type also allows you to specify a different subtype B-tree operator class or
collation to use, so as to change the sort ordering that determines which values fall into a given range.

If the subtype is considered to have discrete rather than continuous values, the CREATE TYPE com-
mand should specify a canonical function. The canonicalization function takes an input range val-
ue, and must return an equivalent range value that may have different bounds and formatting. The
canonical output for two ranges that represent the same set of values, for example the integer ranges
[1, 7] and [1, 8), must be identical. It doesn't matter which representation you choose to be the
canonical one, so long as two equivalent values with different formattings are always mapped to the
same value with the same formatting. In addition to adjusting the inclusive/exclusive bounds format, a
canonicalization function might round off boundary values, in case the desired step size is larger than
what the subtype is capable of storing. For instance, a range type over timestamp could be defined
to have a step size of an hour, in which case the canonicalization function would need to round off
bounds that weren't a multiple of an hour, or perhaps throw an error instead.

In addition, any range type that is meant to be used with GiST or SP-GiST indexes should define a sub-
type difference, or subtype_diff, function. (The index will still work without subtype_diff,
but it is likely to be considerably less efficient than if a difference function is provided.) The subtype
difference function takes two input values of the subtype, and returns their difference (i.e., X minus
Y) represented as a float8 value. In our example above, the function float8mi that underlies the
regular float8 minus operator can be used; but for any other subtype, some type conversion would
be necessary. Some creative thought about how to represent differences as numbers might be needed,
too. To the greatest extent possible, the subtype_diff function should agree with the sort ordering
implied by the selected operator class and collation; that is, its result should be positive whenever its
first argument is greater than its second according to the sort ordering.

A less-oversimplified example of a subtype_diff function is:

CREATE FUNCTION time_subtype_diff(x time, y time) RETURNS float8 AS

'SELECT EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM (x - y))' LANGUAGE sql STRICT IMMUTABLE;

CREATE TYPE timerange AS RANGE (

subtype = time,
subtype_diff = time_subtype_diff
);

SELECT '[11:10, 23:00]'::timerange;

See CREATE TYPE for more information about creating range types.

8.17.9. Indexing
GiST and SP-GiST indexes can be created for table columns of range types. For instance, to create
a GiST index:

CREATE INDEX reservation_idx ON reservation USING GIST (during);

A GiST or SP-GiST index can accelerate queries involving these range operators: =, &&, <@, @>, <<,
>>, -|-, &<, and &> (see Table 9.53 for more information).

In addition, B-tree and hash indexes can be created for table columns of range types. For these index
types, basically the only useful range operation is equality. There is a B-tree sort ordering defined for
range values, with corresponding < and > operators, but the ordering is rather arbitrary and not usually
useful in the real world. Range types' B-tree and hash support is primarily meant to allow sorting and
hashing internally in queries, rather than creation of actual indexes.

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 Data Types

8.17.10. Constraints on Ranges

While UNIQUE is a natural constraint for scalar values, it is usually unsuitable for range types. In-
stead, an exclusion constraint is often more appropriate (see CREATE TABLE ... CONSTRAINT ...
EXCLUDE). Exclusion constraints allow the specification of constraints such as “non-overlapping”
on a range type. For example:

CREATE TABLE reservation (

during tsrange,
EXCLUDE USING GIST (during WITH &&)
);

That constraint will prevent any overlapping values from existing in the table at the same time:

INSERT INTO reservation VALUES

('[2010-01-01 11:30, 2010-01-01 15:00)');
INSERT 0 1

INSERT INTO reservation VALUES

('[2010-01-01 14:45, 2010-01-01 15:45)');
ERROR: conflicting key value violates exclusion constraint
"reservation_during_excl"
DETAIL: Key (during)=(["2010-01-01 14:45:00","2010-01-01
15:45:00")) conflicts
with existing key (during)=(["2010-01-01 11:30:00","2010-01-01
15:00:00")).

You can use the btree_gist extension to define exclusion constraints on plain scalar data types,
which can then be combined with range exclusions for maximum flexibility. For example, after
btree_gist is installed, the following constraint will reject overlapping ranges only if the meeting
room numbers are equal:

CREATE EXTENSION btree_gist;

CREATE TABLE room_reservation (
room text,
during tsrange,
EXCLUDE USING GIST (room WITH =, during WITH &&)
);

INSERT INTO room_reservation VALUES

('123A', '[2010-01-01 14:00, 2010-01-01 15:00)');
INSERT 0 1

INSERT INTO room_reservation VALUES

('123A', '[2010-01-01 14:30, 2010-01-01 15:30)');
ERROR: conflicting key value violates exclusion constraint
"room_reservation_room_during_excl"
DETAIL: Key (room, during)=(123A, ["2010-01-01
14:30:00","2010-01-01 15:30:00")) conflicts
with existing key (room, during)=(123A, ["2010-01-01
14:00:00","2010-01-01 15:00:00")).

INSERT INTO room_reservation VALUES

('123B', '[2010-01-01 14:30, 2010-01-01 15:30)');
INSERT 0 1

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 Data Types

8.18. Domain Types

A domain is a user-defined data type that is based on another underlying type. Optionally, it can have
constraints that restrict its valid values to a subset of what the underlying type would allow. Otherwise
it behaves like the underlying type — for example, any operator or function that can be applied to the
underlying type will work on the domain type. The underlying type can be any built-in or user-defined
base type, enum type, array type, composite type, range type, or another domain.

For example, we could create a domain over integers that accepts only positive integers:

CREATE DOMAIN posint AS integer CHECK (VALUE > 0);

CREATE TABLE mytable (id posint);
INSERT INTO mytable VALUES(1); -- works
INSERT INTO mytable VALUES(-1); -- fails

When an operator or function of the underlying type is applied to a domain value, the domain is
automatically down-cast to the underlying type. Thus, for example, the result of mytable.id - 1 is
considered to be of type integer not posint. We could write (mytable.id - 1)::posint
to cast the result back to posint, causing the domain's constraints to be rechecked. In this case, that
would result in an error if the expression had been applied to an id value of 1. Assigning a value of
the underlying type to a field or variable of the domain type is allowed without writing an explicit
cast, but the domain's constraints will be checked.

For additional information see CREATE DOMAIN.

8.19. Object Identifier Types

Object identifiers (OIDs) are used internally by PostgreSQL as primary keys for various system tables.
Type oid represents an object identifier. There are also several alias types for oid: regproc, reg-
procedure, regoper, regoperator, regclass, regtype, regrole, regnamespace,
regconfig, and regdictionary. Table 8.26 shows an overview.

The oid type is currently implemented as an unsigned four-byte integer. Therefore, it is not large
enough to provide database-wide uniqueness in large databases, or even in large individual tables.

The oid type itself has few operations beyond comparison. It can be cast to integer, however, and
then manipulated using the standard integer operators. (Beware of possible signed-versus-unsigned
confusion if you do this.)

The OID alias types have no operations of their own except for specialized input and output routines.
These routines are able to accept and display symbolic names for system objects, rather than the raw
numeric value that type oid would use. The alias types allow simplified lookup of OID values for
objects. For example, to examine the pg_attribute rows related to a table mytable, one could
write:

SELECT * FROM pg_attribute WHERE attrelid = 'mytable'::regclass;

rather than:

SELECT * FROM pg_attribute

WHERE attrelid = (SELECT oid FROM pg_class WHERE relname =
'mytable');

While that doesn't look all that bad by itself, it's still oversimplified. A far more complicated sub-
select would be needed to select the right OID if there are multiple tables named mytable in different
schemas. The regclass input converter handles the table lookup according to the schema path

203
 Data Types

setting, and so it does the “right thing” automatically. Similarly, casting a table's OID to regclass
is handy for symbolic display of a numeric OID.

Table 8.26. Object Identifier Types

Name References Description Value Example
oid any numeric object identifi- 564182
er
regproc pg_proc function name sum
regprocedure pg_proc function with argument sum(int4)
types
regoper pg_operator operator name +
regoperator pg_operator operator with argument *(integer,inte-
types ger) or -(NONE,in-
teger)
regclass pg_class relation name pg_type
regtype pg_type data type name integer
regrole pg_authid role name smithee
regnamespace pg_namespace namespace name pg_catalog
regconfig pg_ts_config text search configura- english
tion
regdictionary pg_ts_dict text search dictionary simple

All of the OID alias types for objects grouped by namespace accept schema-qualified names, and will
display schema-qualified names on output if the object would not be found in the current search path
without being qualified. The regproc and regoper alias types will only accept input names that are
unique (not overloaded), so they are of limited use; for most uses regprocedure or regoperator
are more appropriate. For regoperator, unary operators are identified by writing NONE for the
unused operand.

An additional property of most of the OID alias types is the creation of dependencies. If a constant
of one of these types appears in a stored expression (such as a column default expression or view),
it creates a dependency on the referenced object. For example, if a column has a default expres-
sion nextval('my_seq'::regclass), PostgreSQL understands that the default expression de-
pends on the sequence my_seq; the system will not let the sequence be dropped without first remov-
ing the default expression. regrole is the only exception for the property. Constants of this type are
not allowed in such expressions.

Note
The OID alias types do not completely follow transaction isolation rules. The planner
also treats them as simple constants, which may result in sub-optimal planning.

Another identifier type used by the system is xid, or transaction (abbreviated xact) identifier. This is
the data type of the system columns xmin and xmax. Transaction identifiers are 32-bit quantities.

A third identifier type used by the system is cid, or command identifier. This is the data type of the
system columns cmin and cmax. Command identifiers are also 32-bit quantities.

A final identifier type used by the system is tid, or tuple identifier (row identifier). This is the data
type of the system column ctid. A tuple ID is a pair (block number, tuple index within block) that
identifies the physical location of the row within its table.

(The system columns are further explained in Section 5.5.)

204
 Data Types

8.20. pg_lsn Type

The pg_lsn data type can be used to store LSN (Log Sequence Number) data which is a pointer to
a location in the WAL. This type is a representation of XLogRecPtr and an internal system type
of PostgreSQL.

Internally, an LSN is a 64-bit integer, representing a byte position in the write-ahead log stream. It is
printed as two hexadecimal numbers of up to 8 digits each, separated by a slash; for example, 16/
B374D848. The pg_lsn type supports the standard comparison operators, like = and >. Two LSNs
can be subtracted using the - operator; the result is the number of bytes separating those write-ahead
log locations.

8.21. Pseudo-Types
The PostgreSQL type system contains a number of special-purpose entries that are collectively called
pseudo-types. A pseudo-type cannot be used as a column data type, but it can be used to declare a
function's argument or result type. Each of the available pseudo-types is useful in situations where a
function's behavior does not correspond to simply taking or returning a value of a specific SQL data
type. Table 8.27 lists the existing pseudo-types.

Table 8.27. Pseudo-Types

Name Description
any Indicates that a function accepts any input data
type.
anyelement Indicates that a function accepts any data type (see
Section 37.2.5).
anyarray Indicates that a function accepts any array data
type (see Section 37.2.5).
anynonarray Indicates that a function accepts any non-array da-
ta type (see Section 37.2.5).
anyenum Indicates that a function accepts any enum data
type (see Section 37.2.5 and Section 8.7).
anyrange Indicates that a function accepts any range data
type (see Section 37.2.5 and Section 8.17).
cstring Indicates that a function accepts or returns a null-
terminated C string.
internal Indicates that a function accepts or returns a serv-
er-internal data type.
language_handler A procedural language call handler is declared to
return language_handler.
fdw_handler A foreign-data wrapper handler is declared to re-
turn fdw_handler.
index_am_handler An index access method handler is declared to re-
turn index_am_handler.
tsm_handler A tablesample method handler is declared to re-
turn tsm_handler.
record Identifies a function taking or returning an un-
specified row type.
trigger A trigger function is declared to return trig-
ger.

205
 Data Types

Name Description
event_trigger An event trigger function is declared to return
event_trigger.
pg_ddl_command Identifies a representation of DDL commands that
is available to event triggers.
void Indicates that a function returns no value.
unknown Identifies a not-yet-resolved type, e.g. of an un-
decorated string literal.
opaque An obsolete type name that formerly served many
of the above purposes.

Functions coded in C (whether built-in or dynamically loaded) can be declared to accept or return any
of these pseudo data types. It is up to the function author to ensure that the function will behave safely
when a pseudo-type is used as an argument type.

Functions coded in procedural languages can use pseudo-types only as allowed by their implemen-
tation languages. At present most procedural languages forbid use of a pseudo-type as an argument
type, and allow only void and record as a result type (plus trigger or event_trigger when
the function is used as a trigger or event trigger). Some also support polymorphic functions using the
types anyelement, anyarray, anynonarray, anyenum, and anyrange.

The internal pseudo-type is used to declare functions that are meant only to be called internally
by the database system, and not by direct invocation in an SQL query. If a function has at least one
internal-type argument then it cannot be called from SQL. To preserve the type safety of this
restriction it is important to follow this coding rule: do not create any function that is declared to return
internal unless it has at least one internal argument.

206
Chapter 9. Functions and Operators
PostgreSQL provides a large number of functions and operators for the built-in data types. Users can
also define their own functions and operators, as described in Part V. The psql commands \df and
\do can be used to list all available functions and operators, respectively.

If you are concerned about portability then note that most of the functions and operators described
in this chapter, with the exception of the most trivial arithmetic and comparison operators and some
explicitly marked functions, are not specified by the SQL standard. Some of this extended function-
ality is present in other SQL database management systems, and in many cases this functionality is
compatible and consistent between the various implementations. This chapter is also not exhaustive;
additional functions appear in relevant sections of the manual.

9.1. Logical Operators

The usual logical operators are available:

AND
OR
NOT

SQL uses a three-valued logic system with true, false, and null, which represents “unknown”. Ob-
serve the following truth tables:

a b a AND b a OR b
TRUE TRUE TRUE TRUE
TRUE FALSE FALSE TRUE
TRUE NULL NULL TRUE
FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE
FALSE NULL FALSE NULL
NULL NULL NULL NULL

a NOT a
TRUE FALSE
FALSE TRUE
NULL NULL

The operators AND and OR are commutative, that is, you can switch the left and right operand without
affecting the result. But see Section 4.2.14 for more information about the order of evaluation of
subexpressions.

9.2. Comparison Functions and Operators

The usual comparison operators are available, as shown in Table 9.1.

Table 9.1. Comparison Operators

Operator Description
< less than
> greater than
<= less than or equal to
>= greater than or equal to

207
 Functions and Operators

Operator Description
= equal
<> or != not equal

Note
The != operator is converted to <> in the parser stage. It is not possible to implement
!= and <> operators that do different things.

Comparison operators are available for all relevant data types. All comparison operators are binary
operators that return values of type boolean; expressions like 1 < 2 < 3 are not valid (because
there is no < operator to compare a Boolean value with 3).

There are also some comparison predicates, as shown in Table 9.2. These behave much like operators,
but have special syntax mandated by the SQL standard.

Table 9.2. Comparison Predicates

Predicate Description
a BETWEEN x AND y between
a NOT BETWEEN x AND y not between
a BETWEEN SYMMETRIC x AND y between, after sorting the comparison values
a NOT BETWEEN SYMMETRIC x AND y not between, after sorting the comparison values
a IS DISTINCT FROM b not equal, treating null like an ordinary value
a IS NOT DISTINCT FROM b equal, treating null like an ordinary value
expression IS NULL is null
expression IS NOT NULL is not null
expression ISNULL is null (nonstandard syntax)
expression NOTNULL is not null (nonstandard syntax)
boolean_expression IS TRUE is true
boolean_expression IS NOT TRUE is false or unknown
boolean_expression IS FALSE is false
boolean_expression IS NOT FALSE is true or unknown
boolean_expression IS UNKNOWN is unknown
boolean_expression IS NOT UNKNOWN is true or false

The BETWEEN predicate simplifies range tests:

a BETWEEN x AND y

is equivalent to

a >= x AND a <= y

Notice that BETWEEN treats the endpoint values as included in the range. NOT BETWEEN does the
opposite comparison:

a NOT BETWEEN x AND y

208
 Functions and Operators

is equivalent to

a < x OR a > y

BETWEEN SYMMETRIC is like BETWEEN except there is no requirement that the argument to the
left of AND be less than or equal to the argument on the right. If it is not, those two arguments are
automatically swapped, so that a nonempty range is always implied.

Ordinary comparison operators yield null (signifying “unknown”), not true or false, when either input
is null. For example, 7 = NULL yields null, as does 7 <> NULL. When this behavior is not suitable,
use the IS [ NOT ] DISTINCT FROM predicates:

a IS DISTINCT FROM b
a IS NOT DISTINCT FROM b

For non-null inputs, IS DISTINCT FROM is the same as the <> operator. However, if both inputs
are null it returns false, and if only one input is null it returns true. Similarly, IS NOT DISTINCT
FROM is identical to = for non-null inputs, but it returns true when both inputs are null, and false when
only one input is null. Thus, these predicates effectively act as though null were a normal data value,
rather than “unknown”.

To check whether a value is or is not null, use the predicates:

expression IS NULL
expression IS NOT NULL

or the equivalent, but nonstandard, predicates:

expression ISNULL
expression NOTNULL

Do not write expression = NULL because NULL is not “equal to” NULL. (The null value repre-
sents an unknown value, and it is not known whether two unknown values are equal.)

Tip
Some applications might expect that expression = NULL returns true if expres-
sion evaluates to the null value. It is highly recommended that these applications
be modified to comply with the SQL standard. However, if that cannot be done the
transform_null_equals configuration variable is available. If it is enabled, PostgreSQL
will convert x = NULL clauses to x IS NULL.

If the expression is row-valued, then IS NULL is true when the row expression itself is null
or when all the row's fields are null, while IS NOT NULL is true when the row expression itself
is non-null and all the row's fields are non-null. Because of this behavior, IS NULL and IS NOT
NULL do not always return inverse results for row-valued expressions; in particular, a row-valued
expression that contains both null and non-null fields will return false for both tests. In some cases,
it may be preferable to write row IS DISTINCT FROM NULL or row IS NOT DISTINCT
FROM NULL, which will simply check whether the overall row value is null without any additional
tests on the row fields.

Boolean values can also be tested using the predicates

boolean_expression IS TRUE

209
 Functions and Operators

boolean_expression IS NOT TRUE

boolean_expression IS FALSE
boolean_expression IS NOT FALSE
boolean_expression IS UNKNOWN
boolean_expression IS NOT UNKNOWN

These will always return true or false, never a null value, even when the operand is null. A null input
is treated as the logical value “unknown”. Notice that IS UNKNOWN and IS NOT UNKNOWN are
effectively the same as IS NULL and IS NOT NULL, respectively, except that the input expression
must be of Boolean type.

Some comparison-related functions are also available, as shown in Table 9.3.

Table 9.3. Comparison Functions

Function Description Example Example Result
num_nonnull- returns the number of num_nonnulls(1, 2
s(VARIADIC non-null arguments NULL, 2)
"any")
num_null- returns the number of num_nulls(1, 1
s(VARIADIC null arguments NULL, 2)
"any")

9.3. Mathematical Functions and Operators

Mathematical operators are provided for many PostgreSQL types. For types without standard mathe-
matical conventions (e.g., date/time types) we describe the actual behavior in subsequent sections.

Table 9.4 shows the available mathematical operators.

Table 9.4. Mathematical Operators

Operator Description Example Result
+ addition 2 + 3 5
- subtraction 2 - 3 -1
* multiplication 2 * 3 6
/ division (integer divi- 4 / 2 2
sion truncates the result)
% modulo (remainder) 5 % 4 1
^ exponentiation (asso- 2.0 ^ 3.0 8
ciates left to right)
|/ square root |/ 25.0 5
||/ cube root ||/ 27.0 3
! factorial 5 ! 120
!! factorial (prefix opera- !! 5 120
tor)
@ absolute value @ -5.0 5
& bitwise AND 91 & 15 11
| bitwise OR 32 | 3 35
# bitwise XOR 17 # 5 20
~ bitwise NOT ~1 -2
<< bitwise shift left 1 << 4 16

210
 Functions and Operators

Operator Description Example Result

>> bitwise shift right 8 >> 2 2

The bitwise operators work only on integral data types, whereas the others are available for all numeric
data types. The bitwise operators are also available for the bit string types bit and bit varying,
as shown in Table 9.14.

Table 9.5 shows the available mathematical functions. In the table, dp indicates double preci-
sion. Many of these functions are provided in multiple forms with different argument types. Except
where noted, any given form of a function returns the same data type as its argument. The functions
working with double precision data are mostly implemented on top of the host system's C
library; accuracy and behavior in boundary cases can therefore vary depending on the host system.

Table 9.5. Mathematical Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result

abs(x) (same as input) absolute value abs(-17.4) 17.4
cbrt(dp) dp cube root cbrt(27.0) 3
ceil(dp or (same as input) nearest integer ceil(-42.8) -42
numeric) greater than or
equal to argument
ceiling(dp (same as input) nearest integer ceil- -95
or numeric) greater than or ing(-95.3)
equal to argument
(same as ceil)
degrees(dp) dp radians to degrees degrees(0.5) 28.6478897565412
div(y numer- numeric integer quotient of div(9,4) 2
ic, x numer- y/x
ic)
exp(dp or nu- (same as input) exponential exp(1.0) 2.71828182845905
meric)
floor(dp or (same as input) nearest integer less floor(-42.8) -43
numeric) than or equal to ar-
gument
ln(dp or nu- (same as input) natural logarithm ln(2.0) 0.693147180559945
meric)
log(dp or nu- (same as input) base 10 logarithm log(100.0) 2
meric)
log10(dp or (same as input) base 10 logarithm log10(100.0) 2
numeric)
log(b numer- numeric logarithm to base b log(2.0, 6.0000000000
ic, x numer- 64.0)
ic)
mod(y, x) (same as argument remainder of y/x mod(9,4) 1
types)
pi() dp “#” constant pi() 3.14159265358979
power(a dp, b dp a raised to the power(9.0, 729
dp) power of b 3.0)
power(a nu- numeric a raised to the power(9.0, 729
meric, b nu- power of b 3.0)
meric)

211
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

radians(dp) dp degrees to radians radi- 0.785398163397448
ans(45.0)
round(dp or (same as input) round to nearest in- round(42.4) 42
numeric) teger
round(v nu- numeric round to s decimal round(42.4382,42.44
meric, s int) places 2)
scale(numer- integer scale of the argu- scale(8.41) 2
ic) ment (the number
of decimal digits in
the fractional part)
sign(dp or (same as input) sign of the argu- sign(-8.4) -1
numeric) ment (-1, 0, +1)
sqrt(dp or (same as input) square root sqrt(2.0) 1.4142135623731
numeric)
trunc(dp or (same as input) truncate toward ze- trunc(42.8) 42
numeric) ro
trunc(v nu- numeric truncate to s deci- trunc(42.4382,42.43
meric, s int) mal places 2)
width_buck- int return the buck- width_buck- 3
et(operand et number to et(5.35,
dp, b1 dp, which operand 0.024, 10.06,
b2 dp, count would be assigned 5)
int) in a histogram
having count
equal-width buck-
ets spanning the
range b1 to b2;
returns 0 or
count+1 for an
input outside the
range
width_buck- int return the buck- width_buck- 3
et(operand et number to et(5.35,
numeric, b1 which operand 0.024, 10.06,
numeric, b2 would be assigned 5)
numeric, in a histogram
count int) having count
equal-width buck-
ets spanning the
range b1 to b2;
returns 0 or
count+1 for an
input outside the
range
width_buck- int return the bucket width_buck- 2
et(operand number to which et(now(), ar-
anyelement, operand would ray['yester-
thresholds be assigned giv- day', 'to-
anyarray) en an array listing day', 'tomor-
the lower bounds row']::time-
of the buckets; re- stamptz[])
turns 0 for an in-

212
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

put less than the
first lower bound;
the thresholds
array must be sort-
ed, smallest first,
or unexpected re-
sults will be ob-
tained

Table 9.6 shows functions for generating random numbers.

