PostgreSQL 正體中文使用手冊
PostgreSQL.TW官方使用手冊小島故事加入社團
11
11
  • 簡介
  • 前言
    • 1. 什麼是PostgreSQL?
    • 2. PostgreSQL沿革
    • 3. 慣例
    • 4. 其他參考資訊
    • 5. 問題回報指南
  • I. 新手教學
    • 1. 入門指南
      • 1.1. 安裝
      • 1.2. 基礎架構
      • 1.3. 建立一個資料庫
      • 1.4. 存取一個資料庫
    • 2. SQL查詢語言
      • 2.1. 簡介
      • 2.2. 概念
      • 2.3. 創建一個新的資料表
      • 2.4. 資料列是資料表的組成單位
      • 2.5. 資料表的查詢
      • 2.6. 交叉查詢
      • 2.7. 彙總查詢
      • 2.8. 更新資料
      • 2.9. 刪除資料
    • 3. 先進功能
      • 3.1. 簡介
      • 3.2. 檢視表(View)
      • 3.3. 外部索引鍵
      • 3.4. 交易安全
      • 3.5. 窗函數
      • 3.6. 繼承
      • 3.7. 結論
  • II. SQL查詢語言
    • 4. SQL語法
      • 4.1. 語法結構
      • 4.2. 參數表示式
      • 4.3. 函數呼叫
    • 5. 定義資料結構
      • 5.1. 認識資料表
      • 5.2. 預設值
      • 5.3. 限制條件
      • 5.4. 系統欄位
      • 5.5. 表格變更
      • 5.6. 權限
      • 5.7. 資料列安全原則
      • 5.8. Schemas
      • 5.9. 繼承
      • 5.10. 分割資料表
      • 5.11. 外部資料
      • 5.12. 其他資料庫物件
      • 5.13. 相依性追蹤
    • 6. 資料處理
      • 6.1. 新增資料
      • 6.2. 更新資料
      • 6.3. 刪除資料
      • 6.4. 修改並回傳資料
    • 7. 資料查詢
      • 7.1. 概觀
      • 7.2. 資料表表示式
      • 7.3. 取得資料列表
      • 7.4. 合併查詢結果
      • 7.5. 資料排序
      • 7.6. 指定資料範圍
      • 7.7. 列舉資料
      • 7.8. 遞迴查詢(Common Table Expressions)
    • 8. 資料型別
      • 8.1. 數字型別
      • 8.2. 貨幣型別
      • 8.3. 字串型別
      • 8.4. 位元組型別(bytea)
      • 8.5. 日期時間型別
      • 8.6. 布林型別
      • 8.7. 列舉型別
      • 8.8. 地理資訊型別
      • 8.9. 網路資訊型別
      • 8.10. 位元字串型別
      • 8.11. 全文檢索型別
      • 8.12. UUID型別
      • 8.13. XML型別
      • 8.14. JSON型別
      • 8.15. 陣列
      • 8.16. 複合型別
      • 8.17. 範圍型別
      • 8.18. 指標型別
      • 8.19. pg_lsn型別
      • 8.20. 概念型別
    • 9. 函式及運算子
      • 9.1. 邏輯運算子
      • 9.2. 比較函式及運算子
      • 9.3. 數學函式及運算子
      • 9.4. 字串函式及運算子
      • 9.5. 位元字串函式及運算子
      • 9.6. 二元字串函式及運算子
      • 9.7. 特徵比對
      • 9.8. 型別轉換函式
      • 9.9 日期時間函式及運算子
      • 9.10. 列舉型別函式
      • 9.11. 地理資訊函式及運算子
      • 9.12. 網路位址函式及運算子
      • 9.13. 文字檢索函式及運算子
      • 9.14. XML函式
      • 9.15. JSON函式及運算子
      • 9.16. 序列函式
      • 9.17. 條件表示式
      • 9.18. 陣列函式及運算子
      • 9.19. 範圍函式及運算子
      • 9.20. 彙總函數
      • 9.21. Window函式
      • 9.22. 子查詢
      • 9.23. 資料列與陣列的比較運算
      • 9.24. 集合回傳函式
      • 9.25. 系統資訊函數
      • 9.26. 系統管理函式
      • 9.27. 觸發函式
      • 9.28. 事件觸發函式
    • 10. 型別轉換
      • 10.1. 概觀
      • 10.2. 運算子
      • 10.3. 函式
      • 10.4. 資料儲存轉換規則
      • 10.5. UNION、CASE 等相關結構
      • 10.6. SELECT輸出規則
    • 11. 索引(Index)
      • 11.1. 簡介
      • 11.2. 索引型別
      • 11.3. 多欄位索引
      • 11.4. 索引與ORDER BY
      • 11.5. 善用多個索引
      • 11.6. 唯一值索引
      • 11.7. 表示式索引
      • 11.8. 部份索引(partial index)
      • 11.9. 運算子物件及家族
      • 11.10. 索引與排序規則
      • 11.11. 索引限定查詢(Index-only scan)
      • 11.12. 檢查索引運用
    • 12. 全文檢索
      • 12.1. 簡介
      • 12.2. 查詢與索引
      • 12.3. 細部控制
      • 12.4. 延伸功能
      • 12.5. 斷詞
      • 12.6. 字典
      • 12.7. 組態範例
      • 12.8. 測試與除錯
      • 12.9. GIN及GiST索引型別
      • 12.10. psql支援
      • 12.11. 功能限制
