pg_opfamily — PostgreSQL system catalog

The PostgreSQL pg_opfamily system catalog: full column reference (names, types, descriptions), catalog relationships and version support.

The Sev-1 Admin
The Sev-1 Admin  ·  2 min read

Summary

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.

(Description quoted from the official PostgreSQL documentation.)

Columns

The pg_opfamily system catalog exposes the following columns (names, types and descriptions are taken verbatim from the PostgreSQL documentation):

  • oid oid
    Row identifier
  • opfmethod oid references pg_am.oid
    Index access method operator family is for
  • opfname name
    Name of this operator family
  • opfnamespace oid references pg_namespace.oid
    Namespace of this operator family
  • opfowner oid references pg_authid.oid
    Owner of the operator family

Related catalogs

This object references the following other system catalogs:

Version applicability

Present in PostgreSQL 17, 18, 19 (verified against each release’s documentation). This is a long-standing system object that also exists in earlier PostgreSQL releases.

Related & references

Reference: PostgreSQL documentation — pg_opfamily.