Table 9.6. Random Functions

Function Return Type Description
random() dp random value in the range 0.0 <=
x < 1.0
setseed(dp) void set seed for subsequent ran-
dom() calls (value between -1.0
and 1.0, inclusive)

The random() function uses a simple linear congruential algorithm. It is fast but not suitable for
cryptographic applications; see the pgcrypto module for a more secure alternative. If setseed() is
called, the results of subsequent random() calls in the current session are repeatable by re-issuing
setseed() with the same argument.

Table 9.7 shows the available trigonometric functions. All these functions take arguments and return
values of type double precision. Each of the trigonometric functions comes in two variants,
one that measures angles in radians and one that measures angles in degrees.

Table 9.7. Trigonometric Functions

Function (radians) Function (degrees) Description
acos(x) acosd(x) inverse cosine
asin(x) asind(x) inverse sine
atan(x) atand(x) inverse tangent
atan2(y, x) atan2d(y, x) inverse tangent of y/x
cos(x) cosd(x) cosine
cot(x) cotd(x) cotangent
sin(x) sind(x) sine
tan(x) tand(x) tangent

Note
Another way to work with angles measured in degrees is to use the unit transforma-
tion functions radians() and degrees() shown earlier. However, using the de-
gree-based trigonometric functions is preferred, as that way avoids round-off error for
special cases such as sind(30).

Table 9.8 shows the available hyperbolic functions. All these functions take arguments and return
values of type double precision.

213
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.8. Hyperbolic Functions

Function Description Example Result
sinh(x) hyperbolic sine sinh(0) 0
cosh(x) hyperbolic cosine cosh(0) 1
tanh(x) hyperbolic tangent tanh(0) 0
asinh(x) inverse hyperbolic sine asinh(0) 0
acosh(x) inverse hyperbolic co- acosh(1) 0
sine
atanh(x) inverse hyperbolic tan- atanh(0) 0
gent

9.4. String Functions and Operators

This section describes functions and operators for examining and manipulating string values. Strings
in this context include values of the types character, character varying, and text. Unless
otherwise noted, all of the functions listed below work on all of these types, but be wary of potential
effects of automatic space-padding when using the character type. Some functions also exist na-
tively for the bit-string types.

SQL defines some string functions that use key words, rather than commas, to separate arguments.
Details are in Table 9.9. PostgreSQL also provides versions of these functions that use the regular
function invocation syntax (see Table 9.10).

Note
Before PostgreSQL 8.3, these functions would silently accept values of several non-
string data types as well, due to the presence of implicit coercions from those data types
to text. Those coercions have been removed because they frequently caused surpris-
ing behaviors. However, the string concatenation operator (||) still accepts non-string
input, so long as at least one input is of a string type, as shown in Table 9.9. For other
cases, insert an explicit coercion to text if you need to duplicate the previous behav-
ior.

Table 9.9. SQL String Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result
string || text String concatena- 'Post' || PostgreSQL
string tion 'greSQL'
string || text String concatena- 'Value: ' || Value: 42
non-string or tion with one non- 42
non-string || string input
string
int Number of bits in bit_length('jose')
32
bit_length(string) string
int Number of charac- char_length('jose')
4
char_length(string) ters in string
or charac-
ter_length(string)
low- text Convert string to lower('TOM') tom
er(string) lower case

214
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

int Number of bytes in octet_length('jose')
4
octet_length(string) string
over- text Replace substring over- Thomas
lay(string lay('Txxxxas'
placing placing 'hom'
string from from 2 for 4)
int [for
int])
posi- int Location of speci- posi- 3
tion(sub- fied substring tion('om' in
string in 'Thomas')
string)
sub- text Extract substring sub- hom
string(string string('Thomas'
[from int] from 2 for 3)
[for int])
sub- text Extract substring sub- mas
string(string matching POSIX string('Thomas'
from pattern) regular expression. from '...$')
See Section 9.7 for
more information
on pattern match-
ing.
sub- text Extract substring sub- oma
string(string matching SQL reg- string('Thomas'
from pattern ular expression. from
for escape) See Section 9.7 for '%#"o_a#"_'
more information for '#')
on pattern match-
ing.
trim([lead- text Remove the trim(both Tom
ing | trail- longest string con- 'xyz' from
ing | taining only char- 'yxTomxx')
both] [char- acters from char-
acters] from acters (a space
string) by default) from
the start, end, or
both ends (both
is the default) of
string
trim([lead- text Non-standard syn- trim(both Tom
ing | trail- tax for trim() from 'yx-
ing | both] Tomxx',
[from] string 'xyz')
[, charac-
ters] )
up- text Convert string to upper('tom') TOM
per(string) upper case

Additional string manipulation functions are available and are listed in Table 9.10. Some of them are
used internally to implement the SQL-standard string functions listed in Table 9.9.

215
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.10. Other String Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
asci- int ASCII code of ascii('x') 120
i(string) the first charac-
ter of the argu-
ment. For UTF8
returns the Uni-
code code point of
the character. For
other multibyte en-
codings, the argu-
ment must be an
ASCII character.
btrim(string text Remove the btrim('xyxtrimyyx',
trim
text [, char- longest string 'xyz')
acters text]) consisting only
of characters in
characters (a
space by default)
from the start and
end of string
chr(int) text Character with the chr(65) A
given code. For
UTF8 the argu-
ment is treated as
a Unicode code
point. For other
multibyte encod-
ings the argument
must designate an
ASCII character.
The NULL (0)
character is not al-
lowed because text
data types cannot
store such bytes.
concat(str text Concatenate the con- abcde222
"any" [, text representa- cat('abcde',
str "any" tions of all the 2, NULL, 22)
[, ...] ]) arguments. NULL
arguments are ig-
nored.
con- text Concatenate all but con- abcde,2,22
cat_ws(sep the first argu- cat_ws(',',
text, str ment with sepa- 'abcde', 2,
"any" [, rators. The first NULL, 22)
str "any" argument is used
[, ...] ]) as the separator
string. NULL ar-
guments are ig-
nored.
con- bytea Convert string con- text_in_utf8
vert(string to dest_encod- vert('tex- represented in
bytea, sr- ing. The original t_in_utf8', Latin-1 encoding
c_encoding encoding is speci- (ISO 8859-1)

216
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

name, fied by src_en- 'UTF8',
dest_encod- coding. The 'LATIN1')
ing name) string must be
valid in this encod-
ing. Conversions
can be defined by
CREATE CON-
VERSION. Also
there are some
predefined conver-
sions. See Ta-
ble 9.11 for avail-
able conversions.
con- text Convert string con- text_in_utf8
vert_from(string to the data- represented in the
vert_from('tex-
bytea, sr- base encoding. The t_in_utf8', current database
c_encoding original encod- 'UTF8') encoding
name) ing is specified
by src_encod-
ing. The string
must be valid in
this encoding.
con- bytea Convert string con- some text rep-
vert_to(string to dest_encod- vert_to('some resented in the
text, ing. text', UTF8 encoding
dest_encod- 'UTF8')
ing name)
de- bytea Decode binary da- de- \x3132330001
code(string ta from textual code('MTIzA-
text, format representation in AE=',
text) string. Options 'base64')
for format are
same as in en-
code.
encode(data text Encode binary da- en- MTIzAAE=
bytea, format ta into a textu- code('123\000\001',
text) al representation. 'base64')
Supported for-
mats are: base64,
hex, escape.
escape converts
zero bytes and
high-bit-set bytes
to octal sequences
(\nnn) and dou-
bles backslashes.
format(for- text Format arguments format('Hel- Hello World,
matstr text according to a for- lo %s, %1$s', World
[, for- mat string. This 'World')
matarg "any" function is simi-
[, ...] ]) lar to the C func-
tion sprintf.
See Section 9.4.1.

217
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

init- text Convert the first initcap('hi Hi Thomas
cap(string) letter of each word THOMAS')
to upper case and
the rest to low-
er case. Words are
sequences of al-
phanumeric char-
acters separated
by non-alphanu-
meric characters.
left(str text Return first n char- left('abcde', ab
text, n int) acters in the string. 2)
When n is nega-
tive, return all but
last |n| characters.
int Number of charac- length('jose')4
length(string) ters in string
length(string int Number of charac- length('jose',4
bytea, encod- ters in string in 'UTF8')
ing name ) the given encod-
ing. The string
must be valid in
this encoding.
lpad(string text Fill up the lpad('hi', 5, xyxhi
text, length string to length 'xy')
int [, fill length by
text]) prepending the
characters fill (a
space by default).
If the string is
already longer than
length then it is
truncated (on the
right).
ltrim(string text Remove the ltrim('zzzytest',
test
text [, char- longest string con- 'xyz')
acters text]) taining only char-
acters from char-
acters (a space
by default) from
the start of
string
md5(string) text Calculates the md5('abc') 900150983cd24fb0
MD5 hash of d6963f7d28e17f72
string, return-
ing the result in
hexadecimal
parse_iden- text[] Split quali- parse_iden- {SomeSchema,sometable}
t(quali- fied_identi- t('"SomeSchema".someTable')
fied_identi- fier into an array
fier text of identifiers, re-
[, strictmode moving any quot-
boolean DE- ing of individual

218
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

FAULT identifiers. By de-
true ] ) fault, extra charac-
ters after the last
identifier are con-
sidered an error;
but if the sec-
ond parameter is
false, then such
extra characters are
ignored. (This be-
havior is useful for
parsing names for
objects like func-
tions.) Note that
this function does
not truncate over-
length identifiers.
If you want trun-
cation you can
cast the result to
name[].
pg_clien- name Current client en- pg_clien- SQL_ASCII
t_encoding() coding name t_encoding()
quote_iden- text Return the giv- quote_iden- "Foo bar"
t(string en string suit- t('Foo bar')
text) ably quoted to be
used as an iden-
tifier in an SQL
statement string.
Quotes are added
only if necessary
(i.e., if the string
contains non-iden-
tifier characters or
would be case-
folded). Embedded
quotes are proper-
ly doubled. See al-
so Example 42.1.
quote_liter- text Return the giv- quote_liter- 'O''Reilly'
al(string en string suitably al(E'O\'Reil-
text) quoted to be used ly')
as a string literal in
an SQL statement
string. Embed-
ded single-quotes
and backslashes
are properly dou-
bled. Note that
quote_liter-
al returns null
on null input;
if the argument
might be null,
quote_nul-

219
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

lable is often
more suitable. See
also Example 42.1.
quote_liter- text Coerce the given quote_liter- '42.5'
al(value value to text and al(42.5)
anyelement) then quote it as
a literal. Embed-
ded single-quotes
and backslashes
are properly dou-
bled.
quote_nul- text Return the giv- quote_nul- NULL
lable(string en string suitably lable(NULL)
text) quoted to be used
as a string lit-
eral in an SQL
statement string;
or, if the argu-
ment is null, return
NULL. Embedded
single-quotes and
backslashes are
properly doubled.
See also Exam-
ple 42.1.
quote_nul- text Coerce the giv- quote_nul- '42.5'
lable(value en value to text lable(42.5)
anyelement) and then quote
it as a literal;
or, if the argu-
ment is null, return
NULL. Embedded
single-quotes and
backslashes are
properly doubled.
regex- text[] Return captured regex- {bar,beque}
p_match(string substring(s) result- p_match('foo-
text, pattern ing from the first barbeque-
text [, flags match of a POSIX baz', '(bar)
text]) regular expression (beque)')
to the string.
See Section 9.7.3
for more informa-
tion.
regex- setof text[] Return captured regex- {bar}
p_match- substring(s) result- p_match-
es(string ing from matching es('foobar- {baz}
text, pattern a POSIX regular bequebaz',
text [, flags expression to the 'ba.', 'g') (2 rows)
text]) string. See Sec-
tion 9.7.3 for more
information.
regexp_re- text Replace sub- regexp_re- ThM
place(string string(s) matching place('Thomas',

220
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

text, pattern a POSIX regu- '.[mN]a.',
text, re- lar expression. See 'M')
placement Section 9.7.3 for
text [, flags more information.
text])
regexp_s- text[] Split string us- regexp_s- {hel-
plit_to_ar- ing a POSIX reg- plit_to_ar- lo,world}
ray(string ular expression as ray('hello
text, pattern the delimiter. See world', '\s
text [, flags Section 9.7.3 for +')
text ]) more information.
regexp_s- setof text Split string us- regexp_s- hello
plit_to_ta- ing a POSIX reg- plit_to_ta-
ble(string ular expression as ble('hello world
text, pattern the delimiter. See world', '\s
text [, flags Section 9.7.3 for +') (2 rows)
text]) more information.
re- text Repeat string repeat('Pg', PgPgPgPg
peat(string the specified num- 4)
text, number ber of times
int)
re- text Replace all occur- re- abXXefabXXef
place(string rences in string place('abcde-
text, from of substring from fabcdef',
text, to with substring to 'cd', 'XX')
text)
reverse(str) text Return reversed re- edcba
string. verse('abcde')
right(str text Return last n char- right('abcde',de
text, n int) acters in the string. 2)
When n is nega-
tive, return all but
first |n| characters.
rpad(string text Fill up the rpad('hi', 5, hixyx
text, length string to length 'xy')
int [, fill length by ap-
text]) pending the char-
acters fill (a
space by default).
If the string is
already longer than
length then it is
truncated.
rtrim(string text Remove the rtrim('testxxzx',
test
text [, char- longest string con- 'xyz')
acters text]) taining only char-
acters from char-
acters (a space
by default) from
the end of string
text Split string on split_part('abc~@~de-
def
split_part(string delimiter and f~@~ghi',
text, delim- return the giv- '~@~', 2)

221
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

iter text, en field (counting
field int) from one)
str- int Location of spec- str- 2
pos(string, ified substring pos('high',
substring) (same as posi- 'ig')
tion(sub-
string in
string), but
note the reversed
argument order)
sub- text Extract substring substr('al- ph
str(string, (same as sub- phabet', 3,
from [, string(string 2)
count]) from from for
count))
start- bool Returns true if start- t
s_with(string, string starts s_with('al-
prefix) with prefix. phabet',
'alph')
to_asci- text Convert string to_asci- Karel
i(string text to ASCII from i('Karel')
[, encoding another encod-
text]) ing (only sup-
ports conversion
from LATIN1,
LATIN2,
LATIN9, and
WIN1250 encod-
ings)
to_hex(num- text Convert number to_hex(2147483647)
7fffffff
ber int or to its equivalent
bigint) hexadecimal repre-
sentation
trans- text Any character trans- a2x5
late(string in string that late('12345',
text, from matches a charac- '143', 'ax')
text, to ter in the from
text) set is replaced
by the correspond-
ing character in
the to set. If
from is longer
than to, occur-
rences of the extra
characters in from
are removed.

The concat, concat_ws and format functions are variadic, so it is possible to pass the values to
be concatenated or formatted as an array marked with the VARIADIC keyword (see Section 37.5.5).
The array's elements are treated as if they were separate ordinary arguments to the function. If the
variadic array argument is NULL, concat and concat_ws return NULL, but format treats a
NULL as a zero-element array.

See also the aggregate function string_agg in Section 9.20.

222
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.11. Built-in Conversions

Conversion Name a Source Encoding Destination Encoding

ascii_to_mic SQL_ASCII MULE_INTERNAL
ascii_to_utf8 SQL_ASCII UTF8
big5_to_euc_tw BIG5 EUC_TW
big5_to_mic BIG5 MULE_INTERNAL
big5_to_utf8 BIG5 UTF8
euc_cn_to_mic EUC_CN MULE_INTERNAL
euc_cn_to_utf8 EUC_CN UTF8
euc_jp_to_mic EUC_JP MULE_INTERNAL
euc_jp_to_sjis EUC_JP SJIS
euc_jp_to_utf8 EUC_JP UTF8
euc_kr_to_mic EUC_KR MULE_INTERNAL
euc_kr_to_utf8 EUC_KR UTF8
euc_tw_to_big5 EUC_TW BIG5
euc_tw_to_mic EUC_TW MULE_INTERNAL
euc_tw_to_utf8 EUC_TW UTF8
gb18030_to_utf8 GB18030 UTF8
gbk_to_utf8 GBK UTF8
iso_8859_10_to_utf8 LATIN6 UTF8
iso_8859_13_to_utf8 LATIN7 UTF8
iso_8859_14_to_utf8 LATIN8 UTF8
iso_8859_15_to_utf8 LATIN9 UTF8
iso_8859_16_to_utf8 LATIN10 UTF8
iso_8859_1_to_mic LATIN1 MULE_INTERNAL
iso_8859_1_to_utf8 LATIN1 UTF8
iso_8859_2_to_mic LATIN2 MULE_INTERNAL
iso_8859_2_to_utf8 LATIN2 UTF8
iso_8859_2_to_win- LATIN2 WIN1250
dows_1250
iso_8859_3_to_mic LATIN3 MULE_INTERNAL
iso_8859_3_to_utf8 LATIN3 UTF8
iso_8859_4_to_mic LATIN4 MULE_INTERNAL
iso_8859_4_to_utf8 LATIN4 UTF8
iso_8859_5_to_koi8_r ISO_8859_5 KOI8R
iso_8859_5_to_mic ISO_8859_5 MULE_INTERNAL
iso_8859_5_to_utf8 ISO_8859_5 UTF8
iso_8859_5_to_win- ISO_8859_5 WIN1251
dows_1251
iso_8859_5_to_win- ISO_8859_5 WIN866
dows_866
iso_8859_6_to_utf8 ISO_8859_6 UTF8

223
 Functions and Operators

Conversion Name a Source Encoding Destination Encoding

iso_8859_7_to_utf8 ISO_8859_7 UTF8
iso_8859_8_to_utf8 ISO_8859_8 UTF8
iso_8859_9_to_utf8 LATIN5 UTF8
johab_to_utf8 JOHAB UTF8
koi8_r_to_iso_8859_5 KOI8R ISO_8859_5
koi8_r_to_mic KOI8R MULE_INTERNAL
koi8_r_to_utf8 KOI8R UTF8
koi8_r_to_win- KOI8R WIN1251
dows_1251
koi8_r_to_windows_866 KOI8R WIN866
koi8_u_to_utf8 KOI8U UTF8
mic_to_ascii MULE_INTERNAL SQL_ASCII
mic_to_big5 MULE_INTERNAL BIG5
mic_to_euc_cn MULE_INTERNAL EUC_CN
mic_to_euc_jp MULE_INTERNAL EUC_JP
mic_to_euc_kr MULE_INTERNAL EUC_KR
mic_to_euc_tw MULE_INTERNAL EUC_TW
mic_to_iso_8859_1 MULE_INTERNAL LATIN1
mic_to_iso_8859_2 MULE_INTERNAL LATIN2
mic_to_iso_8859_3 MULE_INTERNAL LATIN3
mic_to_iso_8859_4 MULE_INTERNAL LATIN4
mic_to_iso_8859_5 MULE_INTERNAL ISO_8859_5
mic_to_koi8_r MULE_INTERNAL KOI8R
mic_to_sjis MULE_INTERNAL SJIS
mic_to_windows_1250 MULE_INTERNAL WIN1250
mic_to_windows_1251 MULE_INTERNAL WIN1251
mic_to_windows_866 MULE_INTERNAL WIN866
sjis_to_euc_jp SJIS EUC_JP
sjis_to_mic SJIS MULE_INTERNAL
sjis_to_utf8 SJIS UTF8
windows_1258_to_utf8 WIN1258 UTF8
uhc_to_utf8 UHC UTF8
utf8_to_ascii UTF8 SQL_ASCII
utf8_to_big5 UTF8 BIG5
utf8_to_euc_cn UTF8 EUC_CN
utf8_to_euc_jp UTF8 EUC_JP
utf8_to_euc_kr UTF8 EUC_KR
utf8_to_euc_tw UTF8 EUC_TW
utf8_to_gb18030 UTF8 GB18030
utf8_to_gbk UTF8 GBK
utf8_to_iso_8859_1 UTF8 LATIN1

224
 Functions and Operators

Conversion Name a Source Encoding Destination Encoding

utf8_to_iso_8859_10 UTF8 LATIN6
utf8_to_iso_8859_13 UTF8 LATIN7
utf8_to_iso_8859_14 UTF8 LATIN8
utf8_to_iso_8859_15 UTF8 LATIN9
utf8_to_iso_8859_16 UTF8 LATIN10
utf8_to_iso_8859_2 UTF8 LATIN2
utf8_to_iso_8859_3 UTF8 LATIN3
utf8_to_iso_8859_4 UTF8 LATIN4
utf8_to_iso_8859_5 UTF8 ISO_8859_5
utf8_to_iso_8859_6 UTF8 ISO_8859_6
utf8_to_iso_8859_7 UTF8 ISO_8859_7
utf8_to_iso_8859_8 UTF8 ISO_8859_8
utf8_to_iso_8859_9 UTF8 LATIN5
utf8_to_johab UTF8 JOHAB
utf8_to_koi8_r UTF8 KOI8R
utf8_to_koi8_u UTF8 KOI8U
utf8_to_sjis UTF8 SJIS
utf8_to_windows_1258 UTF8 WIN1258
utf8_to_uhc UTF8 UHC
utf8_to_windows_1250 UTF8 WIN1250
utf8_to_windows_1251 UTF8 WIN1251
utf8_to_windows_1252 UTF8 WIN1252
utf8_to_windows_1253 UTF8 WIN1253
utf8_to_windows_1254 UTF8 WIN1254
utf8_to_windows_1255 UTF8 WIN1255
utf8_to_windows_1256 UTF8 WIN1256
utf8_to_windows_1257 UTF8 WIN1257
utf8_to_windows_866 UTF8 WIN866
utf8_to_windows_874 UTF8 WIN874
win- WIN1250 LATIN2
dows_1250_to_iso_8859_2
windows_1250_to_mic WIN1250 MULE_INTERNAL
windows_1250_to_utf8 WIN1250 UTF8
win- WIN1251 ISO_8859_5
dows_1251_to_iso_8859_5
win- WIN1251 KOI8R
dows_1251_to_koi8_r
windows_1251_to_mic WIN1251 MULE_INTERNAL
windows_1251_to_utf8 WIN1251 UTF8
windows_1251_to_win- WIN1251 WIN866
dows_866
windows_1252_to_utf8 WIN1252 UTF8

225
 Functions and Operators

Conversion Name a Source Encoding Destination Encoding

windows_1256_to_utf8 WIN1256 UTF8
win- WIN866 ISO_8859_5
dows_866_to_iso_8859_5
windows_866_to_koi8_r WIN866 KOI8R
windows_866_to_mic WIN866 MULE_INTERNAL
windows_866_to_utf8 WIN866 UTF8
windows_866_to_win- WIN866 WIN
dows_1251
windows_874_to_utf8 WIN874 UTF8
euc_jis_2004_to_utf8 EUC_JIS_2004 UTF8
utf8_to_euc_jis_2004 UTF8 EUC_JIS_2004
shift_jis_2004_to_utf8 SHIFT_JIS_2004 UTF8
ut- UTF8 SHIFT_JIS_2004
f8_to_shift_jis_2004
eu- EUC_JIS_2004 SHIFT_JIS_2004
c_jis_2004_to_shift_jis_2004
shift_jis_2004_to_eu- SHIFT_JIS_2004 EUC_JIS_2004
c_jis_2004
a
The conversion names follow a standard naming scheme: The official name of the source encoding with all non-alphanumeric
characters replaced by underscores, followed by _to_, followed by the similarly processed destination encoding name. There-
fore, the names might deviate from the customary encoding names.