    • 13. 一致性管理(MVCC)
      • 13.1. 簡介
      • 13.2. 交易隔離
      • 13.3. 鎖定模式
      • 13.4. 在應用端檢視資料一致性
      • 13.5. 特別注意
      • 13.6. 鎖定與索引
    • 14. 效能技巧
      • 14.1. 善用EXPLAIN
      • 14.2. 統計資訊
      • 14.3. 使用確切的JOIN方式
      • 14.4. 快速建立資料庫內容
      • 14.5. 彈性設定
    • 15. 平行查詢
      • 15.1. 如何運作?
      • 15.2. 啓用時機?
      • 15.3. 平行查詢計畫
      • 15.4. 平行查詢的安全性
  • III. 系統管理
    • 16. 用原始碼安裝
      • 16.1. Short Version
      • 16.2. Requirements
      • 16.3. Getting The Source
      • 16.4. 安裝流程
      • 16.5. Post-Installation Setup
      • 16.6. Supported Platforms
      • 16.7. 平台相關的注意事項
    • 17. 用原始碼在 Windows 上安裝
      • 17.1. Building with Visual C++ or the Microsoft Windows SDK
    • 18. 服務配置與維運
      • 18.1. PostgreSQL 使用者帳號
      • 18.2. Creating a Database Cluster
      • 18.3. Starting the Database Server
      • 18.4. 核心資源管理
      • 18.5. Shutting Down the Server
      • 18.6. Upgrading a PostgreSQL Cluster
      • 18.7. Preventing Server Spoofing
      • 18.8. Encryption Options
      • 18.9. Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSL
      • 18.10. Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSH Tunnels
      • 18.11. 在 Windows 註冊事件日誌
    • 19. 服務組態設定
      • 19.1. Setting Parameters
      • 19.2. File Locations
      • 19.3. 連線與認證
      • 19.4. 資源配置
      • 19.5. Write Ahead Log
      • 19.6. 複寫(Replication)
      • 19.7. 查詢規畫
      • 19.8. 錯誤回報與日誌記錄
      • 19.9. Run-time Statistics
      • 19.10. 自動資料庫清理
      • 19.11. 用戶端連線預設參數
      • 19.12. 交易鎖定管理
      • 19.13. 版本與平台的相容性
      • 19.14. Error Handling
      • 19.15. 預先配置的參數
      • 19.16. Customized Options
      • 19.17. Developer Options
      • 19.18. Short Options
    • 20. 使用者認證
      • 20.1. 設定檔:pg_hba.conf
      • 20.2. User Name Maps
      • 20.3. Authentication Methods
      • 20.4. Authentication Problems
    • 21. 資料庫角色
      • 21.1. Database Roles
      • 21.2. Role Attributes
      • 21.3. Role Membership
      • 21.4. 移除角色
      • 21.5. Default Roles
      • 21.6. Function Security
    • 22. Managing Databases
      • 22.1. Overview
      • 22.2. Creating a Database
      • 22.3. 樣版資料庫
      • 22.4. Database Configuration
      • 22.5. Destroying a Database
      • 22.6. Tablespaces
    • 23. 語系
      • 23.1. 語系支援
      • 23.2. Collation Support
      • 23.3. 字元集支援
    • 24. 例行性資料庫維護工作
      • 24.1. 例行性資料清理
      • 24.2. 定期重建索引
      • 24.3. Log File Maintenance
    • 25. 備份及還原
      • 25.1. SQL Dump
      • 25.2. File System Level Backup
      • 25.3. Continuous Archiving and Point-in-Time Recovery (PITR)
    • 26. High Availability, Load Balancing, and Replication
      • 26.1. Comparison of Different Solutions
      • 26.2. 日誌轉送備用伺服器 Log-Shipping Standby Servers
      • 26.3. Failover
      • 26.4. Alternative Method for Log Shipping
      • 26.5. Hot Standby
    • 27. Recovery Configuration
      • 27.1. Archive Recovery Settings
      • 27.2. Recovery Target Settings
