ALTER OPERATOR 
FAMILY(7)					   SQL Commands 					  ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY(7)

NAME

       ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY - change the definition of an operator family

SYNOPSIS

       ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY name USING index_method ADD
	 {  OPERATOR strategy_number operator_name ( op_type, op_type )
	  | FUNCTION support_number [ ( op_type [ , op_type ] ) ] funcname ( argument_type [, ...] )
	 } [, ... ]
       ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY name USING index_method DROP
	 {  OPERATOR strategy_number ( op_type [ , op_type ] )
	  | FUNCTION support_number ( op_type [ , op_type ] )
	 } [, ... ]
       ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY name USING index_method RENAME TO newname
       ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY name USING index_method OWNER TO newowner

DESCRIPTION

       ALTER  OPERATOR FAMILY changes the definition of an operator family. You can add operators and support functions to the family, remove them
       from the family, or change the family's name or owner.

       When operators and support functions are added to a family with ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY, they are not part of  any  specific  operator  class
       within the family, but are just ``loose'' within the family. This indicates that these operators and functions are compatible with the fam-
       ily's semantics, but are not required for correct functioning of any specific index. (Operators and functions that are so  required  should
       be declared as part of an operator class, instead; see CREATE OPERATOR CLASS [create_operator_class(7)].)  PostgreSQL will allow loose mem-
       bers of a family to be dropped from the family at any time, but members of an operator class cannot be dropped without dropping	the  whole
       class and any indexes that depend on it.  Typically, single-data-type operators and functions are part of operator classes because they are
       needed to support an index on that specific data type, while cross-data-type operators and functions are made loose members of the family.

       You must be a superuser to use ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY.  (This restriction is made because an erroneous operator family definition could con-
       fuse or even crash the server.)

       ALTER  OPERATOR FAMILY does not presently check whether the operator family definition includes all the operators and functions required by
       the index method, nor whether the operators and functions form a self-consistent set. It is the user's responsibility  to  define  a  valid
       operator family.

       Refer to in the documentation for further information.

PARAMETERS

       name   The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing operator family.

       index_method
	      The name of the index method this operator family is for.

       strategy_number
	      The index method's strategy number for an operator associated with the operator family.

       operator_name
	      The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an operator associated with the operator family.

       op_type
	      In an OPERATOR clause, the operand data type(s) of the operator, or NONE to signify a left-unary or right-unary operator. Unlike the
	      comparable syntax in CREATE OPERATOR CLASS, the operand data types must always be specified.

	      In an ADD FUNCTION clause, the operand data type(s) the function is intended to support, if different from the input data type(s) of
	      the  function. For B-tree and hash indexes it is not necessary to specify op_type since the function's input data type(s) are always
	      the correct ones to use. For GIN and GiST indexes it is necessary to specify the input data type the function is to be used with.

	      In a DROP FUNCTION clause, the operand data type(s) the function is intended to support must be specified.

       support_number
	      The index method's support procedure number for a function associated with the operator family.

       funcname
	      The name (optionally schema-qualified) of a function that is an index method support procedure for the operator family.

       argument_types
	      The parameter data type(s) of the function.

       newname
	      The new name of the operator family.

       newowner
	      The new owner of the operator family.

       The OPERATOR and FUNCTION clauses can appear in any order.

NOTES

       Notice that the DROP syntax only specifies the ``slot'' in the operator family, by strategy or support number and input data  type(s).  The
       name  of  the  operator	or function occupying the slot is not mentioned. Also, for DROP FUNCTION the type(s) to specify are the input data
       type(s) the function is intended to support; for GIN and GiST indexes this might have nothing to do with the actual input argument types of
       the function.

       Because the index machinery does not check access permissions on functions before using them, including a function or operator in an opera-
       tor family is tantamount to granting public execute permission on it. This is usually not an issue for the sorts of functions that are use-
       ful in an operator family.

       The operators should not be defined by SQL functions. A SQL function is likely to be inlined into the calling query, which will prevent the
       optimizer from recognizing that the query matches an index.

       Before PostgreSQL 8.4, the OPERATOR clause could include a RECHECK option. This is no longer supported because whether an index operator is
       ``lossy'' is now determined on-the-fly at runtime. This allows efficient handling of cases where an operator might or might not be lossy.

EXAMPLES

       The following example command adds cross-data-type operators and support functions to an operator family that already contains B-tree oper-
       ator classes for data types int4 and int2.

       ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY integer_ops USING btree ADD

	 -- int4 vs int2
	 OPERATOR 1 < (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 2 <= (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 3 = (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 4 >= (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 5 > (int4, int2) ,
	 FUNCTION 1 btint42cmp(int4, int2) ,

	 -- int2 vs int4
	 OPERATOR 1 < (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 2 <= (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 3 = (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 4 >= (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 5 > (int2, int4) ,
	 FUNCTION 1 btint24cmp(int2, int4) ;

       To remove these entries again:

       ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY integer_ops USING btree DROP

	 -- int4 vs int2
	 OPERATOR 1 (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 2 (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 3 (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 4 (int4, int2) ,
	 OPERATOR 5 (int4, int2) ,
	 FUNCTION 1 (int4, int2) ,

	 -- int2 vs int4
	 OPERATOR 1 (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 2 (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 3 (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 4 (int2, int4) ,
	 OPERATOR 5 (int2, int4) ,
	 FUNCTION 1 (int2, int4) ;

COMPATIBILITY

       There is no ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY statement in the SQL standard.

SEE ALSO

       CREATE OPERATOR FAMILY [create_operator_family(7)], DROP OPERATOR FAMILY [drop_operator_family(7)], CREATE  OPERATOR  CLASS  [create_opera-
       tor_class(7)], ALTER OPERATOR CLASS [alter_operator_class(7)], DROP OPERATOR CLASS [drop_operator_class(7)]

SQL - Language Statements					    2010-05-14						  ALTER OPERATOR FAMILY(7)