9.4.1. format
The function format produces output formatted according to a format string, in a style similar to
the C function sprintf.

format(formatstr text [, formatarg "any" [, ...] ])

formatstr is a format string that specifies how the result should be formatted. Text in the format
string is copied directly to the result, except where format specifiers are used. Format specifiers act
as placeholders in the string, defining how subsequent function arguments should be formatted and
inserted into the result. Each formatarg argument is converted to text according to the usual output
rules for its data type, and then formatted and inserted into the result string according to the format
specifier(s).

Format specifiers are introduced by a % character and have the form

%[position][flags][width]type

where the component fields are:

position (optional)

A string of the form n$ where n is the index of the argument to print. Index 1 means the first
argument after formatstr. If the position is omitted, the default is to use the next argument
in sequence.

flags (optional)

Additional options controlling how the format specifier's output is formatted. Currently the only
supported flag is a minus sign (-) which will cause the format specifier's output to be left-justified.
This has no effect unless the width field is also specified.

226
 Functions and Operators

width (optional)

Specifies the minimum number of characters to use to display the format specifier's output. The
output is padded on the left or right (depending on the - flag) with spaces as needed to fill the
width. A too-small width does not cause truncation of the output, but is simply ignored. The width
may be specified using any of the following: a positive integer; an asterisk (*) to use the next
function argument as the width; or a string of the form *n$ to use the nth function argument
as the width.

If the width comes from a function argument, that argument is consumed before the argument that
is used for the format specifier's value. If the width argument is negative, the result is left aligned
(as if the - flag had been specified) within a field of length abs(width).

type (required)

The type of format conversion to use to produce the format specifier's output. The following types
are supported:

• s formats the argument value as a simple string. A null value is treated as an empty string.

• I treats the argument value as an SQL identifier, double-quoting it if necessary. It is an error

for the value to be null (equivalent to quote_ident).

• L quotes the argument value as an SQL literal. A null value is displayed as the string NULL,
without quotes (equivalent to quote_nullable).

In addition to the format specifiers described above, the special sequence %% may be used to output
a literal % character.

Here are some examples of the basic format conversions:

SELECT format('Hello %s', 'World');

Result: Hello World

SELECT format('Testing %s, %s, %s, %%', 'one', 'two', 'three');

Result: Testing one, two, three, %

SELECT format('INSERT INTO %I VALUES(%L)', 'Foo bar', E'O

\'Reilly');
Result: INSERT INTO "Foo bar" VALUES('O''Reilly')

SELECT format('INSERT INTO %I VALUES(%L)', 'locations', 'C:\Program

Files');
Result: INSERT INTO locations VALUES('C:\Program Files')

Here are examples using width fields and the - flag:

SELECT format('|%10s|', 'foo');

Result: | foo|

SELECT format('|%-10s|', 'foo');

Result: |foo |

SELECT format('|%*s|', 10, 'foo');

Result: | foo|

SELECT format('|%*s|', -10, 'foo');

Result: |foo |

SELECT format('|%-*s|', 10, 'foo');

227
 Functions and Operators

Result: |foo |

SELECT format('|%-*s|', -10, 'foo');

Result: |foo |

These examples show use of position fields:

SELECT format('Testing %3$s, %2$s, %1$s', 'one', 'two', 'three');

Result: Testing three, two, one

SELECT format('|%*2$s|', 'foo', 10, 'bar');

Result: | bar|

SELECT format('|%1$*2$s|', 'foo', 10, 'bar');

Result: | foo|

Unlike the standard C function sprintf, PostgreSQL's format function allows format specifiers
with and without position fields to be mixed in the same format string. A format specifier without
a position field always uses the next argument after the last argument consumed. In addition, the
format function does not require all function arguments to be used in the format string. For example:

SELECT format('Testing %3$s, %2$s, %s', 'one', 'two', 'three');

Result: Testing three, two, three

The %I and %L format specifiers are particularly useful for safely constructing dynamic SQL state-
ments. See Example 42.1.

9.5. Binary String Functions and Operators

This section describes functions and operators for examining and manipulating values of type bytea.

SQL defines some string functions that use key words, rather than commas, to separate arguments.
Details are in Table 9.12. PostgreSQL also provides versions of these functions that use the regular
function invocation syntax (see Table 9.13).

Note
The sample results shown on this page assume that the server parameter bytea_out-
put is set to escape (the traditional PostgreSQL format).

Table 9.12. SQL Binary String Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result
string || bytea String concatena- '\ \\Post'gres
string tion \Post'::bytea \000
|| '\047gres
\000'::bytea
int Number of bytes in octet_length('jo
5
octet_length(string) binary string \000se'::bytea)
over- bytea Replace substring over- T\\002\
lay(string lay('Th\000omas'::bytea
\003mas
placing placing
string from '\002\003'::bytea
int [for from 2 for 3)
int])

228
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

posi- int Location of speci- posi- 3
tion(sub- fied substring tion('\000om'::bytea
string in in 'Th
string) \000omas'::bytea)
sub- bytea Extract substring sub- h\000o
string(string string('Th\000omas'::bytea
[from int] from 2 for 3)
[for int])
trim([both] bytea Remove the trim('\000\001'::bytea
Tom
bytes from longest string from '\000Tom
string) containing only \001'::bytea)
bytes appearing in
bytes from the
start and end of
string

Additional binary string manipulation functions are available and are listed in Table 9.13. Some of
them are used internally to implement the SQL-standard string functions listed in Table 9.12.

Table 9.13. Other Binary String Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
btrim(string bytea Remove the btrim('\000trim
trim
bytea, bytes longest string \001'::bytea,
bytea) containing only '\000\001'::bytea)
bytes appearing in
bytes from the
start and end of
string
de- bytea Decode binary da- de- 123\000456
code(string ta from textual code('123\000456',
text, format representation in 'escape')
text) string. Options
for format are
same as in en-
code.
encode(data text Encode binary da- en- 123\000456
bytea, format ta into a textu- code('123\000456'::bytea,
text) al representation. 'escape')
Supported for-
mats are: base64,
hex, escape.
escape converts
zero bytes and
high-bit-set bytes
to octal sequences
(\nnn) and dou-
bles backslashes.
int Extract bit from get_bit('Th 1
get_bit(string, string \000omas'::bytea,
offset) 45)
int Extract byte from get_byte('Th 109
get_byte(string, string \000omas'::bytea,
offset) 4)

229
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

int Length of binary length('jo 5
length(string) string \000se'::bytea)
md5(string) text Calculates the md5('Th 8ab2d3c9689aaf18
MD5 hash of \000omas'::bytea)
b4958c334c82d8b1
string, return-
ing the result in
hexadecimal
bytea Set bit in string set_bit('Th Th\000omAs
set_bit(string, \000omas'::bytea,
offset, new- 45, 0)
value)
bytea Set byte in string set_byte('Th Th\000o@as
set_byte(string, \000omas'::bytea,
offset, new- 4, 64)
value)
bytea SHA-224 hash sha224('abc') \x23097d223405d8228642a477
sha224(bytea) da2
55b32aad-
bce4b-
da0b3f7e36c9da7
bytea SHA-256 hash sha256('abc') \xba7816bf8f01cfea414140de
sha256(bytea) b00361a396177a9cb410f-
f61f20015ad
bytea SHA-384 hash sha384('abc') \xcb00753f45a35e8b-
sha384(bytea) b5a03d699ac65007
272c32ab0ed-
ed1631a8b605a43f-
f5bed
8086072ba1e7c-
c2358bae-
ca134c825a7
bytea SHA-512 hash sha512('abc') \xddaf35a193617abac-
sha512(bytea) c417349ae204131
12e6fa4e89a97ea20a9eeee64b
2192992a274fc1a836ba3c23a3
454d4423643ce80e2a9ac94fa5

get_byte and set_byte number the first byte of a binary string as byte 0. get_bit and
set_bit number bits from the right within each byte; for example bit 0 is the least significant bit of
the first byte, and bit 15 is the most significant bit of the second byte.

Note that for historic reasons, the function md5 returns a hex-encoded value of type text whereas the
SHA-2 functions return type bytea. Use the functions encode and decode to convert between the
two, for example encode(sha256('abc'), 'hex') to get a hex-encoded text representation.

See also the aggregate function string_agg in Section 9.20 and the large object functions in Sec-
tion 34.4.

9.6. Bit String Functions and Operators

This section describes functions and operators for examining and manipulating bit strings, that is
values of the types bit and bit varying. Aside from the usual comparison operators, the operators
shown in Table 9.14 can be used. Bit string operands of &, |, and # must be of equal length. When bit
shifting, the original length of the string is preserved, as shown in the examples.

230
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.14. Bit String Operators

Operator Description Example Result
|| concatenation B'10001' || 10001011
B'011'
& bitwise AND B'10001' & 00001
B'01101'
| bitwise OR B'10001' | 11101
B'01101'
# bitwise XOR B'10001' # 11100
B'01101'
~ bitwise NOT ~ B'10001' 01110
<< bitwise shift left B'10001' << 3 01000
>> bitwise shift right B'10001' >> 2 00100

The following SQL-standard functions work on bit strings as well as character strings: length,
bit_length, octet_length, position, substring, overlay.

The following functions work on bit strings as well as binary strings: get_bit, set_bit. When
working with a bit string, these functions number the first (leftmost) bit of the string as bit 0.

In addition, it is possible to cast integral values to and from type bit. Some examples:

44::bit(10) 0000101100
44::bit(3) 100
cast(-44 as bit(12)) 111111010100
'1110'::bit(4)::integer 14

Note that casting to just “bit” means casting to bit(1), and so will deliver only the least significant
bit of the integer.

Note
Casting an integer to bit(n) copies the rightmost n bits. Casting an integer to a bit
string width wider than the integer itself will sign-extend on the left.

9.7. Pattern Matching

There are three separate approaches to pattern matching provided by PostgreSQL: the traditional SQL
LIKE operator, the more recent SIMILAR TO operator (added in SQL:1999), and POSIX-style reg-
ular expressions. Aside from the basic “does this string match this pattern?” operators, functions are
available to extract or replace matching substrings and to split a string at matching locations.

Tip
If you have pattern matching needs that go beyond this, consider writing a user-defined
function in Perl or Tcl.

Caution
While most regular-expression searches can be executed very quickly, regular expres-
sions can be contrived that take arbitrary amounts of time and memory to process. Be

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 Functions and Operators

wary of accepting regular-expression search patterns from hostile sources. If you must
do so, it is advisable to impose a statement timeout.

Searches using SIMILAR TO patterns have the same security hazards, since
SIMILAR TO provides many of the same capabilities as POSIX-style regular expres-
sions.

LIKE searches, being much simpler than the other two options, are safer to use with
possibly-hostile pattern sources.

The pattern matching operators of all three kinds do not support nondeterministic collations. If re-
quired, apply a different collation to the expression to work around this limitation.

9.7.1. LIKE

string LIKE pattern [ESCAPE escape-character]

string NOT LIKE pattern [ESCAPE escape-character]

The LIKE expression returns true if the string matches the supplied pattern. (As expected, the
NOT LIKE expression returns false if LIKE returns true, and vice versa. An equivalent expression
is NOT (string LIKE pattern).)

If pattern does not contain percent signs or underscores, then the pattern only represents the string
itself; in that case LIKE acts like the equals operator. An underscore (_) in pattern stands for
(matches) any single character; a percent sign (%) matches any sequence of zero or more characters.

Some examples:

'abc' LIKE 'abc' true

'abc' LIKE 'a%' true
'abc' LIKE '_b_' true
'abc' LIKE 'c' false

LIKE pattern matching always covers the entire string. Therefore, if it's desired to match a sequence
anywhere within a string, the pattern must start and end with a percent sign.

To match a literal underscore or percent sign without matching other characters, the respective char-
acter in pattern must be preceded by the escape character. The default escape character is the back-
slash but a different one can be selected by using the ESCAPE clause. To match the escape character
itself, write two escape characters.

Note
If you have standard_conforming_strings turned off, any backslashes you write in lit-
eral string constants will need to be doubled. See Section 4.1.2.1 for more information.

It's also possible to select no escape character by writing ESCAPE ''. This effectively disables
the escape mechanism, which makes it impossible to turn off the special meaning of underscore and
percent signs in the pattern.

The key word ILIKE can be used instead of LIKE to make the match case-insensitive according to
the active locale. This is not in the SQL standard but is a PostgreSQL extension.

The operator ~~ is equivalent to LIKE, and ~~* corresponds to ILIKE. There are also !~~ and !
~~* operators that represent NOT LIKE and NOT ILIKE, respectively. All of these operators are
PostgreSQL-specific.

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 Functions and Operators

There is also the prefix operator ^@ and corresponding starts_with function which covers cases
when only searching by beginning of the string is needed.

9.7.2. SIMILAR TO Regular Expressions

string SIMILAR TO pattern [ESCAPE escape-character]

string NOT SIMILAR TO pattern [ESCAPE escape-character]

The SIMILAR TO operator returns true or false depending on whether its pattern matches the given
string. It is similar to LIKE, except that it interprets the pattern using the SQL standard's definition of a
regular expression. SQL regular expressions are a curious cross between LIKE notation and common
regular expression notation.

Like LIKE, the SIMILAR TO operator succeeds only if its pattern matches the entire string; this is
unlike common regular expression behavior where the pattern can match any part of the string. Also
like LIKE, SIMILAR TO uses _ and % as wildcard characters denoting any single character and any
string, respectively (these are comparable to . and .* in POSIX regular expressions).

In addition to these facilities borrowed from LIKE, SIMILAR TO supports these pattern-matching
metacharacters borrowed from POSIX regular expressions:

• | denotes alternation (either of two alternatives).

• * denotes repetition of the previous item zero or more times.

• + denotes repetition of the previous item one or more times.

• ? denotes repetition of the previous item zero or one time.

• {m} denotes repetition of the previous item exactly m times.

• {m,} denotes repetition of the previous item m or more times.

• {m,n} denotes repetition of the previous item at least m and not more than n times.

• Parentheses () can be used to group items into a single logical item.

• A bracket expression [...] specifies a character class, just as in POSIX regular expressions.

Notice that the period (.) is not a metacharacter for SIMILAR TO.

As with LIKE, a backslash disables the special meaning of any of these metacharacters; or a different
escape character can be specified with ESCAPE.

Some examples:

'abc' SIMILAR TO 'abc' true

'abc' SIMILAR TO 'a' false
'abc' SIMILAR TO '%(b|d)%' true
'abc' SIMILAR TO '(b|c)%' false

The substring function with three parameters provides extraction of a substring that matches an
SQL regular expression pattern. The function can be written according to SQL99 syntax:

substring(string from pattern for escape-character)

or as a plain three-argument function:

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 Functions and Operators

substring(string, pattern, escape-character)

As with SIMILAR TO, the specified pattern must match the entire data string, or else the function
fails and returns null. To indicate the part of the pattern for which the matching data sub-string is
of interest, the pattern should contain two occurrences of the escape character followed by a double
quote ("). The text matching the portion of the pattern between these separators is returned when the
match is successful.

The escape-double-quote separators actually divide substring's pattern into three independent reg-
ular expressions; for example, a vertical bar (|) in any of the three sections affects only that section.
Also, the first and third of these regular expressions are defined to match the smallest possible amount
of text, not the largest, when there is any ambiguity about how much of the data string matches which
pattern. (In POSIX parlance, the first and third regular expressions are forced to be non-greedy.)

As an extension to the SQL standard, PostgreSQL allows there to be just one escape-double-quote
separator, in which case the third regular expression is taken as empty; or no separators, in which case
the first and third regular expressions are taken as empty.

Some examples, with #" delimiting the return string:

substring('foobar' from '%#"o_b#"%' for '#') oob

substring('foobar' from '#"o_b#"%' for '#') NULL

9.7.3. POSIX Regular Expressions

Table 9.15 lists the available operators for pattern matching using POSIX regular expressions.

Table 9.15. Regular Expression Match Operators

Operator Description Example
~ Matches regular expression, case 'thomas' ~
sensitive '.*thomas.*'
~* Matches regular expression, case 'thomas' ~*
insensitive '.*Thomas.*'
!~ Does not match regular expres- 'thomas' !~
sion, case sensitive '.*Thomas.*'
!~* Does not match regular expres- 'thomas' !~*
sion, case insensitive '.*vadim.*'

POSIX regular expressions provide a more powerful means for pattern matching than the LIKE and
SIMILAR TO operators. Many Unix tools such as egrep, sed, or awk use a pattern matching
language that is similar to the one described here.

A regular expression is a character sequence that is an abbreviated definition of a set of strings (a

regular set). A string is said to match a regular expression if it is a member of the regular set described
by the regular expression. As with LIKE, pattern characters match string characters exactly unless
they are special characters in the regular expression language — but regular expressions use different
special characters than LIKE does. Unlike LIKE patterns, a regular expression is allowed to match
anywhere within a string, unless the regular expression is explicitly anchored to the beginning or end
of the string.

Some examples:

'abc' ~ 'abc' true

'abc' ~ '^a' true
'abc' ~ '(b|d)' true

234
 Functions and Operators

'abc' ~ '^(b|c)' false

The POSIX pattern language is described in much greater detail below.

The substring function with two parameters, substring(string from pattern), pro-
vides extraction of a substring that matches a POSIX regular expression pattern. It returns null if there
is no match, otherwise the portion of the text that matched the pattern. But if the pattern contains any
parentheses, the portion of the text that matched the first parenthesized subexpression (the one whose
left parenthesis comes first) is returned. You can put parentheses around the whole expression if you
want to use parentheses within it without triggering this exception. If you need parentheses in the pat-
tern before the subexpression you want to extract, see the non-capturing parentheses described below.

Some examples:

substring('foobar' from 'o.b') oob

substring('foobar' from 'o(.)b') o

The regexp_replace function provides substitution of new text for substrings that match POSIX
regular expression patterns. It has the syntax regexp_replace(source, pattern, replace-
ment [, flags ]). The source string is returned unchanged if there is no match to the pattern.
If there is a match, the source string is returned with the replacement string substituted for the
matching substring. The replacement string can contain \n, where n is 1 through 9, to indicate that
the source substring matching the n'th parenthesized subexpression of the pattern should be inserted,
and it can contain \& to indicate that the substring matching the entire pattern should be inserted.
Write \\ if you need to put a literal backslash in the replacement text. The flags parameter is an
optional text string containing zero or more single-letter flags that change the function's behavior. Flag
i specifies case-insensitive matching, while flag g specifies replacement of each matching substring
rather than only the first one. Supported flags (though not g) are described in Table 9.23.

Some examples:

regexp_replace('foobarbaz', 'b..', 'X')

fooXbaz
regexp_replace('foobarbaz', 'b..', 'X', 'g')
fooXX
regexp_replace('foobarbaz', 'b(..)', 'X\1Y', 'g')
fooXarYXazY

The regexp_match function returns a text array of captured substring(s) resulting from the first
match of a POSIX regular expression pattern to a string. It has the syntax regexp_match(string,
pattern [, flags ]). If there is no match, the result is NULL. If a match is found, and the pattern
contains no parenthesized subexpressions, then the result is a single-element text array containing the
substring matching the whole pattern. If a match is found, and the pattern contains parenthesized
subexpressions, then the result is a text array whose n'th element is the substring matching the n'th
parenthesized subexpression of the pattern (not counting “non-capturing” parentheses; see below
for details). The flags parameter is an optional text string containing zero or more single-letter flags
that change the function's behavior. Supported flags are described in Table 9.23.

Some examples:

SELECT regexp_match('foobarbequebaz', 'bar.*que');

regexp_match
--------------
{barbeque}
(1 row)

SELECT regexp_match('foobarbequebaz', '(bar)(beque)');

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 Functions and Operators

regexp_match
--------------
{bar,beque}
(1 row)

In the common case where you just want the whole matching substring or NULL for no match, write
something like

SELECT (regexp_match('foobarbequebaz', 'bar.*que'))[1];

regexp_match
--------------
barbeque
(1 row)

The regexp_matches function returns a set of text arrays of captured substring(s) resulting from
matching a POSIX regular expression pattern to a string. It has the same syntax as regexp_match.
This function returns no rows if there is no match, one row if there is a match and the g flag is not given,
or N rows if there are N matches and the g flag is given. Each returned row is a text array containing the
whole matched substring or the substrings matching parenthesized subexpressions of the pattern,
just as described above for regexp_match. regexp_matches accepts all the flags shown in
Table 9.23, plus the g flag which commands it to return all matches, not just the first one.

Some examples:

SELECT regexp_matches('foo', 'not there');

regexp_matches
----------------
(0 rows)

SELECT regexp_matches('foobarbequebazilbarfbonk', '(b[^b]+)

(b[^b]+)', 'g');
regexp_matches
----------------
{bar,beque}
{bazil,barf}
(2 rows)

Tip
In most cases regexp_matches() should be used with the g flag, since if you
only want the first match, it's easier and more efficient to use regexp_match().
However, regexp_match() only exists in PostgreSQL version 10 and up. When
working in older versions, a common trick is to place a regexp_matches() call
in a sub-select, for example:

SELECT col1, (SELECT regexp_matches(col2, '(bar)

(beque)')) FROM tab;

This produces a text array if there's a match, or NULL if not, the same as regex-
p_match() would do. Without the sub-select, this query would produce no output
at all for table rows without a match, which is typically not the desired behavior.

The regexp_split_to_table function splits a string using a POSIX regular expression pattern
as a delimiter. It has the syntax regexp_split_to_table(string, pattern [, flags ]). If

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 Functions and Operators

there is no match to the pattern, the function returns the string. If there is at least one match,
for each match it returns the text from the end of the last match (or the beginning of the string) to
the beginning of the match. When there are no more matches, it returns the text from the end of the
last match to the end of the string. The flags parameter is an optional text string containing zero or
more single-letter flags that change the function's behavior. regexp_split_to_table supports
the flags described in Table 9.23.

The regexp_split_to_array function behaves the same as regexp_split_to_table,

except that regexp_split_to_array returns its result as an array of text. It has the syntax
regexp_split_to_array(string, pattern [, flags ]). The parameters are the same as for
regexp_split_to_table.

Some examples:

SELECT foo FROM regexp_split_to_table('the quick brown fox jumps

over the lazy dog', '\s+') AS foo;
foo
-------
the
quick
brown
fox
jumps
over
the
lazy
dog
(9 rows)

SELECT regexp_split_to_array('the quick brown fox jumps over the

lazy dog', '\s+');
regexp_split_to_array
-----------------------------------------------
{the,quick,brown,fox,jumps,over,the,lazy,dog}
(1 row)

SELECT foo FROM regexp_split_to_table('the quick brown fox', '\s*')

AS foo;
foo
-----
t
h
e
q
u
i
c
k
b
r
o
w
n
f
o
x
(16 rows)

237
 Functions and Operators

As the last example demonstrates, the regexp split functions ignore zero-length matches that occur
at the start or end of the string or immediately after a previous match. This is contrary to the strict
definition of regexp matching that is implemented by regexp_match and regexp_matches, but
is usually the most convenient behavior in practice. Other software systems such as Perl use similar
definitions.

9.7.3.1. Regular Expression Details

PostgreSQL's regular expressions are implemented using a software package written by Henry
Spencer. Much of the description of regular expressions below is copied verbatim from his manual.