      • 27.3. Standby Server Settings
    • 28. 監控資料庫活動
      • 28.1. Standard Unix Tools
      • 28.2. 統計資訊收集器
      • 28.3. Viewing Locks
      • 28.4. Progress Reporting
      • 28.5. Dynamic Tracing
    • 29. Monitoring Disk Usage
      • 29.1. Determining Disk Usage
      • 29.2. Disk Full Failure
    • 30. 高可靠度及預寫日誌
      • 30.1. Reliability
      • 30.2. Write-Ahead Logging (WAL)
      • 30.3. Asynchronous Commit
      • 30.4. WAL Configuration
      • 30.5. WAL Internals
    • 31. 邏輯複寫(Logical Replication)
      • 31.1. 發佈(Publication)
      • 31.2. 訂閱(Subscription)
      • 31.3. 衝突處理
      • 31.4. 限制
      • 31.5. 架構
      • 31.6. 監控
      • 31.7. 安全性
      • 31.8. 系統設定
      • 31.9. 快速設定
    • 32. Just-in-Time Compilation (JIT)
      • 32.1. What is JIT compilation?
      • 32.2. When to JIT?
      • 32.3. Configuration
      • 32.4. Extensibility
    • 33. 迴歸測試
      • 33.1. Running the Tests
      • 33.2. Test Evaluation
      • 33.3. Variant Comparison Files
      • 33.4. TAP Tests
      • 33.5. Test Coverage Examination
  • IV. 用戶端介面
    • 34. libpq - C Library
      • 34.1. 資料庫連線控制函數
      • 34.2. 連線狀態函數
      • 34.3. Command Execution Functions
      • 34.4. Asynchronous Command Processing
      • 34.5. Retrieving Query Results Row-By-Row
      • 34.6. Canceling Queries in Progress
      • 34.7. The Fast-Path Interface
      • 34.8. Asynchronous Notification
      • 34.9. Functions Associated with the COPY Command
      • 34.10. Control Functions
      • 34.11. Miscellaneous Functions
      • 34.12. Notice Processing
      • 34.13. Event System
      • 34.14. 環境變數
      • 34.15. 密碼檔
      • 34.16. The Connection Service File
      • 34.17. LDAP Lookup of Connection Parameters
      • 34.18. SSL Support
      • 34.19. Behavior in Threaded Programs
      • 34.20. Building libpq Programs
      • 34.21. Example Programs
    • 35. Large Objects
      • 35.1. Introduction
      • 35.2. Implementation Features
      • 35.3. Client Interfaces
      • 35.4. Server-side Functions
      • 35.5. Example Program
    • 36. ECPG - Embedded SQL in C
      • 36.1. The Concept
      • 36.2. Managing Database Connections
      • 36.3. Running SQL Commands
      • 36.4. Using Host Variables
      • 36.5. Dynamic SQL
      • 36.6. pgtypes Library
      • 36.7. Using Descriptor Areas
      • 36.8. Error Handling
      • 36.9. Preprocessor Directives
      • 36.10. Processing Embedded SQL Programs
      • 36.11. Library Functions
      • 36.12. Large Objects
      • 36.13. C++ Applications
      • 36.14. Embedded SQL Commands
      • 36.15. Informix Compatibility Mode
      • 36.16. Internals
    • 37. The Information Schema
      • 37.1. The Schema
      • 37.2. Data Types
      • 37.3. information_schema_catalog_name
      • 37.4. administrable_role_authorizations
      • 37.5. applicable_roles
      • 37.6. attributes
      • 37.7. character_sets
      • 37.8. check_constraint_routine_usage
