The catalog pg_opfamily defines operator families.
Each operator family is a collection of operators and associated
support routines that implement the semantics specified for a particular
index access method. Furthermore, the operators in a family are all
"compatible", in a way that is specified by the access method.
The operator family concept allows cross-data-type operators to be used
with indexes and to be reasoned about using knowledge of access method
semantics.
Operator families are described at length in Section 34.14.
Table 44-28. pg_opfamily Columns
Name | Type | References | Description |
---|
opfmethod | oid | pg_am.oid | Index access method operator family is for |
opfname | name | | Name of this operator family |
opfnamespace | oid | pg_namespace.oid | Namespace of this operator family |
opfowner | oid | pg_authid.oid | Owner of the operator family |
The majority of the information defining an operator family is not in its
pg_opfamily row, but in the associated rows in
pg_amop,
pg_amproc,
and
pg_opclass.