Regular expressions (REs), as defined in POSIX 1003.2, come in two forms: extended REs or EREs
(roughly those of egrep), and basic REs or BREs (roughly those of ed). PostgreSQL supports both
forms, and also implements some extensions that are not in the POSIX standard, but have become
widely used due to their availability in programming languages such as Perl and Tcl. REs using these
non-POSIX extensions are called advanced REs or AREs in this documentation. AREs are almost an
exact superset of EREs, but BREs have several notational incompatibilities (as well as being much
more limited). We first describe the ARE and ERE forms, noting features that apply only to AREs,
and then describe how BREs differ.

Note
PostgreSQL always initially presumes that a regular expression follows the ARE rules.
However, the more limited ERE or BRE rules can be chosen by prepending an embed-
ded option to the RE pattern, as described in Section 9.7.3.4. This can be useful for
compatibility with applications that expect exactly the POSIX 1003.2 rules.

A regular expression is defined as one or more branches, separated by |. It matches anything that
matches one of the branches.

A branch is zero or more quantified atoms or constraints, concatenated. It matches a match for the
first, followed by a match for the second, etc; an empty branch matches the empty string.

A quantified atom is an atom possibly followed by a single quantifier. Without a quantifier, it matches
a match for the atom. With a quantifier, it can match some number of matches of the atom. An atom
can be any of the possibilities shown in Table 9.16. The possible quantifiers and their meanings are
shown in Table 9.17.

A constraint matches an empty string, but matches only when specific conditions are met. A constraint
can be used where an atom could be used, except it cannot be followed by a quantifier. The simple
constraints are shown in Table 9.18; some more constraints are described later.

Table 9.16. Regular Expression Atoms

Atom Description
(re) (where re is any regular expression) matches a
match for re, with the match noted for possible
reporting
(?:re) as above, but the match is not noted for reporting
(a “non-capturing” set of parentheses) (AREs on-
ly)
. matches any single character
[chars] a bracket expression, matching any one of the
chars (see Section 9.7.3.2 for more detail)

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 Functions and Operators

Atom Description
\k (where k is a non-alphanumeric character) match-
es that character taken as an ordinary character,
e.g., \\ matches a backslash character
\c where c is alphanumeric (possibly followed by
other characters) is an escape, see Section 9.7.3.3
(AREs only; in EREs and BREs, this matches c)
{ when followed by a character other than a digit,
matches the left-brace character {; when followed
by a digit, it is the beginning of a bound (see be-
low)
x where x is a single character with no other signif-
icance, matches that character

An RE cannot end with a backslash (\).

Note
If you have standard_conforming_strings turned off, any backslashes you write in lit-
eral string constants will need to be doubled. See Section 4.1.2.1 for more information.

Table 9.17. Regular Expression Quantifiers

Quantifier Matches
* a sequence of 0 or more matches of the atom
+ a sequence of 1 or more matches of the atom
? a sequence of 0 or 1 matches of the atom
{m} a sequence of exactly m matches of the atom
{m,} a sequence of m or more matches of the atom
{m,n} a sequence of m through n (inclusive) matches of
the atom; m cannot exceed n
*? non-greedy version of *
+? non-greedy version of +
?? non-greedy version of ?
{m}? non-greedy version of {m}
{m,}? non-greedy version of {m,}
{m,n}? non-greedy version of {m,n}

The forms using {...} are known as bounds. The numbers m and n within a bound are unsigned
decimal integers with permissible values from 0 to 255 inclusive.

Non-greedy quantifiers (available in AREs only) match the same possibilities as their corresponding
normal (greedy) counterparts, but prefer the smallest number rather than the largest number of matches.
See Section 9.7.3.5 for more detail.

Note
A quantifier cannot immediately follow another quantifier, e.g., ** is invalid. A quan-
tifier cannot begin an expression or subexpression or follow ^ or |.

239
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.18. Regular Expression Constraints

Constraint Description
^ matches at the beginning of the string
$ matches at the end of the string
(?=re) positive lookahead matches at any point where a
substring matching re begins (AREs only)
(?!re) negative lookahead matches at any point where no
substring matching re begins (AREs only)
(?<=re) positive lookbehind matches at any point where a
substring matching re ends (AREs only)
(?<!re) negative lookbehind matches at any point where
no substring matching re ends (AREs only)

Lookahead and lookbehind constraints cannot contain back references (see Section 9.7.3.3), and all
parentheses within them are considered non-capturing.

9.7.3.2. Bracket Expressions

A bracket expression is a list of characters enclosed in []. It normally matches any single character
from the list (but see below). If the list begins with ^, it matches any single character not from the
rest of the list. If two characters in the list are separated by -, this is shorthand for the full range of
characters between those two (inclusive) in the collating sequence, e.g., [0-9] in ASCII matches
any decimal digit. It is illegal for two ranges to share an endpoint, e.g., a-c-e. Ranges are very
collating-sequence-dependent, so portable programs should avoid relying on them.

To include a literal ] in the list, make it the first character (after ^, if that is used). To include a
literal -, make it the first or last character, or the second endpoint of a range. To use a literal - as
the first endpoint of a range, enclose it in [. and .] to make it a collating element (see below).
With the exception of these characters, some combinations using [ (see next paragraphs), and escapes
(AREs only), all other special characters lose their special significance within a bracket expression.
In particular, \ is not special when following ERE or BRE rules, though it is special (as introducing
an escape) in AREs.

Within a bracket expression, a collating element (a character, a multiple-character sequence that col-
lates as if it were a single character, or a collating-sequence name for either) enclosed in [. and .]
stands for the sequence of characters of that collating element. The sequence is treated as a single
element of the bracket expression's list. This allows a bracket expression containing a multiple-char-
acter collating element to match more than one character, e.g., if the collating sequence includes a ch
collating element, then the RE [[.ch.]]*c matches the first five characters of chchcc.

Note
PostgreSQL currently does not support multi-character collating elements. This infor-
mation describes possible future behavior.

Within a bracket expression, a collating element enclosed in [= and =] is an equivalence class, stand-
ing for the sequences of characters of all collating elements equivalent to that one, including itself. (If
there are no other equivalent collating elements, the treatment is as if the enclosing delimiters were [.
and .].) For example, if o and ^ are the members of an equivalence class, then [[=o=]], [[=^=]],
and [o^] are all synonymous. An equivalence class cannot be an endpoint of a range.

Within a bracket expression, the name of a character class enclosed in [: and :] stands for the list of
all characters belonging to that class. A character class cannot be used as an endpoint of a range. The
POSIX standard defines these character class names: alnum (letters and numeric digits), alpha (let-

240
 Functions and Operators

ters), blank (space and tab), cntrl (control characters), digit (numeric digits), graph (printable
characters except space), lower (lower-case letters), print (printable characters including space),
punct (punctuation), space (any white space), upper (upper-case letters), and xdigit (hexadec-
imal digits). The behavior of these standard character classes is generally consistent across platforms
for characters in the 7-bit ASCII set. Whether a given non-ASCII character is considered to belong to
one of these classes depends on the collation that is used for the regular-expression function or oper-
ator (see Section 23.2), or by default on the database's LC_CTYPE locale setting (see Section 23.1).
The classification of non-ASCII characters can vary across platforms even in similarly-named locales.
(But the C locale never considers any non-ASCII characters to belong to any of these classes.) In
addition to these standard character classes, PostgreSQL defines the ascii character class, which
contains exactly the 7-bit ASCII set.

There are two special cases of bracket expressions: the bracket expressions [[:<:]] and [[:>:]]
are constraints, matching empty strings at the beginning and end of a word respectively. A word is
defined as a sequence of word characters that is neither preceded nor followed by word characters. A
word character is an alnum character (as defined by the POSIX character class described above) or
an underscore. This is an extension, compatible with but not specified by POSIX 1003.2, and should
be used with caution in software intended to be portable to other systems. The constraint escapes
described below are usually preferable; they are no more standard, but are easier to type.

9.7.3.3. Regular Expression Escapes

Escapes are special sequences beginning with \ followed by an alphanumeric character. Escapes come
in several varieties: character entry, class shorthands, constraint escapes, and back references. A \
followed by an alphanumeric character but not constituting a valid escape is illegal in AREs. In EREs,
there are no escapes: outside a bracket expression, a \ followed by an alphanumeric character merely
stands for that character as an ordinary character, and inside a bracket expression, \ is an ordinary
character. (The latter is the one actual incompatibility between EREs and AREs.)

Character-entry escapes exist to make it easier to specify non-printing and other inconvenient char-
acters in REs. They are shown in Table 9.19.

Class-shorthand escapes provide shorthands for certain commonly-used character classes. They are
shown in Table 9.20.

A constraint escape is a constraint, matching the empty string if specific conditions are met, written
as an escape. They are shown in Table 9.21.

A back reference (\n) matches the same string matched by the previous parenthesized subexpression
specified by the number n (see Table 9.22). For example, ([bc])\1 matches bb or cc but not bc
or cb. The subexpression must entirely precede the back reference in the RE. Subexpressions are
numbered in the order of their leading parentheses. Non-capturing parentheses do not define subex-
pressions.

Table 9.19. Regular Expression Character-Entry Escapes

Escape Description
\a alert (bell) character, as in C
\b backspace, as in C
\B synonym for backslash (\) to help reduce the need
for backslash doubling
\cX (where X is any character) the character whose
low-order 5 bits are the same as those of X, and
whose other bits are all zero
\e the character whose collating-sequence name is
ESC, or failing that, the character with octal value
033

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 Functions and Operators

Escape Description
\f form feed, as in C
\n newline, as in C
\r carriage return, as in C
\t horizontal tab, as in C
\uwxyz (where wxyz is exactly four hexadecimal dig-
its) the character whose hexadecimal value is
0xwxyz
\Ustuvwxyz (where stuvwxyz is exactly eight hexadecimal
digits) the character whose hexadecimal value is
0xstuvwxyz
\v vertical tab, as in C
\xhhh (where hhh is any sequence of hexadecimal dig-
its) the character whose hexadecimal value is
0xhhh (a single character no matter how many
hexadecimal digits are used)
\0 the character whose value is 0 (the null byte)
\xy (where xy is exactly two octal digits, and is not
a back reference) the character whose octal value
is 0xy
\xyz (where xyz is exactly three octal digits, and is not
a back reference) the character whose octal value
is 0xyz

Hexadecimal digits are 0-9, a-f, and A-F. Octal digits are 0-7.

Numeric character-entry escapes specifying values outside the ASCII range (0-127) have meanings
dependent on the database encoding. When the encoding is UTF-8, escape values are equivalent to
Unicode code points, for example \u1234 means the character U+1234. For other multibyte encod-
ings, character-entry escapes usually just specify the concatenation of the byte values for the character.
If the escape value does not correspond to any legal character in the database encoding, no error will
be raised, but it will never match any data.

The character-entry escapes are always taken as ordinary characters. For example, \135 is ] in ASCII,
but \135 does not terminate a bracket expression.

Table 9.20. Regular Expression Class-Shorthand Escapes

Escape Description
\d [[:digit:]]
\s [[:space:]]
\w [[:alnum:]_] (note underscore is included)
\D [^[:digit:]]
\S [^[:space:]]
\W [^[:alnum:]_] (note underscore is included)

Within bracket expressions, \d, \s, and \w lose their outer brackets, and \D, \S, and \W are illegal.
(So, for example, [a-c\d] is equivalent to [a-c[:digit:]]. Also, [a-c\D], which is equiv-
alent to [a-c^[:digit:]], is illegal.)

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 Functions and Operators

Table 9.21. Regular Expression Constraint Escapes

Escape Description
\A matches only at the beginning of the string (see
Section 9.7.3.5 for how this differs from ^)
\m matches only at the beginning of a word
\M matches only at the end of a word
\y matches only at the beginning or end of a word
\Y matches only at a point that is not the beginning
or end of a word
\Z matches only at the end of the string (see Sec-
tion 9.7.3.5 for how this differs from $)

A word is defined as in the specification of [[:<:]] and [[:>:]] above. Constraint escapes are
illegal within bracket expressions.

Table 9.22. Regular Expression Back References

Escape Description
\m (where m is a nonzero digit) a back reference to
the m'th subexpression
\mnn (where m is a nonzero digit, and nn is some more
digits, and the decimal value mnn is not greater
than the number of closing capturing parentheses
seen so far) a back reference to the mnn'th subex-
pression

Note
There is an inherent ambiguity between octal character-entry escapes and back refer-
ences, which is resolved by the following heuristics, as hinted at above. A leading ze-
ro always indicates an octal escape. A single non-zero digit, not followed by another
digit, is always taken as a back reference. A multi-digit sequence not starting with a
zero is taken as a back reference if it comes after a suitable subexpression (i.e., the
number is in the legal range for a back reference), and otherwise is taken as octal.

9.7.3.4. Regular Expression Metasyntax

In addition to the main syntax described above, there are some special forms and miscellaneous syn-
tactic facilities available.

An RE can begin with one of two special director prefixes. If an RE begins with ***:, the rest of
the RE is taken as an ARE. (This normally has no effect in PostgreSQL, since REs are assumed to be
AREs; but it does have an effect if ERE or BRE mode had been specified by the flags parameter
to a regex function.) If an RE begins with ***=, the rest of the RE is taken to be a literal string, with
all characters considered ordinary characters.

An ARE can begin with embedded options: a sequence (?xyz) (where xyz is one or more alpha-
betic characters) specifies options affecting the rest of the RE. These options override any previously
determined options — in particular, they can override the case-sensitivity behavior implied by a regex
operator, or the flags parameter to a regex function. The available option letters are shown in Ta-
ble 9.23. Note that these same option letters are used in the flags parameters of regex functions.

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 Functions and Operators

Table 9.23. ARE Embedded-Option Letters

Option Description
b rest of RE is a BRE
c case-sensitive matching (overrides operator type)
e rest of RE is an ERE
i case-insensitive matching (see Section 9.7.3.5)
(overrides operator type)
m historical synonym for n
n newline-sensitive matching (see Section 9.7.3.5)
p partial newline-sensitive matching (see Sec-
tion 9.7.3.5)
q rest of RE is a literal (“quoted”) string, all ordinary
characters
s non-newline-sensitive matching (default)
t tight syntax (default; see below)
w inverse partial newline-sensitive (“weird”)
matching (see Section 9.7.3.5)
x expanded syntax (see below)

Embedded options take effect at the ) terminating the sequence. They can appear only at the start of
an ARE (after the ***: director if any).

In addition to the usual (tight) RE syntax, in which all characters are significant, there is an expanded
syntax, available by specifying the embedded x option. In the expanded syntax, white-space characters
in the RE are ignored, as are all characters between a # and the following newline (or the end of the
RE). This permits paragraphing and commenting a complex RE. There are three exceptions to that
basic rule:

• a white-space character or # preceded by \ is retained

• white space or # within a bracket expression is retained

• white space and comments cannot appear within multi-character symbols, such as (?:

For this purpose, white-space characters are blank, tab, newline, and any character that belongs to the
space character class.

Finally, in an ARE, outside bracket expressions, the sequence (?#ttt) (where ttt is any text not
containing a )) is a comment, completely ignored. Again, this is not allowed between the characters of
multi-character symbols, like (?:. Such comments are more a historical artifact than a useful facility,
and their use is deprecated; use the expanded syntax instead.

None of these metasyntax extensions is available if an initial ***= director has specified that the user's
input be treated as a literal string rather than as an RE.

9.7.3.5. Regular Expression Matching Rules

In the event that an RE could match more than one substring of a given string, the RE matches the
one starting earliest in the string. If the RE could match more than one substring starting at that point,
either the longest possible match or the shortest possible match will be taken, depending on whether
the RE is greedy or non-greedy.

Whether an RE is greedy or not is determined by the following rules:

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 Functions and Operators

• Most atoms, and all constraints, have no greediness attribute (because they cannot match variable
amounts of text anyway).

• Adding parentheses around an RE does not change its greediness.

• A quantified atom with a fixed-repetition quantifier ({m} or {m}?) has the same greediness (pos-
sibly none) as the atom itself.

• A quantified atom with other normal quantifiers (including {m,n} with m equal to n) is greedy
(prefers longest match).

• A quantified atom with a non-greedy quantifier (including {m,n}? with m equal to n) is non-greedy
(prefers shortest match).

• A branch — that is, an RE that has no top-level | operator — has the same greediness as the first
quantified atom in it that has a greediness attribute.

• An RE consisting of two or more branches connected by the | operator is always greedy.

The above rules associate greediness attributes not only with individual quantified atoms, but with
branches and entire REs that contain quantified atoms. What that means is that the matching is done in
such a way that the branch, or whole RE, matches the longest or shortest possible substring as a whole.
Once the length of the entire match is determined, the part of it that matches any particular subexpres-
sion is determined on the basis of the greediness attribute of that subexpression, with subexpressions
starting earlier in the RE taking priority over ones starting later.

An example of what this means:

SELECT SUBSTRING('XY1234Z', 'Y*([0-9]{1,3})');

Result: 123
SELECT SUBSTRING('XY1234Z', 'Y*?([0-9]{1,3})');
Result: 1

In the first case, the RE as a whole is greedy because Y* is greedy. It can match beginning at the Y,
and it matches the longest possible string starting there, i.e., Y123. The output is the parenthesized
part of that, or 123. In the second case, the RE as a whole is non-greedy because Y*? is non-greedy.
It can match beginning at the Y, and it matches the shortest possible string starting there, i.e., Y1.
The subexpression [0-9]{1,3} is greedy but it cannot change the decision as to the overall match
length; so it is forced to match just 1.

In short, when an RE contains both greedy and non-greedy subexpressions, the total match length is
either as long as possible or as short as possible, according to the attribute assigned to the whole RE.
The attributes assigned to the subexpressions only affect how much of that match they are allowed
to “eat” relative to each other.

The quantifiers {1,1} and {1,1}? can be used to force greediness or non-greediness, respectively,
on a subexpression or a whole RE. This is useful when you need the whole RE to have a greediness
attribute different from what's deduced from its elements. As an example, suppose that we are trying
to separate a string containing some digits into the digits and the parts before and after them. We might
try to do that like this:

SELECT regexp_match('abc01234xyz', '(.*)(\d+)(.*)');

Result: {abc0123,4,xyz}

That didn't work: the first .* is greedy so it “eats” as much as it can, leaving the \d+ to match at the
last possible place, the last digit. We might try to fix that by making it non-greedy:

SELECT regexp_match('abc01234xyz', '(.*?)(\d+)(.*)');

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 Functions and Operators

Result: {abc,0,""}

That didn't work either, because now the RE as a whole is non-greedy and so it ends the overall match
as soon as possible. We can get what we want by forcing the RE as a whole to be greedy:

SELECT regexp_match('abc01234xyz', '(?:(.*?)(\d+)(.*)){1,1}');

Result: {abc,01234,xyz}

Controlling the RE's overall greediness separately from its components' greediness allows great flex-
ibility in handling variable-length patterns.

When deciding what is a longer or shorter match, match lengths are measured in characters, not collat-
ing elements. An empty string is considered longer than no match at all. For example: bb* matches the
three middle characters of abbbc; (week|wee)(night|knights) matches all ten characters
of weeknights; when (.*).* is matched against abc the parenthesized subexpression matches
all three characters; and when (a*)* is matched against bc both the whole RE and the parenthesized
subexpression match an empty string.

If case-independent matching is specified, the effect is much as if all case distinctions had vanished
from the alphabet. When an alphabetic that exists in multiple cases appears as an ordinary character
outside a bracket expression, it is effectively transformed into a bracket expression containing both
cases, e.g., x becomes [xX]. When it appears inside a bracket expression, all case counterparts of it
are added to the bracket expression, e.g., [x] becomes [xX] and [^x] becomes [^xX].

If newline-sensitive matching is specified, . and bracket expressions using ^ will never match the
newline character (so that matches will never cross newlines unless the RE explicitly arranges it) and
^ and $ will match the empty string after and before a newline respectively, in addition to matching at
beginning and end of string respectively. But the ARE escapes \A and \Z continue to match beginning
or end of string only.

If partial newline-sensitive matching is specified, this affects . and bracket expressions as with new-
line-sensitive matching, but not ^ and $.

If inverse partial newline-sensitive matching is specified, this affects ^ and $ as with newline-sensitive
matching, but not . and bracket expressions. This isn't very useful but is provided for symmetry.

9.7.3.6. Limits and Compatibility

No particular limit is imposed on the length of REs in this implementation. However, programs in-
tended to be highly portable should not employ REs longer than 256 bytes, as a POSIX-compliant
implementation can refuse to accept such REs.

The only feature of AREs that is actually incompatible with POSIX EREs is that \ does not lose its
special significance inside bracket expressions. All other ARE features use syntax which is illegal or
has undefined or unspecified effects in POSIX EREs; the *** syntax of directors likewise is outside
the POSIX syntax for both BREs and EREs.

Many of the ARE extensions are borrowed from Perl, but some have been changed to clean them up,
and a few Perl extensions are not present. Incompatibilities of note include \b, \B, the lack of spe-
cial treatment for a trailing newline, the addition of complemented bracket expressions to the things
affected by newline-sensitive matching, the restrictions on parentheses and back references in looka-
head/lookbehind constraints, and the longest/shortest-match (rather than first-match) matching seman-
tics.

Two significant incompatibilities exist between AREs and the ERE syntax recognized by pre-7.4 re-
leases of PostgreSQL:

• In AREs, \ followed by an alphanumeric character is either an escape or an error, while in previous

releases, it was just another way of writing the alphanumeric. This should not be much of a problem
because there was no reason to write such a sequence in earlier releases.

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 Functions and Operators

• In AREs, \ remains a special character within [], so a literal \ within a bracket expression must
be written \\.

9.7.3.7. Basic Regular Expressions

BREs differ from EREs in several respects. In BREs, |, +, and ? are ordinary characters and there
is no equivalent for their functionality. The delimiters for bounds are \{ and \}, with { and } by
themselves ordinary characters. The parentheses for nested subexpressions are \( and \), with ( and
) by themselves ordinary characters. ^ is an ordinary character except at the beginning of the RE or
the beginning of a parenthesized subexpression, $ is an ordinary character except at the end of the
RE or the end of a parenthesized subexpression, and * is an ordinary character if it appears at the
beginning of the RE or the beginning of a parenthesized subexpression (after a possible leading ^).
Finally, single-digit back references are available, and \< and \> are synonyms for [[:<:]] and
[[:>:]] respectively; no other escapes are available in BREs.

9.7.3.8. Differences From XQuery (LIKE_REGEX)

Since SQL:2008, the SQL standard includes a LIKE_REGEX operator that performs pattern match-
ing according to the XQuery regular expression standard. PostgreSQL does not yet implement this
operator, but you can get very similar behavior using the regexp_match() function, since XQuery
regular expressions are quite close to the ARE syntax described above.

Notable differences between the existing POSIX-based regular-expression feature and XQuery regular
expressions include:

• XQuery character class subtraction is not supported. An example of this feature is using the follow-
ing to match only English consonants: [a-z-[aeiou]].

• XQuery character class shorthands \c, \C, \i, and \I are not supported.

• XQuery character class elements using \p{UnicodeProperty} or the inverse \P{Unicode-

Property} are not supported.

• POSIX interprets character classes such as \w (see Table 9.20) according to the prevailing locale
(which you can control by attaching a COLLATE clause to the operator or function). XQuery spec-
ifies these classes by reference to Unicode character properties, so equivalent behavior is obtained
only with a locale that follows the Unicode rules.

• The SQL standard (not XQuery itself) attempts to cater for more variants of “newline” than POSIX
does. The newline-sensitive matching options described above consider only ASCII NL (\n) to be
a newline, but SQL would have us treat CR (\r), CRLF (\r\n) (a Windows-style newline), and
some Unicode-only characters like LINE SEPARATOR (U+2028) as newlines as well. Notably, .
and \s should count \r\n as one character not two according to SQL.