      • 37.9. check_constraints
      • 37.10. collations
      • 37.11. collation_character_set_applicability
      • 37.12. column_domain_usage
      • 37.13. column_options
      • 37.14. column_privileges
      • 37.15. column_udt_usage
      • 37.16. columns
      • 37.17. constraint_column_usage
      • 37.18. constraint_table_usage
      • 37.19. data_type_privileges
      • 37.20. domain_constraints
      • 37.21. domain_udt_usage
      • 37.22. domains
      • 37.23. element_types
      • 37.24. enabled_roles
      • 37.25. foreign_data_wrapper_options
      • 37.26. foreign_data_wrappers
      • 37.27. foreign_server_options
      • 37.28. foreign_servers
      • 37.29. foreign_table_options
      • 37.30. foreign_tables
      • 37.31. key_column_usage
      • 37.32. parameters
      • 37.33. referential_constraints
      • 37.34. role_column_grants
      • 37.35. role_routine_grants
      • 37.36. role_table_grants
      • 37.37. role_udt_grants
      • 37.38. role_usage_grants
      • 37.39. routine_privileges
      • 37.40. routines
      • 37.41. schemata
      • 37.42. sequences
      • 37.43. sql_features
      • 37.44. sql_implementation_info
      • 37.45. sql_languages
      • 37.46. sql_packages
      • 37.47. sql_parts
      • 37.48. sql_sizing
      • 37.49. sql_sizing_profiles
      • 37.50. table_constraints
      • 37.51. table_privileges
      • 37.52. tables
      • 37.53. transforms
      • 37.54. triggered_update_columns
      • 37.55. triggers
      • 37.56. udt_privileges
      • 37.57. usage_privileges
      • 37.58. user_defined_types
      • 37.59. user_mapping_options
      • 37.60. user_mappings
      • 37.61. view_column_usage
      • 37.62. view_routine_usage
      • 37.63. view_table_usage
      • 37.64. views
  • V. 資料庫程式設計
    • 38. SQL 延伸功能
      • 38.1. How Extensibility Works
      • 38.2. The PostgreSQL Type System
      • 38.3. 使用者自訂函數
      • 38.4. User-defined Procedures
      • 38.5. Query Language (SQL) Functions
      • 38.6. Function Overloading
      • 38.7. 函數易變性類別
      • 38.8. Procedural Language Functions
      • 38.9. Internal Functions
      • 38.10. C-Language Functions
      • 38.11. User-defined Aggregates
      • 38.12. User-defined Types
      • 38.13. User-defined Operators
      • 38.14. Operator Optimization Information
      • 38.15. Interfacing Extensions To Indexes
      • 38.16. Packaging Related Objects into an Extension
      • 38.17. Extension Building Infrastructure
    • 39. Triggers
    • 40. Event Triggers
    • 41. 規則系統
      • 41.1. The Query Tree
      • 41.2. Views and the Rule System
      • 41.3. Materialized Views
      • 41.4. Rules on INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE
      • 41.5. 規則及權限
      • 41.6. Rules and Command Status
      • 41.7. Rules Versus Triggers
    • 42. Procedural Languages(程序語言)
      • 42.1. Installing Procedural Languages
    • 43. PL/pgSQL - SQL Procedural Language
