PG_OPFAMILY

PG_OPFAMILY defines operator families.

Each operator family is a collection of operators and associated support routines that implement 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 allows cross-data-type operators to be used with indexes and to be reasoned about using knowledge of access method semantics.

Table 1 PG_OPFAMILY columns

Name	Type	Reference	Description
oid	oid	-	Row identifier (hidden attribute, which must be specified)
opfmethod	oid	PG_AM.oid	Index access method used by an operator family
opfname	name	-	Name of the operator family
opfnamespace	oid	PG_NAMESPACE.oid	Namespace of the 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.