• Of the character-entry escapes described in Table 9.19, XQuery supports only \n, \r, and \t.

• XQuery does not support the [:name:] syntax for character classes within bracket expressions.

• XQuery does not have lookahead or lookbehind constraints, nor any of the constraint escapes de-
scribed in Table 9.21.

• The metasyntax forms described in Section 9.7.3.4 do not exist in XQuery.

• The regular expression flag letters defined by XQuery are related to but not the same as the option
letters for POSIX (Table 9.23). While the i and q options behave the same, others do not:

• XQuery's s (allow dot to match newline) and m (allow ^ and $ to match at newlines) flags provide
access to the same behaviors as POSIX's n, p and w flags, but they do not match the behavior
of POSIX's s and m flags. Note in particular that dot-matches-newline is the default behavior in
POSIX but not XQuery.

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 Functions and Operators

• XQuery's x (ignore whitespace in pattern) flag is noticeably different from POSIX's expand-
ed-mode flag. POSIX's x flag also allows # to begin a comment in the pattern, and POSIX will
not ignore a whitespace character after a backslash.

9.8. Data Type Formatting Functions

The PostgreSQL formatting functions provide a powerful set of tools for converting various data types
(date/time, integer, floating point, numeric) to formatted strings and for converting from formatted
strings to specific data types. Table 9.24 lists them. These functions all follow a common calling
convention: the first argument is the value to be formatted and the second argument is a template that
defines the output or input format.

Table 9.24. Formatting Functions

Function Return Type Description Example
to_char(time- text convert time stamp to to_char(curren-
stamp, text) string t_timestamp,
'HH12:MI:SS')
to_char(inter- text convert interval to string to_char(interval
val, text) '15h 2m 12s',
'HH24:MI:SS')
to_char(int, text convert integer to string to_char(125,
text) '999')
to_char(double text convert real/double pre- to_char(125.8::re-
precision, text) cision to string al, '999D9')
to_char(numeric, text convert numeric to to_char(-125.8,
text) string '999D99S')
to_date(text, date convert string to date to_date('05
Dec
2000',
text) 'DD Mon YYYY')
to_number(text, numeric convert string to numer- to_num-
text) ic ber('12,454.8-',
'99G999D9S')
to_timestam- timestamp with convert string to time to_timestam-
p(text, text) time zone stamp p('05 Dec 2000',
'DD Mon YYYY')

Note
There is also a single-argument to_timestamp function; see Table 9.31.

Tip
to_timestamp and to_date exist to handle input formats that cannot be convert-
ed by simple casting. For most standard date/time formats, simply casting the source
string to the required data type works, and is much easier. Similarly, to_number is
unnecessary for standard numeric representations.

In a to_char output template string, there are certain patterns that are recognized and replaced with
appropriately-formatted data based on the given value. Any text that is not a template pattern is simply
copied verbatim. Similarly, in an input template string (for the other functions), template patterns

248
 Functions and Operators

identify the values to be supplied by the input data string. If there are characters in the template string
that are not template patterns, the corresponding characters in the input data string are simply skipped
over (whether or not they are equal to the template string characters).

Table 9.25 shows the template patterns available for formatting date and time values.

Table 9.25. Template Patterns for Date/Time Formatting

Pattern Description
HH hour of day (01-12)
HH12 hour of day (01-12)
HH24 hour of day (00-23)
MI minute (00-59)
SS second (00-59)
MS millisecond (000-999)
US microsecond (000000-999999)
SSSS seconds past midnight (0-86399)
AM, am, PM or pm meridiem indicator (without periods)
A.M., a.m., P.M. or p.m. meridiem indicator (with periods)
Y,YYY year (4 or more digits) with comma
YYYY year (4 or more digits)
YYY last 3 digits of year
YY last 2 digits of year
Y last digit of year
IYYY ISO 8601 week-numbering year (4 or more digits)
IYY last 3 digits of ISO 8601 week-numbering year
IY last 2 digits of ISO 8601 week-numbering year
I last digit of ISO 8601 week-numbering year
BC, bc, AD or ad era indicator (without periods)
B.C., b.c., A.D. or a.d. era indicator (with periods)
MONTH full upper case month name (blank-padded to 9
chars)
Month full capitalized month name (blank-padded to 9
chars)
month full lower case month name (blank-padded to 9
chars)
MON abbreviated upper case month name (3 chars in
English, localized lengths vary)
Mon abbreviated capitalized month name (3 chars in
English, localized lengths vary)
mon abbreviated lower case month name (3 chars in
English, localized lengths vary)
MM month number (01-12)
DAY full upper case day name (blank-padded to 9
chars)
Day full capitalized day name (blank-padded to 9
chars)

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 Functions and Operators

Pattern Description
day full lower case day name (blank-padded to 9
chars)
DY abbreviated upper case day name (3 chars in Eng-
lish, localized lengths vary)
Dy abbreviated capitalized day name (3 chars in Eng-
lish, localized lengths vary)
dy abbreviated lower case day name (3 chars in Eng-
lish, localized lengths vary)
DDD day of year (001-366)
IDDD day of ISO 8601 week-numbering year (001-371;
day 1 of the year is Monday of the first ISO week)
DD day of month (01-31)
D day of the week, Sunday (1) to Saturday (7)
ID ISO 8601 day of the week, Monday (1) to Sunday
(7)
W week of month (1-5) (the first week starts on the
first day of the month)
WW week number of year (1-53) (the first week starts
on the first day of the year)
IW week number of ISO 8601 week-numbering year
(01-53; the first Thursday of the year is in week 1)
CC century (2 digits) (the twenty-first century starts
on 2001-01-01)
J Julian Day (integer days since November 24, 4714
BC at midnight UTC)
Q quarter
RM month in upper case Roman numerals (I-XII;
I=January)
rm month in lower case Roman numerals (i-xii;
i=January)
TZ upper case time-zone abbreviation (only support-
ed in to_char)
tz lower case time-zone abbreviation (only support-
ed in to_char)
TZH time-zone hours
TZM time-zone minutes
OF time-zone offset from UTC (only supported in
to_char)

Modifiers can be applied to any template pattern to alter its behavior. For example, FMMonth is the
Month pattern with the FM modifier. Table 9.26 shows the modifier patterns for date/time formatting.

Table 9.26. Template Pattern Modifiers for Date/Time Formatting

Modifier Description Example
FM prefix fill mode (suppress leading ze- FMMonth
roes and padding blanks)
TH suffix upper case ordinal number suffix DDTH, e.g., 12TH

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 Functions and Operators

Modifier Description Example

th suffix lower case ordinal number suffix DDth, e.g., 12th
FX prefix fixed format global option (see FX Month DD Day
usage notes)
TM prefix translation mode (print localized TMMonth
day and month names based on
lc_time)
SP suffix spell mode (not implemented) DDSP

Usage notes for date/time formatting:

• FM suppresses leading zeroes and trailing blanks that would otherwise be added to make the output
of a pattern be fixed-width. In PostgreSQL, FM modifies only the next specification, while in Oracle
FM affects all subsequent specifications, and repeated FM modifiers toggle fill mode on and off.

• TM does not include trailing blanks. to_timestamp and to_date ignore the TM modifier.

• to_timestamp and to_date skip multiple blank spaces at the beginning of the input string
and around date and time values unless the FX option is used. For example, to_timestam-
p(' 2000 JUN', 'YYYY MON') and to_timestamp('2000 - JUN', 'YYYY-
MON') work, but to_timestamp('2000 JUN', 'FXYYYY MON') returns an error
because to_timestamp expects only a single space. FX must be specified as the first item in
the template.

• A separator (a space or non-letter/non-digit character) in the template string of to_timestamp

and to_date matches any single separator in the input string or is skipped, unless the FX option is
used. For example, to_timestamp('2000JUN', 'YYYY///MON') and to_timestam-
p('2000/JUN', 'YYYY MON') work, but to_timestamp('2000//JUN', 'YYYY/
MON') returns an error because the number of separators in the input string exceeds the number
of separators in the template.

If FX is specified, a separator in the template string matches exactly one character in the input
string. But note that the input string character is not required to be the same as the separator from
the template string. For example, to_timestamp('2000/JUN', 'FXYYYY MON') works,
but to_timestamp('2000/JUN', 'FXYYYY MON') returns an error because the second
space in the template string consumes the letter J from the input string.

• A TZH template pattern can match a signed number. Without the FX option, minus signs may be am-
biguous, and could be interpreted as a separator. This ambiguity is resolved as follows: If the num-
ber of separators before TZH in the template string is less than the number of separators before the
minus sign in the input string, the minus sign is interpreted as part of TZH. Otherwise, the minus sign
is considered to be a separator between values. For example, to_timestamp('2000 -10',
'YYYY TZH') matches -10 to TZH, but to_timestamp('2000 -10', 'YYYY TZH')
matches 10 to TZH.

• Ordinary text is allowed in to_char templates and will be output literally. You can put a substring
in double quotes to force it to be interpreted as literal text even if it contains template patterns.
For example, in '"Hello Year "YYYY', the YYYY will be replaced by the year data, but
the single Y in Year will not be. In to_date, to_number, and to_timestamp, literal text
and double-quoted strings result in skipping the number of characters contained in the string; for
example "XX" skips two input characters (whether or not they are XX).

Tip
Prior to PostgreSQL 12, it was possible to skip arbitrary text in the input
string using non-letter or non-digit characters. For example, to_timestam-
p('2000y6m1d', 'yyyy-MM-DD') used to work. Now you can only use let-

251
 Functions and Operators

ter characters for this purpose. For example, to_timestamp('2000y6m1d',

'yyyytMMtDDt') and to_timestamp('2000y6m1d', 'yyyy"y"M-
M"m"DD"d"') skip y, m, and d.

• If you want to have a double quote in the output you must precede it with a backslash, for example
'\"YYYY Month\"'. Backslashes are not otherwise special outside of double-quoted strings.
Within a double-quoted string, a backslash causes the next character to be taken literally, whatever
it is (but this has no special effect unless the next character is a double quote or another backslash).

• In to_timestamp and to_date, if the year format specification is less than four digits, e.g.
YYY, and the supplied year is less than four digits, the year will be adjusted to be nearest to the
year 2020, e.g. 95 becomes 1995.

• In to_timestamp and to_date, the YYYY conversion has a restriction when process-
ing years with more than 4 digits. You must use some non-digit character or template after
YYYY, otherwise the year is always interpreted as 4 digits. For example (with the year 20000):
to_date('200001131', 'YYYYMMDD') will be interpreted as a 4-digit year; instead use
a non-digit separator after the year, like to_date('20000-1131', 'YYYY-MMDD') or
to_date('20000Nov31', 'YYYYMonDD').

• In to_timestamp and to_date, the CC (century) field is accepted but ignored if there is a
YYY, YYYY or Y,YYY field. If CC is used with YY or Y then the result is computed as that year
in the specified century. If the century is specified but the year is not, the first year of the century
is assumed.

• In to_timestamp and to_date, weekday names or numbers (DAY, D, and related field types)
are accepted but are ignored for purposes of computing the result. The same is true for quarter (Q)
fields.

• In to_timestamp and to_date, an ISO 8601 week-numbering date (as distinct from a Grego-
rian date) can be specified in one of two ways:

• Year, week number, and weekday: for example to_date('2006-42-4', 'IYYY-IW-

ID') returns the date 2006-10-19. If you omit the weekday it is assumed to be 1 (Monday).

• Year and day of year: for example to_date('2006-291', 'IYYY-IDDD') also returns
2006-10-19.

Attempting to enter a date using a mixture of ISO 8601 week-numbering fields and Gregorian date
fields is nonsensical, and will cause an error. In the context of an ISO 8601 week-numbering year,
the concept of a “month” or “day of month” has no meaning. In the context of a Gregorian year,
the ISO week has no meaning.

Caution
While to_date will reject a mixture of Gregorian and ISO week-numbering date
fields, to_char will not, since output format specifications like YYYY-MM-DD
(IYYY-IDDD) can be useful. But avoid writing something like IYYY-MM-DD;
that would yield surprising results near the start of the year. (See Section 9.9.1 for
more information.)

• In to_timestamp, millisecond (MS) or microsecond (US) fields are used as the seconds digits
after the decimal point. For example to_timestamp('12.3', 'SS.MS') is not 3 millisec-
onds, but 300, because the conversion treats it as 12 + 0.3 seconds. So, for the format SS.MS, the
input values 12.3, 12.30, and 12.300 specify the same number of milliseconds. To get three
milliseconds, one must write 12.003, which the conversion treats as 12 + 0.003 = 12.003 seconds.

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 Functions and Operators

Here is a more complex example: to_timestamp('15:12:02.020.001230',

'HH24:MI:SS.MS.US') is 15 hours, 12 minutes, and 2 seconds + 20 milliseconds + 1230 mi-
croseconds = 2.021230 seconds.

• to_char(..., 'ID')'s day of the week numbering matches the extract(isodow

from ...) function, but to_char(..., 'D')'s does not match extract(dow
from ...)'s day numbering.

• to_char(interval) formats HH and HH12 as shown on a 12-hour clock, for example zero
hours and 36 hours both output as 12, while HH24 outputs the full hour value, which can exceed
23 in an interval value.

Table 9.27 shows the template patterns available for formatting numeric values.

Table 9.27. Template Patterns for Numeric Formatting

Pattern Description
9 digit position (can be dropped if insignificant)
0 digit position (will not be dropped, even if in-
significant)
. (period) decimal point
, (comma) group (thousands) separator
PR negative value in angle brackets
S sign anchored to number (uses locale)
L currency symbol (uses locale)
D decimal point (uses locale)
G group separator (uses locale)
MI minus sign in specified position (if number < 0)
PL plus sign in specified position (if number > 0)
SG plus/minus sign in specified position
RN Roman numeral (input between 1 and 3999)
TH or th ordinal number suffix
V shift specified number of digits (see notes)
EEEE exponent for scientific notation

Usage notes for numeric formatting:

• 0 specifies a digit position that will always be printed, even if it contains a leading/trailing zero. 9
also specifies a digit position, but if it is a leading zero then it will be replaced by a space, while
if it is a trailing zero and fill mode is specified then it will be deleted. (For to_number(), these
two pattern characters are equivalent.)

• The pattern characters S, L, D, and G represent the sign, currency symbol, decimal point, and thou-
sands separator characters defined by the current locale (see lc_monetary and lc_numeric). The pat-
tern characters period and comma represent those exact characters, with the meanings of decimal
point and thousands separator, regardless of locale.

• If no explicit provision is made for a sign in to_char()'s pattern, one column will be reserved
for the sign, and it will be anchored to (appear just left of) the number. If S appears just left of some
9's, it will likewise be anchored to the number.

• A sign formatted using SG, PL, or MI is not anchored to the number; for example, to_char(-12,
'MI9999') produces '- 12' but to_char(-12, 'S9999') produces ' -12'. (The
Oracle implementation does not allow the use of MI before 9, but rather requires that 9 precede MI.)

253
 Functions and Operators

• TH does not convert values less than zero and does not convert fractional numbers.

• PL, SG, and TH are PostgreSQL extensions.

• In to_number, if non-data template patterns such as L or TH are used, the corresponding number
of input characters are skipped, whether or not they match the template pattern, unless they are data
characters (that is, digits, sign, decimal point, or comma). For example, TH would skip two non-
data characters.

• V with to_char multiplies the input values by 10^n, where n is the number of digits following
V. V with to_number divides in a similar manner. to_char and to_number do not support
the use of V combined with a decimal point (e.g., 99.9V99 is not allowed).

• EEEE (scientific notation) cannot be used in combination with any of the other formatting patterns
or modifiers other than digit and decimal point patterns, and must be at the end of the format string
(e.g., 9.99EEEE is a valid pattern).

Certain modifiers can be applied to any template pattern to alter its behavior. For example, FM99.99
is the 99.99 pattern with the FM modifier. Table 9.28 shows the modifier patterns for numeric for-
matting.

Table 9.28. Template Pattern Modifiers for Numeric Formatting

Modifier Description Example
FM prefix fill mode (suppress trailing ze- FM99.99
roes and padding blanks)
TH suffix upper case ordinal number suffix 999TH
th suffix lower case ordinal number suffix 999th

Table 9.29 shows some examples of the use of the to_char function.

Table 9.29. to_char Examples

Expression Result
to_char(current_timestamp, 'Tuesday , 06 05:39:18'
'Day, DD HH12:MI:SS')
to_char(current_timestamp, 'FM- 'Tuesday, 6 05:39:18'
Day, FMDD HH12:MI:SS')
to_char(-0.1, '99.99') ' -.10'
to_char(-0.1, 'FM9.99') '-.1'
to_char(-0.1, 'FM90.99') '-0.1'
to_char(0.1, '0.9') ' 0.1'
to_char(12, '9990999.9') ' 0012.0'
to_char(12, 'FM9990999.9') '0012.'
to_char(485, '999') ' 485'
to_char(-485, '999') '-485'
to_char(485, '9 9 9') ' 4 8 5'
to_char(1485, '9,999') ' 1,485'
to_char(1485, '9G999') ' 1 485'
to_char(148.5, '999.999') ' 148.500'
to_char(148.5, 'FM999.999') '148.5'
to_char(148.5, 'FM999.990') '148.500'

254
 Functions and Operators

Expression Result
to_char(148.5, '999D999') ' 148,500'
to_char(3148.5, '9G999D999') ' 3 148,500'
to_char(-485, '999S') '485-'
to_char(-485, '999MI') '485-'
to_char(485, '999MI') '485 '
to_char(485, 'FM999MI') '485'
to_char(485, 'PL999') '+485'
to_char(485, 'SG999') '+485'
to_char(-485, 'SG999') '-485'
to_char(-485, '9SG99') '4-85'
to_char(-485, '999PR') '<485>'
to_char(485, 'L999') 'DM 485'
to_char(485, 'RN') ' CDLXXXV'
to_char(485, 'FMRN') 'CDLXXXV'
to_char(5.2, 'FMRN') 'V'
to_char(482, '999th') ' 482nd'
to_char(485, '"Good number:"999') 'Good number: 485'
to_char(485.8, 'Pre: 485 Post: .800'
'"Pre:"999" Post:" .999')
to_char(12, '99V999') ' 12000'
to_char(12.4, '99V999') ' 12400'
to_char(12.45, '99V9') ' 125'
to_char(0.0004859, '9.99EEEE') ' 4.86e-04'

9.9. Date/Time Functions and Operators

Table 9.31 shows the available functions for date/time value processing, with details appearing in
the following subsections. Table 9.30 illustrates the behaviors of the basic arithmetic operators (+,
*, etc.). For formatting functions, refer to Section 9.8. You should be familiar with the background
information on date/time data types from Section 8.5.

All the functions and operators described below that take time or timestamp inputs actually come
in two variants: one that takes time with time zone or timestamp with time zone,
and one that takes time without time zone or timestamp without time zone. For
brevity, these variants are not shown separately. Also, the + and * operators come in commutative
pairs (for example both date + integer and integer + date); we show only one of each such pair.

Table 9.30. Date/Time Operators

Operator Example Result
+ date '2001-09-28' + date '2001-10-05'
integer '7'
+ date '2001-09-28' + timestamp '2001-09-28
interval '1 hour' 01:00:00'
+ date '2001-09-28' + timestamp '2001-09-28
time '03:00' 03:00:00'

255
 Functions and Operators

Operator Example Result

+ interval '1 day' + in- interval '1 day
terval '1 hour' 01:00:00'
+ timestamp '2001-09-28 timestamp '2001-09-29
01:00' + interval '23 00:00:00'
hours'
+ time '01:00' + inter- time '04:00:00'
val '3 hours'
- - interval '23 hours' interval '-23:00:00'
- date '2001-10-01' - integer '3' (days)
date '2001-09-28'
- date '2001-10-01' - date '2001-09-24'
integer '7'
- date '2001-09-28' - timestamp '2001-09-27
interval '1 hour' 23:00:00'
- time '05:00' - time interval '02:00:00'
'03:00'
- time '05:00' - inter- time '03:00:00'
val '2 hours'
- timestamp '2001-09-28 timestamp '2001-09-28
23:00' - interval '23 00:00:00'
hours'
- interval '1 day' - in- interval '1 day
terval '1 hour' -01:00:00'
- timestamp '2001-09-29 interval '1 day
03:00' - timestamp 15:00:00'
'2001-09-27 12:00'
* 900 * interval '1 sec- interval '00:15:00'
ond'
* 21 * interval '1 day' interval '21 days'
* double precision '3.5' interval '03:30:00'
* interval '1 hour'
/ interval '1 hour' / interval '00:40:00'
double precision '1.5'

Table 9.31. Date/Time Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result

age(time- interval Subtract argu- age(time- 43 years 9
stamp, time- ments, producing a stamp mons 27 days
stamp) “symbolic” result '2001-04-10',
that uses years and timestamp
months, rather than '1957-06-13')
just days
age(time- interval Subtract from age(time- 43 years 8
stamp) current_date stamp mons 3 days
(at midnight) '1957-06-13')
clock_time- timestamp Current date and
stamp() with time time (changes dur-
zone ing statement ex-

256
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

ecution); see Sec-
tion 9.9.4
current_date date Current date; see
Section 9.9.4
current_time time with Current time of
time zone day; see Sec-
tion 9.9.4
curren- timestamp Current date and
t_timestamp with time time (start of cur-
zone rent transaction);
see Section 9.9.4
double preci- Get subfield date_part('hour',
20
date_part(text,
sion (equivalent to ex- timestamp
timestamp) tract); see Sec- '2001-02-16
tion 9.9.1 20:38:40')
double preci- Get
date_part(text, subfield date_part('month',
3
interval) sion (equivalent to ex- interval '2
tract); see Sec- years 3
tion 9.9.1 months')
timestamp Truncate to speci- date_trunc('hour',
2001-02-16
date_trunc(text, fied precision; see timestamp 20:00:00
timestamp) Section 9.9.2 '2001-02-16
20:38:40')
date_trunc(text,
timestamp Truncate to spec- date_trunc('day',
2001-02-16
timestamp with time ified precision in timestamptz 13:00:00+00
with time zone the specified time '2001-02-16
zone, text) zone; see Sec- 20:38:40+00',
tion 9.9.2 'Aus-
tralia/Syd-
ney')
date_trunc(text,
interval Truncate to speci- date_trunc('hour',
2 days
interval) fied precision; see interval '2 03:00:00
Section 9.9.2 days 3 hours
40 minutes')
extrac- double preci- Get subfield; see extract(hour 20
t(field from sion Section 9.9.1 from time-
timestamp) stamp
'2001-02-16
20:38:40')
extrac- double preci- Get subfield; see extrac- 3
t(field from sion Section 9.9.1 t(month from
interval) interval '2
years 3
months')
isfi- boolean Test for finite date isfi- true
nite(date) (not +/-infinity) nite(date
'2001-02-16')
isfi- boolean Test for finite time isfi- true
nite(time- stamp (not +/-in- nite(time-
stamp) finity) stamp
'2001-02-16
21:28:30')

257
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

isfinite(in- boolean Test for finite in- isfinite(in- true
terval) terval terval '4
hours')
justi- interval Adjust interval so justi- 1 mon 5 days
fy_days(in- 30-day time peri- fy_days(in-
terval) ods are represented terval '35
as months days')
justi- interval Adjust interval so justi- 1 day
fy_hours(in- 24-hour time peri- fy_hours(in- 03:00:00
terval) ods are represented terval '27
as days hours')
justify_in- interval Adjust interval justify_in- 29 days
terval(in- using justi- terval(in- 23:00:00
terval) fy_days and terval '1 mon
justi- -1 hour')
fy_hours, with
additional sign ad-
justments
localtime time Current time of
day; see Sec-
tion 9.9.4
localtime- timestamp Current date and
stamp time (start of cur-
rent transaction);
see Section 9.9.4
date Create date from make_date(2013,
2013-07-15
make_date(year year, month and 7, 15)
int, month day fields
int, day int)
make_inter- interval Create interval make_inter- 10 days
val(years int from years, val(days =>
DEFAULT 0, months, weeks, 10)
months int days, hours, min-
DEFAULT 0, utes and seconds
weeks int DE- fields
FAULT 0, days
int DEFAULT
0, hours int
DEFAULT 0,
mins int DE-
FAULT 0, secs
double preci-
sion DEFAULT
0.0)
time Create time from make_time(8, 08:15:23.5
make_time(hour hour, minute and 15, 23.5)
int, min int, seconds fields
sec double
precision)
make_time- timestamp Create timestamp make_time- 2013-07-15
stamp(year from year, month, stamp(2013, 08:15:23.5
int, month day, hour, minute 7, 15, 8, 15,
int, day int, and seconds fields 23.5)

258
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

hour int, min
int, sec dou-
ble preci-
sion)
make_time- timestamp Create timestamp make_time- 2013-07-15
stamptz(year with time with time zone stamptz(2013, 08:15:23.5+01
int, month zone from year, month, 7, 15, 8, 15,
int, day int, day, hour, minute 23.5)
hour int, min and seconds fields;
int, sec dou- if timezone is
ble preci- not specified, the
sion, [ time- current time zone
zone text ]) is used
now() timestamp Current date and
with time time (start of cur-
zone rent transaction);
see Section 9.9.4
statemen- timestamp Current date and
t_timestam- with time time (start of cur-
p() zone rent statement); see
Section 9.9.4
timeofday() text Current date and
time (like
clock_time-
stamp, but as a
text string); see
Section 9.9.4
transac- timestamp Current date and
tion_time- with time time (start of cur-
stamp() zone rent transaction);
see Section 9.9.4
to_timestam- timestamp Convert Unix to_timestam- 2010-09-13
p(double pre- with time epoch (seconds p(1284352323) 04:32:03+00
cision) zone since 1970-01-01
00:00:00+00) to
timestamp

In addition to these functions, the SQL OVERLAPS operator is supported:

(start1, end1) OVERLAPS (start2, end2)

(start1, length1) OVERLAPS (start2, length2)

This expression yields true when two time periods (defined by their endpoints) overlap, false when
they do not overlap. The endpoints can be specified as pairs of dates, times, or time stamps; or as a
date, time, or time stamp followed by an interval. When a pair of values is provided, either the start or
the end can be written first; OVERLAPS automatically takes the earlier value of the pair as the start.
Each time period is considered to represent the half-open interval start <= time < end, unless
start and end are equal in which case it represents that single time instant. This means for instance
that two time periods with only an endpoint in common do not overlap.