      • 43.5. 基本語法
    • 44. PL/Tcl - Tcl Procedural Language
    • 45. PL/Perl - Perl Procedural Language
    • 46. PL/Python - Python Procedural Language
    • 47. Server Programming Interface
    • 48. Background Worker Processes
    • 49. Logical Decoding
    • 50. Replication Progress Tracking
  • VI. 參考資訊
    • I. SQL 指令
      • ALTER DATABASE
      • ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES
      • ALTER EXTENSION
      • ALTER FUNCTION
      • ALTER INDEX
      • ALTER LANGUAGE
      • ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW
      • ALTER POLICY
      • ALTER PUBLICATION
      • ALTER ROLE
      • ALTER RULE
      • ALTER SCHEMA
      • ALTER SEQUENCE
      • ALTER STATISTICS
      • ALTER SUBSCRIPTION
      • ALTER TABLE
      • ALTER TABLESPACE
      • ALTER TRIGGER
      • ALTER TYPE
      • ALTER VIEW
      • ANALYZE
      • CLUSTER
      • COMMENT
      • COPY
      • CREATE CAST
      • CREATE DATABASE
      • CREATE EXTENSION
      • CREATE FOREIGN TABLE
      • CREATE FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER
      • CREATE FUNCTION
      • CREATE INDEX
      • CREATE LANGUAGE
      • CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW
      • CREATE DOMAIN
      • CREATE POLICY
      • CREATE PROCEDURE
      • CREATE PUBLICATION
      • CREATE ROLE
      • CREATE RULE
      • CREATE SCHEMA
      • CREATE SEQUENCE
      • CREATE SERVER
      • CREATE STATISTICS
      • CREATE SUBSCRIPTION
      • CREATE TABLE
      • CREATE TABLE AS
      • CREATE TABLESPACE
      • CREATE TRANSFORM
      • CREATE TRIGGER
      • CREATE TYPE
      • CREATE USER
      • CREATE USER MAPPING
      • CREATE VIEW
      • DELETE
      • DO
      • DROP DATABASE
      • DROP EXTENSION
      • DROP FUNCTION
      • DROP INDEX
      • DROP LANGUAGE
      • DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW
      • DROP OWNED
      • DROP POLICY
      • DROP ROLE
      • DROP RULE
      • DROP SCHEMA
      • DROP SEQUENCE
      • DROP STATISTICS
      • DROP SUBSCRIPTION
      • DROP TABLE
      • DROP TABLESPACE
      • DROP TRANSFORM
      • DROP TRIGGER
      • DROP TYPE
      • DROP USER
      • DROP VIEW
      • EXECUTE
      • EXPLAIN
      • GRANT
      • IMPORT FOREIGN SCHEMA
      • INSERT
      • LISTEN
      • LOAD
      • NOTIFY
      • PREPARE TRANSACTION
      • REASSIGN OWNED
      • REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW
      • REINDEX
      • RESET
      • REVOKE
      • SELECT
      • SELECT INTO
      • SET
      • SET CONSTRAINTS
      • SET ROLE
      • SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
      • SET TRANSACTION
      • SHOW
      • TRUNCATE
      • UNLISTEN
      • UPDATE
      • VACUUM
      • VALUES
    • II. PostgreSQL 用戶端工具
      • createdb
      • createuser
      • dropdb
      • dropuser
      • pgbench
      • pg_dump
      • psql
      • vacuumdb
    • III. PostgreSQL 伺服器應用程式
