Chapter 6. Functions and Operators

Table of Contents

6.12.1. CASE
6.12.2. COALESCE
6.12.3. NULLIF

6.15.1. EXISTS
6.15.2. IN (scalar form)
6.15.3. IN (subquery form)
6.15.4. NOT IN (scalar form)
6.15.5. NOT IN (subquery form)
6.15.6. ANY/SOME
6.15.7. ALL
6.15.8. Row-wise Comparison

PostgreSQL provides a large number of functions and operators for the built-in data types. Users can also define their own functions and operators, as described in the PostgreSQL 7.3 Programmer's Guide. The psql commands \df and \do can be used to show the list of all actually available functions and operators, respectively.

If you are concerned about portability then take note that most of the functions and operators described in this chapter, with the exception of the most trivial arithmetic and comparison operators and some explicitly marked functions, are not specified by the SQL standard. Some of this extended functionality is present in other SQL implementations, and in many cases this functionality is compatible and consistent between various products.

6.1. Logical Operators

The usual logical operators are available:

AND

OR

NOT

SQL uses a three-valued Boolean logic where the null value represents "unknown". Observe the following truth tables:

`a`	`b`	`a` AND `b`	`a` OR `b`
TRUE	TRUE	TRUE	TRUE
TRUE	FALSE	FALSE	TRUE
TRUE	NULL	NULL	TRUE
FALSE	FALSE	FALSE	FALSE
FALSE	NULL	FALSE	NULL
NULL	NULL	NULL	NULL

`a`	NOT `a`
TRUE	FALSE
FALSE	TRUE
NULL	NULL