SELECT (DATE '2001-02-16', DATE '2001-12-21') OVERLAPS

(DATE '2001-10-30', DATE '2002-10-30');
Result: true

259
 Functions and Operators

SELECT (DATE '2001-02-16', INTERVAL '100 days') OVERLAPS

(DATE '2001-10-30', DATE '2002-10-30');
Result: false
SELECT (DATE '2001-10-29', DATE '2001-10-30') OVERLAPS
(DATE '2001-10-30', DATE '2001-10-31');
Result: false
SELECT (DATE '2001-10-30', DATE '2001-10-30') OVERLAPS
(DATE '2001-10-30', DATE '2001-10-31');
Result: true

When adding an interval value to (or subtracting an interval value from) a timestamp
with time zone value, the days component advances or decrements the date of the timestamp
with time zone by the indicated number of days. Across daylight saving time changes (when
the session time zone is set to a time zone that recognizes DST), this means interval '1 day'
does not necessarily equal interval '24 hours'. For example, with the session time zone set
to CST7CDT, timestamp with time zone '2005-04-02 12:00-07' + interval
'1 day' will produce timestamp with time zone '2005-04-03 12:00-06', while
adding interval '24 hours' to the same initial timestamp with time zone produces
timestamp with time zone '2005-04-03 13:00-06', as there is a change in daylight
saving time at 2005-04-03 02:00 in time zone CST7CDT.

Note there can be ambiguity in the months field returned by age because different months have
different numbers of days. PostgreSQL's approach uses the month from the earlier of the two dates
when calculating partial months. For example, age('2004-06-01', '2004-04-30') uses
April to yield 1 mon 1 day, while using May would yield 1 mon 2 days because May has
31 days, while April has only 30.

Subtraction of dates and timestamps can also be complex. One conceptually simple way to perform
subtraction is to convert each value to a number of seconds using EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM ...),
then subtract the results; this produces the number of seconds between the two values. This will adjust
for the number of days in each month, timezone changes, and daylight saving time adjustments. Sub-
traction of date or timestamp values with the “-” operator returns the number of days (24-hours) and
hours/minutes/seconds between the values, making the same adjustments. The age function returns
years, months, days, and hours/minutes/seconds, performing field-by-field subtraction and then ad-
justing for negative field values. The following queries illustrate the differences in these approaches.
The sample results were produced with timezone = 'US/Eastern'; there is a daylight saving
time change between the two dates used:

SELECT EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM timestamptz '2013-07-01 12:00:00') -

EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM timestamptz '2013-03-01 12:00:00');
Result: 10537200
SELECT (EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM timestamptz '2013-07-01 12:00:00') -
EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM timestamptz '2013-03-01 12:00:00'))
/ 60 / 60 / 24;
Result: 121.958333333333
SELECT timestamptz '2013-07-01 12:00:00' - timestamptz '2013-03-01
12:00:00';
Result: 121 days 23:00:00
SELECT age(timestamptz '2013-07-01 12:00:00', timestamptz
'2013-03-01 12:00:00');
Result: 4 mons

9.9.1. EXTRACT, date_part

EXTRACT(field FROM source)

260
 Functions and Operators

The extract function retrieves subfields such as year or hour from date/time values. source must
be a value expression of type timestamp, time, or interval. (Expressions of type date are
cast to timestamp and can therefore be used as well.) field is an identifier or string that selects
what field to extract from the source value. The extract function returns values of type double
precision. The following are valid field names:

century

The century

SELECT EXTRACT(CENTURY FROM TIMESTAMP '2000-12-16 12:21:13');

Result: 20
SELECT EXTRACT(CENTURY FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');
Result: 21

The first century starts at 0001-01-01 00:00:00 AD, although they did not know it at the time.
This definition applies to all Gregorian calendar countries. There is no century number 0, you
go from -1 century to 1 century. If you disagree with this, please write your complaint to: Pope,
Cathedral Saint-Peter of Roma, Vatican.

day

For timestamp values, the day (of the month) field (1 - 31) ; for interval values, the number
of days

SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 16

SELECT EXTRACT(DAY FROM INTERVAL '40 days 1 minute');

Result: 40

decade

The year field divided by 10

SELECT EXTRACT(DECADE FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 200

dow

The day of the week as Sunday (0) to Saturday (6)

SELECT EXTRACT(DOW FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 5

Note that extract's day of the week numbering differs from that of the to_char(..., 'D')
function.

doy

The day of the year (1 - 365/366)

SELECT EXTRACT(DOY FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 47

261
 Functions and Operators

epoch

For timestamp with time zone values, the number of seconds since 1970-01-01
00:00:00 UTC (can be negative); for date and timestamp values, the number of seconds since
1970-01-01 00:00:00 local time; for interval values, the total number of seconds in the interval

SELECT EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2001-02-16

20:38:40.12-08');
Result: 982384720.12

SELECT EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM INTERVAL '5 days 3 hours');

Result: 442800

You can convert an epoch value back to a time stamp with to_timestamp:

SELECT to_timestamp(982384720.12);
Result: 2001-02-17 04:38:40.12+00

hour

The hour field (0 - 23)

SELECT EXTRACT(HOUR FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 20

isodow

The day of the week as Monday (1) to Sunday (7)

SELECT EXTRACT(ISODOW FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-18 20:38:40');

Result: 7

This is identical to dow except for Sunday. This matches the ISO 8601 day of the week numbering.

isoyear

The ISO 8601 week-numbering year that the date falls in (not applicable to intervals)

SELECT EXTRACT(ISOYEAR FROM DATE '2006-01-01');

Result: 2005
SELECT EXTRACT(ISOYEAR FROM DATE '2006-01-02');
Result: 2006

Each ISO 8601 week-numbering year begins with the Monday of the week containing the 4th of
January, so in early January or late December the ISO year may be different from the Gregorian
year. See the week field for more information.

This field is not available in PostgreSQL releases prior to 8.3.

microseconds

The seconds field, including fractional parts, multiplied by 1 000 000; note that this includes full
seconds

SELECT EXTRACT(MICROSECONDS FROM TIME '17:12:28.5');

Result: 28500000

262
 Functions and Operators

millennium

The millennium

SELECT EXTRACT(MILLENNIUM FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 3

Years in the 1900s are in the second millennium. The third millennium started January 1, 2001.

milliseconds

The seconds field, including fractional parts, multiplied by 1000. Note that this includes full sec-
onds.

SELECT EXTRACT(MILLISECONDS FROM TIME '17:12:28.5');

Result: 28500

minute

The minutes field (0 - 59)

SELECT EXTRACT(MINUTE FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 38

month

For timestamp values, the number of the month within the year (1 - 12) ; for interval values,
the number of months, modulo 12 (0 - 11)

SELECT EXTRACT(MONTH FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 2

SELECT EXTRACT(MONTH FROM INTERVAL '2 years 3 months');

Result: 3

SELECT EXTRACT(MONTH FROM INTERVAL '2 years 13 months');

Result: 1

quarter

The quarter of the year (1 - 4) that the date is in

SELECT EXTRACT(QUARTER FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 1

second

The seconds field, including fractional parts (0 - 591)

SELECT EXTRACT(SECOND FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 40

SELECT EXTRACT(SECOND FROM TIME '17:12:28.5');

Result: 28.5
1
60 if leap seconds are implemented by the operating system

263
 Functions and Operators

timezone

The time zone offset from UTC, measured in seconds. Positive values correspond to time zones
east of UTC, negative values to zones west of UTC. (Technically, PostgreSQL does not use UTC
because leap seconds are not handled.)

timezone_hour

The hour component of the time zone offset

timezone_minute

The minute component of the time zone offset

week

The number of the ISO 8601 week-numbering week of the year. By definition, ISO weeks start
on Mondays and the first week of a year contains January 4 of that year. In other words, the first
Thursday of a year is in week 1 of that year.

In the ISO week-numbering system, it is possible for early-January dates to be part of the 52nd
or 53rd week of the previous year, and for late-December dates to be part of the first week of the
next year. For example, 2005-01-01 is part of the 53rd week of year 2004, and 2006-01-01
is part of the 52nd week of year 2005, while 2012-12-31 is part of the first week of 2013. It's
recommended to use the isoyear field together with week to get consistent results.

SELECT EXTRACT(WEEK FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 7

year

The year field. Keep in mind there is no 0 AD, so subtracting BC years from AD years should
be done with care.

SELECT EXTRACT(YEAR FROM TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 2001

Note
When the input value is +/-Infinity, extract returns +/-Infinity for monotonical-
ly-increasing fields (epoch, julian, year, isoyear, decade, century, and
millennium). For other fields, NULL is returned. PostgreSQL versions before 9.6
returned zero for all cases of infinite input.

The extract function is primarily intended for computational processing. For formatting date/time
values for display, see Section 9.8.

The date_part function is modeled on the traditional Ingres equivalent to the SQL-standard func-
tion extract:

date_part('field', source)

Note that here the field parameter needs to be a string value, not a name. The valid field names for
date_part are the same as for extract.

SELECT date_part('day', TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

264
 Functions and Operators

Result: 16

SELECT date_part('hour', INTERVAL '4 hours 3 minutes');

Result: 4

9.9.2. date_trunc
The function date_trunc is conceptually similar to the trunc function for numbers.

date_trunc(field, source [, time_zone ])

source is a value expression of type timestamp, timestamp with time zone, or inter-
val. (Values of type date and time are cast automatically to timestamp or interval, respec-
tively.) field selects to which precision to truncate the input value. The return value is likewise of
type timestamp, timestamp with time zone, or interval, and it has all fields that are
less significant than the selected one set to zero (or one, for day and month).

Valid values for field are:

microseconds
milliseconds
second
minute
hour
day
week
month
quarter
year
decade
century
millennium

When the input value is of type timestamp with time zone, the truncation is performed with
respect to a particular time zone; for example, truncation to day produces a value that is midnight in
that zone. By default, truncation is done with respect to the current TimeZone setting, but the optional
time_zone argument can be provided to specify a different time zone. The time zone name can be
specified in any of the ways described in Section 8.5.3.

A time zone cannot be specified when processing timestamp without time zone or in-
terval inputs. These are always taken at face value.

Examples (assuming the local time zone is America/New_York):

SELECT date_trunc('hour', TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 2001-02-16 20:00:00

SELECT date_trunc('year', TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40');

Result: 2001-01-01 00:00:00

SELECT date_trunc('day', TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2001-02-16

20:38:40+00');
Result: 2001-02-16 00:00:00-05

SELECT date_trunc('day', TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2001-02-16

20:38:40+00', 'Australia/Sydney');
Result: 2001-02-16 08:00:00-05

265
 Functions and Operators

SELECT date_trunc('hour', INTERVAL '3 days 02:47:33');

Result: 3 days 02:00:00

9.9.3. AT TIME ZONE

The AT TIME ZONE converts time stamp without time zone to/from time stamp with time zone, and
time values to different time zones. Table 9.32 shows its variants.

Table 9.32. AT TIME ZONE Variants

Expression Return Type Description
timestamp without time timestamp with time Treat given time stamp without
zone AT TIME ZONE zone zone time zone as located in the spec-
ified time zone
timestamp with time timestamp without time Convert given time stamp with
zone AT TIME ZONE zone zone time zone to the new time zone,
with no time zone designation
time with time zone AT time with time zone Convert given time with time
TIME ZONE zone zone to the new time zone

In these expressions, the desired time zone zone can be specified either as a text string (e.g., 'Amer-
ica/Los_Angeles') or as an interval (e.g., INTERVAL '-08:00'). In the text case, a time
zone name can be specified in any of the ways described in Section 8.5.3.

Examples (assuming the local time zone is America/Los_Angeles):

SELECT TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40' AT TIME ZONE 'America/

Denver';
Result: 2001-02-16 19:38:40-08

SELECT TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE '2001-02-16 20:38:40-05' AT TIME

ZONE 'America/Denver';
Result: 2001-02-16 18:38:40

SELECT TIMESTAMP '2001-02-16 20:38:40-05' AT TIME ZONE 'Asia/Tokyo'

AT TIME ZONE 'America/Chicago';
Result: 2001-02-16 05:38:40

The first example adds a time zone to a value that lacks it, and displays the value using the current
TimeZone setting. The second example shifts the time stamp with time zone value to the specified
time zone, and returns the value without a time zone. This allows storage and display of values dif-
ferent from the current TimeZone setting. The third example converts Tokyo time to Chicago time.
Converting time values to other time zones uses the currently active time zone rules since no date is
supplied.

The function timezone(zone, timestamp) is equivalent to the SQL-conforming construct

timestamp AT TIME ZONE zone.

9.9.4. Current Date/Time

PostgreSQL provides a number of functions that return values related to the current date and time.
These SQL-standard functions all return values based on the start time of the current transaction:

CURRENT_DATE
CURRENT_TIME
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

266
 Functions and Operators

CURRENT_TIME(precision)
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(precision)
LOCALTIME
LOCALTIMESTAMP
LOCALTIME(precision)
LOCALTIMESTAMP(precision)

CURRENT_TIME and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP deliver values with time zone; LOCALTIME and LO-
CALTIMESTAMP deliver values without time zone.

CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, LOCALTIME, and LOCALTIMESTAMP can optionally

take a precision parameter, which causes the result to be rounded to that many fractional digits in the
seconds field. Without a precision parameter, the result is given to the full available precision.

Some examples:

SELECT CURRENT_TIME;
Result: 14:39:53.662522-05

SELECT CURRENT_DATE;
Result: 2001-12-23

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
Result: 2001-12-23 14:39:53.662522-05

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(2);
Result: 2001-12-23 14:39:53.66-05

SELECT LOCALTIMESTAMP;
Result: 2001-12-23 14:39:53.662522

Since these functions return the start time of the current transaction, their values do not change during
the transaction. This is considered a feature: the intent is to allow a single transaction to have a con-
sistent notion of the “current” time, so that multiple modifications within the same transaction bear
the same time stamp.

Note
Other database systems might advance these values more frequently.

PostgreSQL also provides functions that return the start time of the current statement, as well as the
actual current time at the instant the function is called. The complete list of non-SQL-standard time
functions is:

transaction_timestamp()
statement_timestamp()
clock_timestamp()
timeofday()
now()

transaction_timestamp() is equivalent to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, but is named to clear-

ly reflect what it returns. statement_timestamp() returns the start time of the current state-
ment (more specifically, the time of receipt of the latest command message from the client). state-
ment_timestamp() and transaction_timestamp() return the same value during the first
command of a transaction, but might differ during subsequent commands. clock_timestamp()
returns the actual current time, and therefore its value changes even within a single SQL command.

267
 Functions and Operators

timeofday() is a historical PostgreSQL function. Like clock_timestamp(), it returns the ac-

tual current time, but as a formatted text string rather than a timestamp with time zone
value. now() is a traditional PostgreSQL equivalent to transaction_timestamp().

All the date/time data types also accept the special literal value now to specify the current date and time
(again, interpreted as the transaction start time). Thus, the following three all return the same result:

SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
SELECT now();
SELECT TIMESTAMP 'now'; -- incorrect for use with DEFAULT

Tip
You do not want to use the third form when specifying a DEFAULT clause while cre-
ating a table. The system will convert now to a timestamp as soon as the constant is
parsed, so that when the default value is needed, the time of the table creation would be
used! The first two forms will not be evaluated until the default value is used, because
they are function calls. Thus they will give the desired behavior of defaulting to the
time of row insertion.

9.9.5. Delaying Execution

The following functions are available to delay execution of the server process:

pg_sleep(seconds)
pg_sleep_for(interval)
pg_sleep_until(timestamp with time zone)

pg_sleep makes the current session's process sleep until seconds seconds have elapsed. sec-
onds is a value of type double precision, so fractional-second delays can be specified.
pg_sleep_for is a convenience function for larger sleep times specified as an interval.
pg_sleep_until is a convenience function for when a specific wake-up time is desired. For ex-
ample:

SELECT pg_sleep(1.5);
SELECT pg_sleep_for('5 minutes');
SELECT pg_sleep_until('tomorrow 03:00');

Note
The effective resolution of the sleep interval is platform-specific; 0.01 seconds is a
common value. The sleep delay will be at least as long as specified. It might be longer
depending on factors such as server load. In particular, pg_sleep_until is not
guaranteed to wake up exactly at the specified time, but it will not wake up any earlier.

Warning
Make sure that your session does not hold more locks than necessary when calling
pg_sleep or its variants. Otherwise other sessions might have to wait for your sleep-
ing process, slowing down the entire system.

268
 Functions and Operators

9.10. Enum Support Functions

For enum types (described in Section 8.7), there are several functions that allow cleaner programming
without hard-coding particular values of an enum type. These are listed in Table 9.33. The examples
assume an enum type created as:

CREATE TYPE rainbow AS ENUM ('red', 'orange', 'yellow', 'green',

'blue', 'purple');

Table 9.33. Enum Support Functions

Function Description Example Example Result

Returns the first value of enum_first(nul- red
the input enum type
enum_first(anyenum) l::rainbow)
Returns the last value of enum_last(nul- purple
the input enum type
enum_last(anyenum) l::rainbow)
Returns all values of the enum_range(nul- {red,orange,yel-
input enum type in an l::rainbow)
enum_range(anyenum) low,green,blue,pur-
ordered array ple}
Returns the range be-
enum_range(anyenum, enum_range('or- {orange,yel-
anyenum) tween the two given ange'::rainbow, low,green}
enum values, as an or- 'green'::rain-
dered array. The values bow)
must be from the same enum_range(NULL, {red,orange,yel-
enum type. If the first 'green'::rain- low,green}
parameter is null, the re- bow)
sult will start with the
first value of the enum enum_range('or- {orange,yel-
type. If the second pa- ange'::rainbow, low,green,blue,pur-
rameter is null, the re- NULL) ple}
sult will end with the
last value of the enum
type.

Notice that except for the two-argument form of enum_range, these functions disregard the specific
value passed to them; they care only about its declared data type. Either null or a specific value of the
type can be passed, with the same result. It is more common to apply these functions to a table column
or function argument than to a hardwired type name as suggested by the examples.

9.11. Geometric Functions and Operators

The geometric types point, box, lseg, line, path, polygon, and circle have a large set of
native support functions and operators, shown in Table 9.34, Table 9.35, and Table 9.36.

Caution
Note that the “same as” operator, ~=, represents the usual notion of equality for the
point, box, polygon, and circle types. Some of these types also have an =
operator, but = compares for equal areas only. The other scalar comparison operators
(<= and so on) likewise compare areas for these types.

269
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.34. Geometric Operators

Operator Description Example

+ Translation box '((0,0),(1,1))' +
point '(2.0,0)'
- Translation box '((0,0),(1,1))' -
point '(2.0,0)'
* Scaling/rotation box '((0,0),(1,1))' *
point '(2.0,0)'
/ Scaling/rotation box '((0,0),(2,2))' /
point '(2.0,0)'
# Point or box of intersection box '((1,-1),(-1,1))'
# box '((1,1),
(-2,-2))'
# Number of points in path or # path '((1,0),(0,1),
polygon (-1,0))'
@-@ Length or circumference @-@ path '((0,0),
(1,0))'
@@ Center @@ circle '((0,0),10)'
## Closest point to first operand on point '(0,0)' ## lseg
second operand '((2,0),(0,2))'
<-> Distance between circle '((0,0),1)' <->
circle '((5,0),1)'
&& Overlaps? (One point in com- box '((0,0),(1,1))' &&
mon makes this true.) box '((0,0),(2,2))'
<< Is strictly left of? circle '((0,0),1)' <<
circle '((5,0),1)'
>> Is strictly right of? circle '((5,0),1)' >>
circle '((0,0),1)'
&< Does not extend to the right of? box '((0,0),(1,1))' &<
box '((0,0),(2,2))'
&> Does not extend to the left of? box '((0,0),(3,3))' &>
box '((0,0),(2,2))'
<<| Is strictly below? box '((0,0),(3,3))'
<<| box '((3,4),
(5,5))'
|>> Is strictly above? box '((3,4),(5,5))' |
>> box '((0,0),(3,3))'
&<| Does not extend above? box '((0,0),(1,1))'
&<| box '((0,0),
(2,2))'
|&> Does not extend below? box '((0,0),(3,3))' |
&> box '((0,0),(2,2))'
<^ Is below (allows touching)? circle '((0,0),1)' <^
circle '((0,5),1)'
>^ Is above (allows touching)? circle '((0,5),1)' >^
circle '((0,0),1)'

270
 Functions and Operators

Operator Description Example

?# Intersects? lseg '((-1,0),
(1,0))' ?# box
'((-2,-2),(2,2))'
?- Is horizontal? ?- lseg '((-1,0),
(1,0))'
?- Are horizontally aligned? point '(1,0)' ?- point
'(0,0)'
?| Is vertical? ?| lseg '((-1,0),
(1,0))'
?| Are vertically aligned? point '(0,1)' ?| point
'(0,0)'
?-| Is perpendicular? lseg '((0,0),
(0,1))' ?-| lseg
'((0,0),(1,0))'
?|| Are parallel? lseg '((-1,0),
(1,0))' ?|| lseg
'((-1,2),(1,2))'
@> Contains? circle '((0,0),2)' @>
point '(1,1)'
<@ Contained in or on? point '(1,1)' <@ cir-
cle '((0,0),2)'
~= Same as? polygon '((0,0),
(1,1))' ~= polygon
'((1,1),(0,0))'

Note
Before PostgreSQL 8.2, the containment operators @> and <@ were respectively called
~ and @. These names are still available, but are deprecated and will eventually be
removed.