      • pg_test_timing
      • postgres
  • VII. 資料庫進階
    • 52. 系統目錄
      • 52.3. pg_am
      • 52.7. pg_attribute
      • 52.8. pg_authid
      • 52.9. pg_auth_members
      • 52.11 pg_class
      • 52.12. pg_collation
      • 52.13. pg_constraint
      • 52.15 pg_database
      • 52.26 pg_index
      • 52.29. pg_language
      • 52.32. pg_namespace
      • 52.33. pg_opclass
      • 52.38. pg_policy
      • 52.39. pg_proc
      • 52.44. pg_rewrite
      • 52.50. pg_statistic
      • 52.51. pg_statistic_ext
      • 52.54. pg_tablespace
      • 52.56. pg_trigger
      • 52.62. pg_type
      • 52.79. pg_replication_origin_status
      • 52.81 pg_roles
      • 52.85. pg_settings
      • 52.87. pg_stats
    • 53. Frontend/Backend Protocol
      • 53.1. Overview
      • 53.2. Message Flow
      • 53.3. SASL Authentication
      • 53.4. Streaming Replication Protocol
      • 53.5. Logical Streaming Replication Protocol
      • 53.6. Message Data Types
      • 53.7. Message Formats
      • 53.8. Error and Notice Message Fields
      • 53.9. Logical Replication Message Formats
      • 53.10. Summary of Changes since Protocol 2.0
    • 54. PostgreSQL 程式撰寫慣例
      • 54.1. Formatting
      • 54.2. Reporting Errors Within the Server
      • 54.3. Error Message Style Guide
      • 54.4. Miscellaneous Coding Conventions
    • 56. Writing A Procedural Language Handler
    • 64. GiST Indexes
      • 64.1. Introduction
      • 64.2. Built-in Operator Classes
      • 64.3. Extensibility
      • 64.4. Implementation
      • 64.5. Examples
    • 65. SP-GiST Indexes
      • 65.1. Introduction
      • 65.2. Built-in Operator Classes
      • 65.3. Extensibility
      • 65.4. Implementation
      • 65.5. Examples
    • 66. GIN 索引
      • 66.1. 簡介
      • 66.2. 內建運算子類
      • 66.3. Extensibility
      • 66.4. Implementation
      • 66.5. GIN Tips and Tricks
      • 66.6. Limitations
      • 66.7. Examples
    • 67. BRIN Indexes
      • 67.1. Introduction
      • 67.2. Built-in Operator Classes
      • 67.3. Extensibility
    • 68. 資料庫實體儲存格式
      • 68.2. TOAST
      • 68.4 可視性映射表(Visibility Map)
    • 70. How the Planner Uses Statistics
      • 70.2. Multivariate Statistics Examples
  • VIII. 附錄
    • A. PostgreSQL錯誤代碼
    • B. 日期時間格式支援
      • B.1. 日期時間解譯流程
      • B.2. 日期時間慣用字
      • B.3. 日期時間設定檔
      • B.4. 日期時間的沿革
    • C. SQL 關鍵字
    • D. SQL 相容性
    • E. 版本資訊
    • F. 延伸支援模組
      • F.4. auto_explain
      • F.11. dblink
        • dblink
      • F.33. pg_visibility
    • G. Additional Supplied Programs
      • G.1. Client Applications
        • oid2name
        • vacuumlo
      • G.2. Server Applications
        • pg_standby
    • H. 外部專案
      • H.1. 用戶端介面
      • H.2. Administration Tools
      • H.3. Procedural Languages
      • H.4. Extensions
    • I. The Source Code Repository
      • I.1. Getting The Source via Git
    • J. 文件取得
    • K. 縮寫字
  • 參考書目
Powered by GitBook
On this page

