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NAME

       CREATE OPERATOR - define a new operator

SYNOPSIS

       CREATE OPERATOR name (
           PROCEDURE = funcname
           [, LEFTARG = lefttype ] [, RIGHTARG = righttype ]
           [, COMMUTATOR = com_op ] [, NEGATOR = neg_op ]
           [, RESTRICT = res_proc ] [, JOIN = join_proc ]
           [, HASHES ] [, MERGES ]
       )

DESCRIPTION

       CREATE  OPERATOR  defines a new operator, name. The user who defines an
       operator becomes its owner. If a schema name is given then the operator
       is  created  in  the  specified  schema. Otherwise it is created in the
       current schema.

       The operator name is a sequence of up to NAMEDATALEN-1 (63 by  default)
       characters from the following list:

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

       There are a few restrictions on your choice of name:

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

       · A multicharacter 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 commands without
         requiring spaces between tokens.

       The operator != is mapped to <> on input, so these two names are always
       equivalent.

       At least one of LEFTARG  and  RIGHTARG  must  be  defined.  For  binary
       operators,  both  must  be  defined.  For  right  unary operators, only
       LEFTARG should be defined, while for left unary operators only RIGHTARG
       should be defined.

       The  funcname  procedure must have been previously defined using CREATE
       FUNCTION and must be defined to accept the correct number of  arguments
       (either one or two) of the indicated types.

       The  other  clauses  specify  optional  operator  optimization clauses.
       Their meaning is detailed in in the documentation.

PARAMETERS

       name   The name of the operator to be defined. See above for  allowable
              characters. The name can be schema-qualified, for example CREATE
              OPERATOR myschema.+ (...). If not, then the operator is  created
              in the current schema. Two operators in the same schema can have
              the same name if they operate on different data types.  This  is
              called overloading.

       funcname
              The function used to implement this operator.

       lefttype
              The  data  type  of  the  operator’s left operand, if any.  This
              option would be omitted for a left-unary operator.

       righttype
              The data type of the operator’s right  operand,  if  any.   This
              option would be omitted for a right-unary operator.

       com_op The commutator of this operator.

       neg_op The negator of this operator.

       res_proc
              The   restriction   selectivity   estimator  function  for  this
              operator.

       join_proc
              The join selectivity estimator function for this operator.

       HASHES Indicates this operator can support a hash join.

       MERGES Indicates this operator can support a merge join.

       To give a  schema-qualified  operator  name  in  com_op  or  the  other
       optional arguments, use the OPERATOR() syntax, for example:

       COMMUTATOR = OPERATOR(myschema.===) ,

NOTES

       Refer to in the documentation for further information.

       The  obsolete options SORT1, SORT2, LTCMP, and GTCMP were formerly used
       to specify the names of sort operators associated with a merge-joinable
       operator.   This  is  no  longer  necessary,  since  information  about
       associated operators is found by looking at  B-tree  operator  families
       instead.  If  one  of  these options is given, it is ignored except for
       implicitly setting MERGES true.

       Use DROP OPERATOR [drop_operator(7)] to delete  user-defined  operators
       from  a  database.  Use  ALTER  OPERATOR  [alter_operator(7)] to modify
       operators in a database.

EXAMPLES

       The following command defines a new operator,  area-equality,  for  the
       data type box:

       CREATE OPERATOR === (
           LEFTARG = box,
           RIGHTARG = box,
           PROCEDURE = area_equal_procedure,
           COMMUTATOR = ===,
           NEGATOR = !==,
           RESTRICT = area_restriction_procedure,
           JOIN = area_join_procedure,
           HASHES, MERGES
       );

COMPATIBILITY

       CREATE  OPERATOR is a PostgreSQL extension. There are no provisions for
       user-defined operators in the SQL standard.

SEE ALSO

       ALTER   OPERATOR    [alter_operator(7)],    CREATE    OPERATOR    CLASS
       [create_operator_class(7)], DROP OPERATOR [drop_operator(7)]