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.

    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.

    NameTypeReferencesDescription
    oidoid Row identifier (hidden attribute; must be explicitly selected)
    opfmethodoidpg_am.oidIndex access method operator for this family
    opfnamenameName of this operator family
    opfnamespaceoidpg_namespace.oidNamespace of this operator family
    opfowneroidpg_authid.oidOwner of the operator family

    Parent topic: System Catalogs Definitions