Was this helpful?

Edit on Git
Export as PDF
  1. II. SQL查詢語言
  2. 10. 型別轉換

10.2. 運算子

Previous10.1. 概觀Next10.3. 函式

Last updated 7 years ago

Was this helpful?

The specific operator that is referenced by an operator expression is determined using the following procedure. Note that this procedure is indirectly affected by the precedence of the operators involved, since that will determine which sub-expressions are taken to be the inputs of which operators. Seefor more information.

Operator Type Resolution

  1. Select the operators to be considered from thepg_operatorsystem catalog. If a non-schema-qualified operator name was used (the usual case), the operators considered are those with the matching name and argument count that are visible in the current search path (see). If a qualified operator name was given, only operators in the specified schema are considered.

    1. If the search path finds multiple operators with identical argument types, only the one appearing earliest in the path is considered. Operators with different argument types are considered on an equal footing regardless of search path position.

  2. Check for an operator accepting exactly the input argument types. If one exists (there can be only one exact match in the set of operators considered), use it.

    1. If one argument of a binary operator invocation is of theunknowntype, then assume it is the same type as the other argument for this check. Invocations involving twounknowninputs, or a unary operator with anunknowninput, will never find a match at this step.

    2. If one argument of a binary operator invocation is of theunknowntype and the other is of a domain type, next check to see if there is an operator accepting exactly the domain's base type on both sides; if so, use it.

  3. Look for the best match.

    1. Discard candidate operators for which the input types do not match and cannot be converted (using an implicit conversion) to match.unknownliterals are assumed to be convertible to anything for this purpose. If only one candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.

    2. If any input argument is of a domain type, treat it as being of the domain's base type for all subsequent steps. This ensures that domains act like their base types for purposes of ambiguous-operator resolution.

    3. Run through all candidates and keep those with the most exact matches on input types. Keep all candidates if none have exact matches. If only one candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.

    4. Run through all candidates and keep those that accept preferred types (of the input data type's type category) at the most positions where type conversion will be required. Keep all candidates if none accept preferred types. If only one candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.

    5. If any input arguments areunknown, check the type categories accepted at those argument positions by the remaining candidates. At each position, select thestringcategory if any candidate accepts that category. (This bias towards string is appropriate since an unknown-type literal looks like a string.) Otherwise, if all the remaining candidates accept the same type category, select that category; otherwise fail because the correct choice cannot be deduced without more clues. Now discard candidates that do not accept the selected type category. Furthermore, if any candidate accepts a preferred type in that category, discard candidates that accept non-preferred types for that argument. Keep all candidates if none survive these tests. If only one candidate remains, use it; else continue to the next step.

    6. If there are bothunknownand known-type arguments, and all the known-type arguments have the same type, assume that theunknownarguments are also of that type, and check which candidates can accept that type at theunknown-argument positions. If exactly one candidate passes this test, use it. Otherwise, fail.

Some examples follow.

Example 10.1. Factorial Operator Type Resolution

There is only one factorial operator (postfix!) defined in the standard catalog, and it takes an argument of typebigint. The scanner assigns an initial type ofintegerto the argument in this query expression:

SELECT 40 ! AS "40 factorial";

                   40 factorial
--------------------------------------------------
 815915283247897734345611269596115894272000000000
(1 row)

So the parser does a type conversion on the operand and the query is equivalent to:

SELECT CAST(40 AS bigint) ! AS "40 factorial";

Example 10.2. String Concatenation Operator Type Resolution

A string-like syntax is used for working with string types and for working with complex extension types. Strings with unspecified type are matched with likely operator candidates.

An example with one unspecified argument:

SELECT text 'abc' || 'def' AS "text and unknown";

 text and unknown
------------------
 abcdef
(1 row)

In this case the parser looks to see if there is an operator takingtextfor both arguments. Since there is, it assumes that the second argument should be interpreted as typetext.