Table 9.35. Geometric Functions

Function Return Type Description Example
area(object) double precision area area(box
'((0,0),(1,1))')
center(object) point center center(box
'((0,0),(1,2))')
diameter(circle) double precision diameter of circle diameter(circle
'((0,0),2.0)')
height(box) double precision vertical size of box height(box
'((0,0),(1,1))')
isclosed(path) boolean a closed path? isclosed(path
'((0,0),(1,1),
(2,0))')
isopen(path) boolean an open path? isopen(path
'[(0,0),(1,1),
(2,0)]')

271
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example

length(object) double precision length length(path
'((-1,0),
(1,0))')
npoints(path) int number of points npoints(path
'[(0,0),(1,1),
(2,0)]')
npoints(polygon) int number of points npoints(polygon
'((1,1),(0,0))')
pclose(path) path convert path to closed pclose(path
'[(0,0),(1,1),
(2,0)]')
popen(path) path convert path to open popen(path
'((0,0),(1,1),
(2,0))')
radius(circle) double precision radius of circle radius(circle
'((0,0),2.0)')
width(box) double precision horizontal size of box width(box
'((0,0),(1,1))')

Table 9.36. Geometric Type Conversion Functions

Function Return Type Description Example
box(circle) box circle to box box(circle
'((0,0),2.0)')
box(point) box point to empty box box(point
'(0,0)')
box(point, box points to box box(point
point) '(0,0)', point
'(1,1)')
box(polygon) box polygon to box box(polygon
'((0,0),(1,1),
(2,0))')
bound_box(box, box boxes to bounding box bound_box(box
box) '((0,0),(1,1))',
box '((3,3),
(4,4))')
circle(box) circle box to circle circle(box
'((0,0),(1,1))')
circle(point, circle center and radius to cir- circle(point
double preci- cle '(0,0)', 2.0)
sion)
circle(polygon) circle polygon to circle circle(polygon
'((0,0),(1,1),
(2,0))')
line(point, line points to line line(point
point) '(-1,0)', point
'(1,0)')
lseg(box) lseg box diagonal to line seg- lseg(box
ment '((-1,0),
(1,0))')

272
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example

lseg(point, lseg points to line segment lseg(point
point) '(-1,0)', point
'(1,0)')
path(polygon) path polygon to path path(polygon
'((0,0),(1,1),
(2,0))')
point(double point construct point point(23.4,
precision, dou- -44.5)
ble precision)
point(box) point center of box point(box
'((-1,0),
(1,0))')
point(circle) point center of circle point(circle
'((0,0),2.0)')
point(lseg) point center of line segment point(lseg
'((-1,0),
(1,0))')
point(polygon) point center of polygon point(polygon
'((0,0),(1,1),
(2,0))')
polygon(box) polygon box to 4-point polygon polygon(box
'((0,0),(1,1))')
polygon(circle) polygon circle to 12-point poly- polygon(circle
gon '((0,0),2.0)')
polygon(npts, polygon circle to npts-point polygon(12, cir-
circle) polygon cle
'((0,0),2.0)')
polygon(path) polygon path to polygon polygon(path
'((0,0),(1,1),
(2,0))')

It is possible to access the two component numbers of a point as though the point were an array with
indexes 0 and 1. For example, if t.p is a point column then SELECT p[0] FROM t retrieves
the X coordinate and UPDATE t SET p[1] = ... changes the Y coordinate. In the same way,
a value of type box or lseg can be treated as an array of two point values.

The area function works for the types box, circle, and path. The area function only works
on the path data type if the points in the path are non-intersecting. For example, the path
'((0,0),(0,1),(2,1),(2,2),(1,2),(1,0),(0,0))'::PATH will not work; howev-
er, the following visually identical path '((0,0),(0,1),(1,1),(1,2),(2,2),(2,1),
(1,1),(1,0),(0,0))'::PATH will work. If the concept of an intersecting versus non-intersect-
ing path is confusing, draw both of the above paths side by side on a piece of graph paper.

9.12. Network Address Functions and Opera-

tors
Table 9.37 shows the operators available for the cidr and inet types. The operators <<, <<=, >>,
>>=, and && test for subnet inclusion. They consider only the network parts of the two addresses
(ignoring any host part) and determine whether one network is identical to or a subnet of the other.

273
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.37. cidr and inet Operators

Operator Description Example

< is less than inet '192.168.1.5' <
inet '192.168.1.6'
<= is less than or equal inet '192.168.1.5' <=
inet '192.168.1.5'
= equals inet '192.168.1.5' =
inet '192.168.1.5'
>= is greater or equal inet '192.168.1.5' >=
inet '192.168.1.5'
> is greater than inet '192.168.1.5' >
inet '192.168.1.4'
<> is not equal inet '192.168.1.5' <>
inet '192.168.1.4'
<< is contained by inet '192.168.1.5' <<
inet '192.168.1/24'
<<= is contained by or equals inet '192.168.1/24'
<<= inet
'192.168.1/24'
>> contains inet '192.168.1/24' >>
inet '192.168.1.5'
>>= contains or equals inet '192.168.1/24'
>>= inet
'192.168.1/24'
&& contains or is contained by inet '192.168.1/24'
&& inet
'192.168.1.80/28'
~ bitwise NOT ~ inet '192.168.1.6'
& bitwise AND inet '192.168.1.6' &
inet '0.0.0.255'
| bitwise OR inet '192.168.1.6' |
inet '0.0.0.255'
+ addition inet '192.168.1.6' +
25
- subtraction inet '192.168.1.43' -
36
- subtraction inet '192.168.1.43' -
inet '192.168.1.19'

Table 9.38 shows the functions available for use with the cidr and inet types. The abbrev, host,
and text functions are primarily intended to offer alternative display formats.

Table 9.38. cidr and inet Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result

abbrev(inet) text abbreviated dis- abbrev(inet 10.1.0.0/16
play format as text '10.1.0.0/16')
abbrev(cidr) text abbreviated dis- abbrev(cidr 10.1/16
play format as text '10.1.0.0/16')

274
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

broad- inet broadcast address broad- 192.168.1.255/24
cast(inet) for network cast('192.168.1.5/24')
family(inet) int extract family of fami- 6
address; 4 for ly('::1')
IPv4, 6 for IPv6
host(inet) text extract IP address host('192.168.1.5/24')
192.168.1.5
as text
hostmask(in- inet construct host host- 0.0.0.3
et) mask for network mask('192.168.23.20/30')
masklen(in- int extract netmask masklen('192.168.1.5/24')
24
et) length
netmask(in- inet construct netmask net- 255.255.255.0
et) for network mask('192.168.1.5/24')
network(in- cidr extract network net- 192.168.1.0/24
et) part of address work('192.168.1.5/24')
inet set netmask length set_masklen('192.168.1.5/24',
192.168.1.5/16
set_masklen(in- for inet value 16)
et, int)
set_masklen(cidr,
cidr set netmask length set_masklen('192.168.1.0/24'::cidr,
192.168.0.0/16
int) for cidr value 16)
text(inet) text extract IP address text(inet 192.168.1.5/32
and netmask length '192.168.1.5')
as text
in- boolean are the addresses in- false
et_same_fam- from the same fam- et_same_fam-
ily(inet, in- ily? i-
et) ly('192.168.1.5/24',
'::1')
in- cidr the smallest net- in- 192.168.0.0/22
et_merge(in- work which in- et_merge('192.168.1.5/24',
et, inet) cludes both of the '192.168.2.5/24')
given networks

Any cidr value can be cast to inet implicitly or explicitly; therefore, the functions shown above
as operating on inet also work on cidr values. (Where there are separate functions for inet and
cidr, it is because the behavior should be different for the two cases.) Also, it is permitted to cast
an inet value to cidr. When this is done, any bits to the right of the netmask are silently zeroed
to create a valid cidr value. In addition, you can cast a text value to inet or cidr using normal
casting syntax: for example, inet(expression) or colname::cidr.

Table 9.39 shows the functions available for use with the macaddr type. The function
trunc(macaddr) returns a MAC address with the last 3 bytes set to zero. This can be used to
associate the remaining prefix with a manufacturer.

Table 9.39. macaddr Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
trunc(macad- macaddr set last 3 bytes to trunc(macad- 12:34:56:00:00:00
dr) zero dr
'12:34:56:78:90:ab')

The macaddr type also supports the standard relational operators (>, <=, etc.) for lexicographical
ordering, and the bitwise arithmetic operators (~, & and |) for NOT, AND and OR.

275
 Functions and Operators

Table 9.40 shows the functions available for use with the macaddr8 type. The function
trunc(macaddr8) returns a MAC address with the last 5 bytes set to zero. This can be used to
associate the remaining prefix with a manufacturer.

Table 9.40. macaddr8 Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
trunc(macad- macaddr8 set last 5 bytes to trunc(macad- 12:34:56:00:00:00:00:00
dr8) zero dr8
'12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:e-
f')
macad- macaddr8 set 7th bit to macad- 02:34:56:ff:fe:ab:cd:ef
dr8_set7bit(macad- one, also known as dr8_set7bit(macad-
dr8) modified EUI-64, dr8
for inclusion in an '00:34:56:ab:cd:e-
IPv6 address f')

The macaddr8 type also supports the standard relational operators (>, <=, etc.) for ordering, and the
bitwise arithmetic operators (~, & and |) for NOT, AND and OR.

9.13. Text Search Functions and Operators

Table 9.41, Table 9.42 and Table 9.43 summarize the functions and operators that are provided for
full text searching. See Chapter 12 for a detailed explanation of PostgreSQL's text search facility.

Table 9.41. Text Search Operators

Operator Return Type Description Example Result
@@ boolean tsvector to_tsvec- t
matches ts- tor('fat cats
query ? ate rats')
@@ to_ts-
query('cat &
rat')
@@@ boolean deprecated syn- to_tsvec- t
onym for @@ tor('fat cats
ate rats')
@@@ to_ts-
query('cat &
rat')
|| tsvector concatenate 'a:1 'a':1 'b':2,5
tsvectors b:2'::tsvec- 'c':3 'd':4
tor ||
'c:1 d:2
b:3'::tsvec-
tor
&& tsquery AND tsquerys 'fat | ( 'fat' |
together rat'::ts- 'rat' ) &
query && 'cat'
'cat'::ts-
query
|| tsquery OR tsquerys to- 'fat | ( 'fat' |
gether rat'::ts- 'rat' ) |
query || 'cat'

276
 Functions and Operators

Operator Return Type Description Example Result

'cat'::ts-
query
!! tsquery negate a tsquery !! 'cat'::ts- !'cat'
query
<-> tsquery tsquery fol- to_ts- 'fat' <->
lowed by ts- query('fat') 'rat'
query <-> to_ts-
query('rat')
@> boolean tsquery con- 'cat'::ts- f
tains another ? query @> 'cat
& rat'::ts-
query
<@ boolean tsquery is con- 'cat'::ts- t
tained in ? query <@ 'cat
& rat'::ts-
query

Note
The tsquery containment operators consider only the lexemes listed in the two
queries, ignoring the combining operators.

In addition to the operators shown in the table, the ordinary B-tree comparison operators (=, <, etc) are
defined for types tsvector and tsquery. These are not very useful for text searching but allow,
for example, unique indexes to be built on columns of these types.

Table 9.42. Text Search Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
ar- tsvector convert array ar- 'cat' 'fat'
ray_to_tsvec- of lexemes to ray_to_tsvec- 'rat'
tor(text[]) tsvector tor('{fat,cat,rat}'::tex-
t[])
get_curren- regconfig get default text get_curren- english
t_ts_con- search configura- t_ts_con-
fig() tion fig()
integer number of lexemes length('fat:2,4
3
length(tsvec- in tsvector cat:3
tor) rat:5A'::tsvec-
tor)
numnode(ts- integer number of lexemes numnode('(fat 5
query) plus operators in & rat)
tsquery | cat'::ts-
query)
plainto_ts- tsquery produce tsquery plainto_ts- 'fat' & 'rat'
query([ con- ignoring punctua- query('eng-
fig regcon- tion lish', 'The
fig , ] query Fat Rats')
text)
phraseto_ts- tsquery produce tsquery phraseto_ts- 'fat' <->
query([ con- that searches for query('eng- 'rat'
fig regcon-

277
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

fig , ] query a phrase, ignoring lish', 'The
text) punctuation Fat Rats')
web- tsquery produce tsquery web- 'fat' <->
search_to_t- from a web search search_to_t- 'rat' | 'rat'
squery([ con- style query squery('eng-
fig regcon- lish', '"fat
fig , ] query rat" or rat')
text)
query- text get indexable part query- 'foo'
tree(query of a tsquery tree('foo & !
tsquery) bar'::ts-
query)
tsvector assign weight to setweight('fat:2,4
'cat':3A
setweight(vec- each element of cat:3 'fat':2A,4A
tor tsvec- vector rat:5B'::tsvec-
'rat':5A
tor, weight tor, 'A')
"char")
tsvector assign weight to setweight('fat:2,4
'cat':3A
setweight(vec- elements of vec- cat:3 'fat':2,4
tor tsvec- tor that are listed rat:5B'::tsvec-
'rat':5A
tor, weight in lexemes tor, 'A',
"char", lex- '{cat,rat}')
emes text[])
strip(tsvec- tsvector remove positions strip('fat:2,4'cat' 'fat'
tor) and weights from cat:3 'rat'
tsvector rat:5A'::tsvec-
tor)
to_tsquery([ tsquery normalize words to_ts- 'fat' & 'rat'
config reg- and convert to ts- query('eng-
config , ] query lish', 'The &
query text) Fat & Rats')
to_tsvec- tsvector reduce document to_tsvec- 'fat':2
tor([ con- text to tsvector tor('eng- 'rat':3
fig regconfig lish', 'The
, ] document Fat Rats')
text)
to_tsvec- tsvector reduce each string to_tsvec- 'fat':2
tor([ con- value in the docu- tor('eng- 'rat':3
fig regconfig ment to a tsvec- lish', '{"a":
, ] document tor, and then con- "The Fat Rat-
json(b)) catenate those in s"}'::json)
document order to
produce a single
tsvector
json(b)_to_tsvec-
tsvector reduce each value json_to_tsvec-'123':5
tor([ con- in the document, tor('eng- 'fat':2
fig regcon- specified by fil- lish', '{"a": 'rat':3
fig, ] docu- ter to a tsvec- "The Fat
ment json(b), tor, and then Rats", "b":
filter concatenate those 123}'::json,
json(b)) in document or- '["string",
der to produce "numeric"]')
a single tsvec-

278
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

tor. filter is a
jsonb array, that
enumerates what
kind of elements
need to be in-
cluded into the
resulting tsvec-
tor. Possible val-
ues for filter
are "string" (to
include all string
values), "numer-
ic" (to include all
numeric values in
the string format),
"boolean" (to
include all Boolean
values in the string
format "true"/
"false"),
"key" (to in-
clude all keys) or
"all" (to include
all above). These
values can be com-
bined together to
include, e.g. all
string and numeric
values.
tsvector remove given ts_delete('fat:2,4
'cat':3
ts_delete(vec- lexeme from cat:3 'rat':5A
tor tsvector, vector rat:5A'::tsvec-
lexeme text) tor, 'fat')
ts_delete(vec-tsvector remove any occur- ts_delete('fat:2,4
'cat':3
tor tsvec- rence of lexemes cat:3
tor, lexemes in lexemes from rat:5A'::tsvec-
text[]) vector tor, AR-
RAY['fat','rat'])
ts_fil- tsvector select only ele- ts_fil- 'cat':3B
ter(vector ments with giv- ter('fat:2,4 'rat':5A
tsvector, en weights from cat:3b
weights vector rat:5A'::tsvec-
"char"[]) tor, '{a,b}')
ts_head- text display a query ts_head- x y <b>z</b>
line([ con- match line('x y
fig regcon- z', 'z'::ts-
fig, ] doc- query)
ument text,
query tsquery
[, options
text ])
ts_head- text display a query ts_head- {"a":"x y
line([ con- match line('{"a":"x <b>z</b>"}
fig regcon- y z"}'::j-

279
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

fig, ] docu- son, 'z'::ts-
ment json(b), query)
query tsquery
[, options
text ])
ts_rank([ float4 rank document for ts_rank(textsearch,
0.818
weights query query)
float4[], ]
vector tsvec-
tor, query
tsquery [,
normaliza-
tion integer
])
ts_rank_cd([ float4 rank document for ts_rank_cd('{0.1,
2.01317
weights query using cover 0.2, 0.4,
float4[], ] density 1.0}',
vector tsvec- textsearch,
tor, query query)
tsquery [,
normaliza-
tion integer
])
tsquery replace target ts_rewrite('a 'b' & ( 'foo'
ts_rewrite(query with substi- & b'::ts- | 'bar' )
tsquery, tar- tute within query query,
get ts- 'a'::ts-
query, sub- query, 'foo|
stitute ts- bar'::ts-
query) query)
ts_rewrite(query
tsquery replace using tar- SELECT 'b' & ( 'foo'
tsquery, se- gets and substitutes ts_rewrite('a | 'bar' )
lect text) from a SELECT & b'::ts-
command query,
'SELECT t,s
FROM alias-
es')
ts- tsquery make query that ts- 'fat' <->
query_phrase(query1 searches for query_phrase(to_t-
'cat'
tsquery, query1 followed s-
query2 ts- by query2 (same query('fat'),
query) as <-> operator) to_ts-
query('cat'))
ts- tsquery make query that ts- 'fat' <10>
query_phrase(query1 searches for query_phrase(to_t-
'cat'
tsquery, query1 followed s-
query2 ts- by query2 at dis- query('fat'),
query, dis- tance distance to_ts-
tance inte- query('cat'),
ger) 10)
tsvec- text[] convert tsvec- tsvec- {cat,fat,rat}
tor_to_ar- tor to array of tor_to_ar-
ray(tsvec- lexemes ray('fat:2,4
tor) cat:3

280
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

rat:5A'::tsvec-
tor)
tsvector_up- trigger trigger function CREATE TRIG-
date_trig- for automatic GER ...
ger() tsvector col- tsvector_up-
umn update date_trig-
ger(tsvcol,
'pg_cata-
log.swedish',
title, body)
tsvector_up- trigger trigger function CREATE TRIG-
date_trig- for automatic GER ...
ger_column() tsvector col- tsvector_up-
umn update date_trig-
ger_colum-
n(tsvcol,
configcol,
title, body)
setof record expand a tsvec- unnest('fat:2,4
(cat,{3},
unnest(tsvec- tor to a set of cat:3 {D}) ...
tor, OUT lex- rows rat:5A'::tsvec-
eme text, tor)
OUT posi-
tions small-
int[], OUT
weights text)

Note
All the text search functions that accept an optional regconfig argument will use the
configuration specified by default_text_search_config when that argument is omitted.

The functions in Table 9.43 are listed separately because they are not usually used in everyday text
searching operations. They are helpful for development and debugging of new text search configura-
tions.

Table 9.43. Text Search Debugging Functions

Function Return Type Description Example Result
ts_debug([ setof record test a configuration ts_de- (ascii-
config reg- bug('eng- word,"Word,
config, ] lish', 'The all
document Brightest su- ASCII",The,
text, OUT pernovaes') {eng-
alias text, lish_stem},eng-
OUT descrip- lish_stem,{}) ...
tion text,
OUT to-
ken text,
OUT dictio-
naries reg-
dic-
tionary[],

281
 Functions and Operators

Function Return Type Description Example Result

OUT dictio-
nary regdic-
tionary, OUT
lexemes
text[])
ts_lex- text[] test a dictionary ts_lex- {star}
ize(dict reg- ize('eng-
dictionary, lish_stem',
token text) 'stars')
setof record test a parser ts_parse('de- (1,foo) ...
ts_parse(pars- fault', 'foo
er_name text, - bar')
document
text, OUT
tokid inte-
ger, OUT to-
ken text)
ts_parse(pars-setof record test a parser ts_parse(3722,(1,foo) ...
er_oid oid, 'foo - bar')
document
text, OUT
tokid inte-
ger, OUT to-
ken text)
ts_to- setof record get token types de- ts_to- (1,ascii-
ken_type(pars- fined by parser ken_type('de- word,"Word,
er_name text, fault') all
OUT tokid in- ASCII") ...
teger, OUT
alias text,
OUT descrip-
tion text)
ts_to- setof record get token types de- ts_to- (1,ascii-
ken_type(pars- fined by parser ken_type(3722)word,"Word,
er_oid oid, all
OUT tokid in- ASCII") ...
teger, OUT
alias text,
OUT descrip-
tion text)
ts_stat(sql- setof record get statistics of ts_stat('S- (foo,10,15) ...
query text, a tsvector col- ELECT vector
[ weights umn from apod')
text, ] OUT
word text,
OUT ndoc in-
teger, OUT
nentry inte-
ger)

9.14. XML Functions

282
 Functions and Operators

The functions and function-like expressions described in this section operate on values of type xml.
See Section 8.13 for information about the xml type. The function-like expressions xmlparse and
xmlserialize for converting to and from type xml are documented there, not in this section.

Use of most of these functions requires PostgreSQL to have been built with configure --with-
libxml.

9.14.1. Producing XML Content

A set of functions and function-like expressions are available for producing XML content from SQL
data. As such, they are particularly suitable for formatting query results into XML documents for
processing in client applications.

9.14.1.1. xmlcomment

xmlcomment(text)

The function xmlcomment creates an XML value containing an XML comment with the specified
text as content. The text cannot contain “--” or end with a “-” so that the resulting construct is a valid
XML comment. If the argument is null, the result is null.

Example:

SELECT xmlcomment('hello');

xmlcomment
--------------
<!--hello-->

9.14.1.2. xmlconcat

xmlconcat(xml[, ...])

The function xmlconcat concatenates a list of individual XML values to create a single value con-
taining an XML content fragment. Null values are omitted; the result is only null if there are no non-
null arguments.

Example:

SELECT xmlconcat('<abc/>', '<bar>foo</bar>');

xmlconcat
----------------------
<abc/><bar>foo</bar>

XML declarations, if present, are combined as follows. If all argument values have the same XML
version declaration, that version is used in the result, else no version is used. If all argument values
have the standalone declaration value “yes”, then that value is used in the result. If all argument values
have a standalone declaration value and at least one is “no”, then that is used in the result. Else the
result will have no standalone declaration. If the result is determined to require a standalone declaration
but no version declaration, a version declaration with version 1.0 will be used because XML requires
an XML declaration to contain a version declaration. Encoding declarations are ignored and removed
in all cases.

283
 Functions and Operators

Example:

SELECT xmlconcat('<?xml version="1.1"?><foo/>', '<?xml

version="1.1" standalone="no"?><bar/>');

xmlconcat
-----------------------------------
<?xml version="1.1"?><foo/><bar/>

9.14.1.3. xmlelement

xmlelement(name name [, xmlattributes(value [AS attname] [, ... ])]

[, content, ...])

