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authorTom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>2023-07-19 11:00:34 -0400
committerTom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>2023-07-19 11:00:34 -0400
commit22d0c30bd9662e48fb0d27253fec6a43c7673f13 (patch)
tree66c3b1d657b0023d69483e521b17c631778a03cd
parent04911fa767fda444c1a883a6ece32a0674cffd03 (diff)
downloadpostgresql-22d0c30bd9662e48fb0d27253fec6a43c7673f13.tar.gz
postgresql-22d0c30bd9662e48fb0d27253fec6a43c7673f13.zip
Doc: improve description of IN and row-constructor comparisons.
IN and NOT IN work fine on records and arrays, so just say that they accept "expressions" not "scalar expressions". I think that that phrasing was meant to say that they don't work on set-returning expressions, but that's not the common meaning of "scalar". Revise the description of row-constructor comparisons to make it perhaps a bit less confusing. (This partially reverts some dubious wording changes made by commit f56651519.) Per gripe from Ilya Nenashev. Back-patch to supported branches. In HEAD and v16, also drop a NOTE about pre-8.2 behavior, which is hopefully no longer of interest to anybody. Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/168968062460.632.14303906825812821399@wrigleys.postgresql.org
-rw-r--r--doc/src/sgml/func.sgml30
1 files changed, 14 insertions, 16 deletions
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
index 827c4afc654..2ea31830cbb 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/func.sgml
@@ -16858,7 +16858,7 @@ WHERE EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM tab2 WHERE col2 = tab1.col2);
<para>
The right-hand side is a parenthesized list
- of scalar expressions. The result is <quote>true</quote> if the left-hand expression's
+ of expressions. The result is <quote>true</quote> if the left-hand expression's
result is equal to any of the right-hand expressions. This is a shorthand
notation for
@@ -16889,7 +16889,7 @@ OR
<para>
The right-hand side is a parenthesized list
- of scalar expressions. The result is <quote>true</quote> if the left-hand expression's
+ of expressions. The result is <quote>true</quote> if the left-hand expression's
result is unequal to all of the right-hand expressions. This is a shorthand
notation for
@@ -17000,26 +17000,24 @@ AND
<para>
Each side is a row constructor,
as described in <xref linkend="sql-syntax-row-constructors"/>.
- The two row values must have the same number of fields.
- Each side is evaluated and they are compared row-wise. Row constructor
- comparisons are allowed when the <replaceable>operator</replaceable> is
+ The two row constructors must have the same number of fields.
+ The given <replaceable>operator</replaceable> is applied to each pair
+ of corresponding fields. (Since the fields could be of different
+ types, this means that a different specific operator could be selected
+ for each pair.)
+ All the selected operators must be members of some B-tree operator
+ class, or be the negator of an <literal>=</literal> member of a B-tree
+ operator class, meaning that row constructor comparison is only
+ possible when the <replaceable>operator</replaceable> is
<literal>=</literal>,
<literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>,
<literal>&lt;</literal>,
<literal>&lt;=</literal>,
- <literal>&gt;</literal> or
- <literal>&gt;=</literal>.
- Every row element must be of a type which has a default B-tree operator
- class or the attempted comparison may generate an error.
+ <literal>&gt;</literal>, or
+ <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
+ or has semantics similar to one of these.
</para>
- <note>
- <para>
- Errors related to the number or types of elements might not occur if
- the comparison is resolved using earlier columns.
- </para>
- </note>
-
<para>
The <literal>=</literal> and <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal> cases work slightly differently
from the others. Two rows are considered