Here is a concatenation of two values of unspecified types:

SELECT 'abc' || 'def' AS "unspecified";

 unspecified
-------------
 abcdef
(1 row)

In this case there is no initial hint for which type to use, since no types are specified in the query. So, the parser looks for all candidate operators and finds that there are candidates accepting both string-category and bit-string-category inputs. Since string category is preferred when available, that category is selected, and then the preferred type for strings,text, is used as the specific type to resolve the unknown-type literals as.

Example 10.3. Absolute-Value and Negation Operator Type Resolution

ThePostgreSQLoperator catalog has several entries for the prefix operator@, all of which implement absolute-value operations for various numeric data types. One of these entries is for typefloat8, which is the preferred type in the numeric category. Therefore,PostgreSQLwill use that entry when faced with anunknowninput:

SELECT @ '-4.5' AS "abs";
 abs
-----
 4.5
(1 row)

Here the system has implicitly resolved the unknown-type literal as typefloat8before applying the chosen operator. We can verify thatfloat8and not some other type was used:

SELECT @ '-4.5e500' AS "abs";

ERROR:  "-4.5e500" is out of range for type double precision

On the other hand, the prefix operator~(bitwise negation) is defined only for integer data types, not forfloat8. So, if we try a similar case with~, we get:

SELECT ~ '20' AS "negation";

ERROR:  operator is not unique: ~ "unknown"
HINT:  Could not choose a best candidate operator. You might need to add
explicit type casts.

This happens because the system cannot decide which of the several possible~operators should be preferred. We can help it out with an explicit cast:

SELECT ~ CAST('20' AS int8) AS "negation";

 negation
----------
      -21
(1 row)

Example 10.4. Array Inclusion Operator Type Resolution

Here is another example of resolving an operator with one known and one unknown input:

SELECT array[1,2] 
<
@ '{1,2,3}' as "is subset";

 is subset
-----------
 t
(1 row)

Example 10.5. Custom Operator on a Domain Type

Users sometimes try to declare operators applying just to a domain type. This is possible but is not nearly as useful as it might seem, because the operator resolution rules are designed to select operators applying to the domain's base type. As an example consider

CREATE DOMAIN mytext AS text CHECK(...);
CREATE FUNCTION mytext_eq_text (mytext, text) RETURNS boolean AS ...;
CREATE OPERATOR = (procedure=mytext_eq_text, leftarg=mytext, rightarg=text);
CREATE TABLE mytable (val mytext);

SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE val = 'foo';
SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE val = text 'foo';

so that themytext=textoperator is found immediately according to the exact-match rule. If the best-match rules are reached, they actively discriminate against operators on domain types. If they did not, such an operator would create too many ambiguous-operator failures, because the casting rules always consider a domain as castable to or from its base type, and so the domain operator would be considered usable in all the same cases as a similarly-named operator on the base type.

ThePostgreSQLoperator catalog has several entries for the infix operator<@, but the only two that could possibly accept an integer array on the left-hand side are array inclusion (anyarray<@anyarray) and range inclusion (anyelement<@anyrange). Since none of these polymorphic pseudo-types (see) are considered preferred, the parser cannot resolve the ambiguity on that basis. However,tells it to assume that the unknown-type literal is of the same type as the other input, that is, integer array. Now only one of the two operators can match, so array inclusion is selected. (Had range inclusion been selected, we would have gotten an error, because the string does not have the right format to be a range literal.)

This query will not use the custom operator. The parser will first see if there is amytext=mytextoperator (), which there is not; then it will consider the domain's base typetext, and see if there is atext=textoperator (), which there is; so it resolves theunknown-type literal astextand uses thetext=textoperator. The only way to get the custom operator to be used is to explicitly cast the literal:

Section 4.1.6
Section 5.8.3
Section 8.20
Step 3.f
Step 2.a
Step 2.b