The xmlelement expression produces an XML element with the given name, attributes, and content.

Examples:

SELECT xmlelement(name foo);

xmlelement
------------
<foo/>

SELECT xmlelement(name foo, xmlattributes('xyz' as bar));

xmlelement
------------------
<foo bar="xyz"/>

SELECT xmlelement(name foo, xmlattributes(current_date as bar),

'cont', 'ent');

xmlelement
-------------------------------------
<foo bar="2007-01-26">content</foo>

Element and attribute names that are not valid XML names are escaped by replacing the offending
characters by the sequence _xHHHH_, where HHHH is the character's Unicode codepoint in hexadec-
imal notation. For example:

SELECT xmlelement(name "foo$bar", xmlattributes('xyz' as "a&b"));

xmlelement
----------------------------------
<foo_x0024_bar a_x0026_b="xyz"/>

An explicit attribute name need not be specified if the attribute value is a column reference, in which
case the column's name will be used as the attribute name by default. In other cases, the attribute must
be given an explicit name. So this example is valid:

CREATE TABLE test (a xml, b xml);

SELECT xmlelement(name test, xmlattributes(a, b)) FROM test;

But these are not:

284
 Functions and Operators

SELECT xmlelement(name test, xmlattributes('constant'), a, b) FROM

test;
SELECT xmlelement(name test, xmlattributes(func(a, b))) FROM test;

Element content, if specified, will be formatted according to its data type. If the content is itself of
type xml, complex XML documents can be constructed. For example:

SELECT xmlelement(name foo, xmlattributes('xyz' as bar),

xmlelement(name abc),
xmlcomment('test'),
xmlelement(name xyz));

xmlelement
----------------------------------------------
<foo bar="xyz"><abc/><!--test--><xyz/></foo>

Content of other types will be formatted into valid XML character data. This means in particular
that the characters <, >, and & will be converted to entities. Binary data (data type bytea) will
be represented in base64 or hex encoding, depending on the setting of the configuration parameter
xmlbinary. The particular behavior for individual data types is expected to evolve in order to align the
PostgreSQL mappings with those specified in SQL:2006 and later, as discussed in Section D.3.1.3.

9.14.1.4. xmlforest

xmlforest(content [AS name] [, ...])

The xmlforest expression produces an XML forest (sequence) of elements using the given names
and content.

Examples:

SELECT xmlforest('abc' AS foo, 123 AS bar);

xmlforest
------------------------------
<foo>abc</foo><bar>123</bar>

SELECT xmlforest(table_name, column_name)

FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE table_schema = 'pg_catalog';

xmlforest
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<table_name>pg_authid</table_name><column_name>rolname</
column_name>
<table_name>pg_authid</table_name><column_name>rolsuper</
column_name>
...

As seen in the second example, the element name can be omitted if the content value is a column
reference, in which case the column name is used by default. Otherwise, a name must be specified.

Element names that are not valid XML names are escaped as shown for xmlelement above. Simi-
larly, content data is escaped to make valid XML content, unless it is already of type xml.

285
 Functions and Operators

Note that XML forests are not valid XML documents if they consist of more than one element, so it
might be useful to wrap xmlforest expressions in xmlelement.

9.14.1.5. xmlpi

xmlpi(name target [, content])

The xmlpi expression creates an XML processing instruction. The content, if present, must not con-
tain the character sequence ?>.

Example:

SELECT xmlpi(name php, 'echo "hello world";');

xmlpi
-----------------------------
<?php echo "hello world";?>

9.14.1.6. xmlroot

xmlroot(xml, version text | no value [, standalone yes|no|no

value])

The xmlroot expression alters the properties of the root node of an XML value. If a version is
specified, it replaces the value in the root node's version declaration; if a standalone setting is specified,
it replaces the value in the root node's standalone declaration.

SELECT xmlroot(xmlparse(document '<?xml version="1.1"?

><content>abc</content>'),
version '1.0', standalone yes);

xmlroot
----------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<content>abc</content>

9.14.1.7. xmlagg

xmlagg(xml)

The function xmlagg is, unlike the other functions described here, an aggregate function. It concate-
nates the input values to the aggregate function call, much like xmlconcat does, except that con-
catenation occurs across rows rather than across expressions in a single row. See Section 9.20 for
additional information about aggregate functions.

Example:

CREATE TABLE test (y int, x xml);

INSERT INTO test VALUES (1, '<foo>abc</foo>');
INSERT INTO test VALUES (2, '<bar/>');
SELECT xmlagg(x) FROM test;
xmlagg
----------------------

286
 Functions and Operators

<foo>abc</foo><bar/>

To determine the order of the concatenation, an ORDER BY clause may be added to the aggregate call
as described in Section 4.2.7. For example:

SELECT xmlagg(x ORDER BY y DESC) FROM test;

xmlagg
----------------------
<bar/><foo>abc</foo>

The following non-standard approach used to be recommended in previous versions, and may still be
useful in specific cases:

SELECT xmlagg(x) FROM (SELECT * FROM test ORDER BY y DESC) AS tab;

xmlagg
----------------------
<bar/><foo>abc</foo>

9.14.2. XML Predicates

The expressions described in this section check properties of xml values.

9.14.2.1. IS DOCUMENT

xml IS DOCUMENT

The expression IS DOCUMENT returns true if the argument XML value is a proper XML document,
false if it is not (that is, it is a content fragment), or null if the argument is null. See Section 8.13 about
the difference between documents and content fragments.

9.14.2.2. IS NOT DOCUMENT

xml IS NOT DOCUMENT

The expression IS NOT DOCUMENT returns false if the argument XML value is a proper XML
document, true if it is not (that is, it is a content fragment), or null if the argument is null.

9.14.2.3. XMLEXISTS

XMLEXISTS(text PASSING [BY { REF | VALUE }] xml [BY { REF |

VALUE }])

The function xmlexists evaluates an XPath 1.0 expression (the first argument), with the passed
XML value as its context item. The function returns false if the result of that evaluation yields an
empty node-set, true if it yields any other value. The function returns null if any argument is null. A
nonnull value passed as the context item must be an XML document, not a content fragment or any
non-XML value.

Example:

SELECT xmlexists('//town[text() = ''Toronto'']' PASSING BY VALUE

'<towns><town>Toronto</town><town>Ottawa</town></towns>');

xmlexists

287
 Functions and Operators

------------
t
(1 row)

The BY REF and BY VALUE clauses are accepted in PostgreSQL, but are ignored, as discussed in
Section D.3.2. In the SQL standard, the xmlexists function evaluates an expression in the XML
Query language, but PostgreSQL allows only an XPath 1.0 expression, as discussed in Section D.3.1.

9.14.2.4. xml_is_well_formed

xml_is_well_formed(text)
xml_is_well_formed_document(text)
xml_is_well_formed_content(text)

These functions check whether a text string is well-formed XML, returning a Boolean re-
sult. xml_is_well_formed_document checks for a well-formed document, while xm-
l_is_well_formed_content checks for well-formed content. xml_is_well_formed does
the former if the xmloption configuration parameter is set to DOCUMENT, or the latter if it is set to
CONTENT. This means that xml_is_well_formed is useful for seeing whether a simple cast to
type xml will succeed, whereas the other two functions are useful for seeing whether the correspond-
ing variants of XMLPARSE will succeed.

Examples:

SET xmloption TO DOCUMENT;

SELECT xml_is_well_formed('<>');
xml_is_well_formed
--------------------
f
(1 row)

SELECT xml_is_well_formed('<abc/>');
xml_is_well_formed
--------------------
t
(1 row)

SET xmloption TO CONTENT;

SELECT xml_is_well_formed('abc');
xml_is_well_formed
--------------------
t
(1 row)

SELECT xml_is_well_formed_document('<pg:foo xmlns:pg="http://

postgresql.org/stuff">bar</pg:foo>');
xml_is_well_formed_document
-----------------------------
t
(1 row)

SELECT xml_is_well_formed_document('<pg:foo xmlns:pg="http://

postgresql.org/stuff">bar</my:foo>');
xml_is_well_formed_document
-----------------------------
f
(1 row)

288
 Functions and Operators

The last example shows that the checks include whether namespaces are correctly matched.

9.14.3. Processing XML

To process values of data type xml, PostgreSQL offers the functions xpath and xpath_exists,
which evaluate XPath 1.0 expressions, and the XMLTABLE table function.

9.14.3.1. xpath

xpath(xpath, xml [, nsarray])

The function xpath evaluates the XPath 1.0 expression xpath (a text value) against the XML
value xml. It returns an array of XML values corresponding to the node-set produced by the XPath
expression. If the XPath expression returns a scalar value rather than a node-set, a single-element array
is returned.

The second argument must be a well formed XML document. In particular, it must have a single root
node element.

The optional third argument of the function is an array of namespace mappings. This array should be
a two-dimensional text array with the length of the second axis being equal to 2 (i.e., it should be
an array of arrays, each of which consists of exactly 2 elements). The first element of each array entry
is the namespace name (alias), the second the namespace URI. It is not required that aliases provided
in this array be the same as those being used in the XML document itself (in other words, both in the
XML document and in the xpath function context, aliases are local).

Example:

SELECT xpath('/my:a/text()', '<my:a xmlns:my="http://

example.com">test</my:a>',
ARRAY[ARRAY['my', 'http://example.com']]);

xpath
--------
{test}
(1 row)

To deal with default (anonymous) namespaces, do something like this:

SELECT xpath('//mydefns:b/text()', '<a xmlns="http://

example.com"><b>test</b></a>',
ARRAY[ARRAY['mydefns', 'http://example.com']]);

xpath
--------
{test}
(1 row)

9.14.3.2. xpath_exists

xpath_exists(xpath, xml [, nsarray])

The function xpath_exists is a specialized form of the xpath function. Instead of returning the
individual XML values that satisfy the XPath 1.0 expression, this function returns a Boolean indicating
whether the query was satisfied or not (specifically, whether it produced any value other than an empty

289
 Functions and Operators

node-set). This function is equivalent to the XMLEXISTS predicate, except that it also offers support
for a namespace mapping argument.

Example:

SELECT xpath_exists('/my:a/text()', '<my:a xmlns:my="http://

example.com">test</my:a>',
ARRAY[ARRAY['my', 'http://example.com']]);

xpath_exists
--------------
t
(1 row)

9.14.3.3. xmltable

xmltable( [XMLNAMESPACES(namespace uri AS namespace name[, ...]), ]

row_expression PASSING [BY { REF |
VALUE }] document_expression [BY { REF | VALUE }]
COLUMNS name { type [PATH column_expression]
[DEFAULT default_expression] [NOT NULL | NULL]
| FOR ORDINALITY }
[, ...]
)

The xmltable function produces a table based on the given XML value, an XPath filter to extract
rows, and a set of column definitions.

The optional XMLNAMESPACES clause is a comma-separated list of namespaces. It specifies the XML
namespaces used in the document and their aliases. A default namespace specification is not currently
supported.

The required row_expression argument is an XPath 1.0 expression that is evaluated, passing the
document_expression as its context item, to obtain a set of XML nodes. These nodes are what
xmltable transforms into output rows. No rows will be produced if the document_expression
is null, nor if the row_expression produces an empty node-set or any value other than a node-set.

document_expression provides the context item for the row_expression. It must be a well-
formed XML document; fragments/forests are not accepted. The BY REF and BY VALUE clauses
are accepted but ignored, as discussed in Section D.3.2. In the SQL standard, the xmltable function
evaluates expressions in the XML Query language, but PostgreSQL allows only XPath 1.0 expres-
sions, as discussed in Section D.3.1.

The mandatory COLUMNS clause specifies the list of columns in the output table. Each entry describes
a single column. See the syntax summary above for the format. The column name and type are required;
the path, default and nullability clauses are optional.

A column marked FOR ORDINALITY will be populated with row numbers, starting with 1, in the
order of nodes retrieved from the row_expression's result node-set. At most one column may be
marked FOR ORDINALITY.

Note
XPath 1.0 does not specify an order for nodes in a node-set, so code that relies on a
particular order of the results will be implementation-dependent. Details can be found
in Section D.3.1.2.

290
 Functions and Operators

The column_expression for a column is an XPath 1.0 expression that is evaluated for each row,
with the current node from the row_expression result as its context item, to find the value of the
column. If no column_expression is given, then the column name is used as an implicit path.

If a column's XPath expression returns a non-XML value (limited to string, boolean, or double in
XPath 1.0) and the column has a PostgreSQL type other than xml, the column will be set as if by
assigning the value's string representation to the PostgreSQL type. (If the value is a boolean, its string
representation is taken to be 1 or 0 if the output column's type category is numeric, otherwise true
or false.)

If a column's XPath expression returns a non-empty set of XML nodes and the column's PostgreSQL
type is xml, the column will be assigned the expression result exactly, if it is of document or content
form. 2

A non-XML result assigned to an xml output column produces content, a single text node with the
string value of the result. An XML result assigned to a column of any other type may not have more
than one node, or an error is raised. If there is exactly one node, the column will be set as if by assigning
the node's string value (as defined for the XPath 1.0 string function) to the PostgreSQL type.

The string value of an XML element is the concatenation, in document order, of all text nodes contained
in that element and its descendants. The string value of an element with no descendant text nodes
is an empty string (not NULL). Any xsi:nil attributes are ignored. Note that the whitespace-only
text() node between two non-text elements is preserved, and that leading whitespace on a text()
node is not flattened. The XPath 1.0 string function may be consulted for the rules defining the
string value of other XML node types and non-XML values.

The conversion rules presented here are not exactly those of the SQL standard, as discussed in Sec-
tion D.3.1.3.

If the path expression returns an empty node-set (typically, when it does not match) for a given row, the
column will be set to NULL, unless a default_expression is specified; then the value resulting
from evaluating that expression is used.

Columns may be marked NOT NULL. If the column_expression for a NOT NULL column does
not match anything and there is no DEFAULT or the default_expression also evaluates to null,
an error is reported.

A default_expression, rather than being evaluated immediately when xmltable is called,

is evaluated each time a default is needed for the column. If the expression qualifies as stable or im-
mutable, the repeat evaluation may be skipped. This means that you can usefully use volatile functions
like nextval in default_expression.

Examples:

CREATE TABLE xmldata AS SELECT

xml $$
<ROWS>
<ROW id="1">
<COUNTRY_ID>AU</COUNTRY_ID>
<COUNTRY_NAME>Australia</COUNTRY_NAME>
</ROW>
<ROW id="5">
<COUNTRY_ID>JP</COUNTRY_ID>
<COUNTRY_NAME>Japan</COUNTRY_NAME>
<PREMIER_NAME>Shinzo Abe</PREMIER_NAME>
<SIZE unit="sq_mi">145935</SIZE>
2
A result containing more than one element node at the top level, or non-whitespace text outside of an element, is an example of content form.
An XPath result can be of neither form, for example if it returns an attribute node selected from the element that contains it. Such a result will
be put into content form with each such disallowed node replaced by its string value, as defined for the XPath 1.0 string function.

291
 Functions and Operators

</ROW>
<ROW id="6">
<COUNTRY_ID>SG</COUNTRY_ID>
<COUNTRY_NAME>Singapore</COUNTRY_NAME>
<SIZE unit="sq_km">697</SIZE>
</ROW>
</ROWS>
$$ AS data;

SELECT xmltable.*
FROM xmldata,
XMLTABLE('//ROWS/ROW'
PASSING data
COLUMNS id int PATH '@id',
ordinality FOR ORDINALITY,
"COUNTRY_NAME" text,
country_id text PATH 'COUNTRY_ID',
size_sq_km float PATH 'SIZE[@unit =
"sq_km"]',
size_other text PATH
'concat(SIZE[@unit!="sq_km"], " ",
SIZE[@unit!="sq_km"]/@unit)',
premier_name text PATH 'PREMIER_NAME'
DEFAULT 'not specified') ;

id | ordinality | COUNTRY_NAME | country_id | size_sq_km |

size_other | premier_name
----+------------+--------------+------------+------------
+--------------+---------------
1 | 1 | Australia | AU | |
| not specified
5 | 2 | Japan | JP | | 145935
sq_mi | Shinzo Abe
6 | 3 | Singapore | SG | 697 |
| not specified

The following example shows concatenation of multiple text() nodes, usage of the column name as
XPath filter, and the treatment of whitespace, XML comments and processing instructions:

CREATE TABLE xmlelements AS SELECT

xml $$
<root>
<element> Hello<!-- xyxxz -->2a2<?aaaaa?> <!--x--> bbb<x>xxx</
x>CC </element>
</root>
$$ AS data;

SELECT xmltable.*
FROM xmlelements, XMLTABLE('/root' PASSING data COLUMNS element
text);
element
-------------------------
Hello2a2 bbbxxxCC

The following example illustrates how the XMLNAMESPACES clause can be used to specify a list of
namespaces used in the XML document as well as in the XPath expressions:

292
 Functions and Operators

WITH xmldata(data) AS (VALUES ('

<example xmlns="http://example.com/myns" xmlns:B="http://
example.com/b">
<item foo="1" B:bar="2"/>
<item foo="3" B:bar="4"/>
<item foo="4" B:bar="5"/>
</example>'::xml)
)
SELECT xmltable.*
FROM XMLTABLE(XMLNAMESPACES('http://example.com/myns' AS x,
'http://example.com/b' AS "B"),
'/x:example/x:item'
PASSING (SELECT data FROM xmldata)
COLUMNS foo int PATH '@foo',
bar int PATH '@B:bar');
foo | bar
-----+-----
1 | 2
3 | 4
4 | 5
(3 rows)

9.14.4. Mapping Tables to XML

The following functions map the contents of relational tables to XML values. They can be thought
of as XML export functionality:

table_to_xml(tbl regclass, nulls boolean, tableforest boolean,

targetns text)
query_to_xml(query text, nulls boolean, tableforest boolean,
targetns text)
cursor_to_xml(cursor refcursor, count int, nulls boolean,
tableforest boolean, targetns text)

The return type of each function is xml.

table_to_xml maps the content of the named table, passed as parameter tbl. The regclass
type accepts strings identifying tables using the usual notation, including optional schema qualifi-
cations and double quotes. query_to_xml executes the query whose text is passed as parameter
query and maps the result set. cursor_to_xml fetches the indicated number of rows from the
cursor specified by the parameter cursor. This variant is recommended if large tables have to be
mapped, because the result value is built up in memory by each function.

If tableforest is false, then the resulting XML document looks like this:

<tablename>
<row>
<columnname1>data</columnname1>
<columnname2>data</columnname2>
</row>

<row>
...
</row>

...
</tablename>

293
 Functions and Operators

If tableforest is true, the result is an XML content fragment that looks like this:

<tablename>
<columnname1>data</columnname1>
<columnname2>data</columnname2>
</tablename>

<tablename>
...
</tablename>

...

If no table name is available, that is, when mapping a query or a cursor, the string table is used in
the first format, row in the second format.

The choice between these formats is up to the user. The first format is a proper XML document,
which will be important in many applications. The second format tends to be more useful in the cur-
sor_to_xml function if the result values are to be reassembled into one document later on. The
functions for producing XML content discussed above, in particular xmlelement, can be used to
alter the results to taste.

The data values are mapped in the same way as described for the function xmlelement above.

The parameter nulls determines whether null values should be included in the output. If true, null
values in columns are represented as:

<columnname xsi:nil="true"/>

where xsi is the XML namespace prefix for XML Schema Instance. An appropriate namespace de-
claration will be added to the result value. If false, columns containing null values are simply omitted
from the output.

The parameter targetns specifies the desired XML namespace of the result. If no particular name-
space is wanted, an empty string should be passed.

The following functions return XML Schema documents describing the mappings performed by the
corresponding functions above:

table_to_xmlschema(tbl regclass, nulls boolean, tableforest

boolean, targetns text)
query_to_xmlschema(query text, nulls boolean, tableforest boolean,
targetns text)
cursor_to_xmlschema(cursor refcursor, nulls boolean, tableforest
boolean, targetns text)

It is essential that the same parameters are passed in order to obtain matching XML data mappings
and XML Schema documents.

The following functions produce XML data mappings and the corresponding XML Schema in one
document (or forest), linked together. They can be useful where self-contained and self-describing
results are wanted:

table_to_xml_and_xmlschema(tbl regclass, nulls boolean, tableforest

boolean, targetns text)
query_to_xml_and_xmlschema(query text, nulls boolean, tableforest
boolean, targetns text)

294
 Functions and Operators

In addition, the following functions are available to produce analogous mappings of entire schemas
or the entire current database:

schema_to_xml(schema name, nulls boolean, tableforest boolean,

targetns text)
schema_to_xmlschema(schema name, nulls boolean, tableforest
boolean, targetns text)
schema_to_xml_and_xmlschema(schema name, nulls boolean, tableforest
boolean, targetns text)

database_to_xml(nulls boolean, tableforest boolean, targetns text)

database_to_xmlschema(nulls boolean, tableforest boolean, targetns
text)
database_to_xml_and_xmlschema(nulls boolean, tableforest boolean,
targetns text)

Note that these potentially produce a lot of data, which needs to be built up in memory. When request-
ing content mappings of large schemas or databases, it might be worthwhile to consider mapping the
tables separately instead, possibly even through a cursor.

The result of a schema content mapping looks like this:

<schemaname>

table1-mapping

table2-mapping

...

</schemaname>

where the format of a table mapping depends on the tableforest parameter as explained above.

The result of a database content mapping looks like this:

<dbname>

<schema1name>
...
</schema1name>

<schema2name>
...
</schema2name>

...

</dbname>

where the schema mapping is as above.

As an example of using the output produced by these functions, Figure 9.1 shows an XSLT stylesheet
that converts the output of table_to_xml_and_xmlschema to an HTML document containing a
tabular rendition of the table data. In a similar manner, the results from these functions can be converted
into other XML-based formats.

295
 Functions and Operators

Figure 9.1. XSLT Stylesheet for Converting SQL/XML Output to HTML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
>

<xsl:output method="xml"
doctype-system="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-
strict.dtd"
doctype-public="-//W3C/DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
indent="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="/*">
<xsl:variable name="schema" select="//xsd:schema"/>
<xsl:variable name="tabletypename"
select="$schema/
xsd:element[@name=name(current())]/@type"/>
<xsl:variable name="rowtypename"
select="$schema/xsd:complexType[@name=
$tabletypename]/xsd:sequence/xsd:element[@name='row']/@type"/>

<html>
<head>
<title><xsl:value-of select="name(current())"/></title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<tr>
<xsl:for-each select="$schema/xsd:complexType[@name=
$rowtypename]/xsd:sequence/xsd:element/@name">
<th><xsl:value-of select="."/></th>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>

<xsl:for-each select="row">
<tr>
<xsl:for-each select="*">
<td><xsl:value-of select="."/></td>
</xsl:for-each>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

9.15. JSON Functions and Operators

This section describes:

• functions and operators for processing and creating JSON data

296
 Functions and Operators

• the SQL/JSON path language

To learn more about the SQL/JSON standard, see [sqltr-19075-6]. For details on JSON types supported
in PostgreSQL, see Section 8.14.

9.15.1. Processing and Creating JSON Data

Table 9.44 shows the operators that are available for use with JSON data types (see Section 8.14).

Table 9.44. json and jsonb Operators

Operator Right Return type Description Example Example Re-
Operand Type sult
-> int json or Get JSON ar- '[{"a":"foo"},
{"c":"baz"}
jsonb ray element (in- {"b":"bar"},
dexed from ze- {"c":"baz"}]'::j-
ro, negative in- son->2
tegers count
from the end)
-> text json or Get JSON ob- '{"a": {"b":"foo"}
jsonb ject field by key {"b":"foo"}}'::j-
son->'a'
->&