Text Search Types

tsvector

The tsvector type represents a retrieval unit, usually a textual column within a row of a database table, or a combination of such columns. A tsvector value is a sorted list of distinct lexemes, which are words that have been normalized to merge different variants of the same word. Sorting and deduplication are done automatically during input. The to_tsvector function is used to parse and normalize a document string. The to_tsvector function is used to parse and normalize a document string.

A tsvector value is a sorted list of distinct lexemes, which are words that have been formatted different entries. During segmentation, tsvector automatically performs duplicate-elimination to the entries for input in a certain order. For example:

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SELECT 'a fat cat sat on a mat and ate a fat rat'::tsvector;
                      tsvector                      
----------------------------------------------------
 'a' 'and' 'ate' 'cat' 'fat' 'mat' 'on' 'rat' 'sat'
(1 row)

It can be seen from the preceding example that tsvector segments a string by spaces, and segmented lexemes are sorted based on their length and alphabetical order. To represent lexemes containing whitespace or punctuation, surround them with quotes:

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SELECT $$the lexeme '    ' contains spaces$$::tsvector;
                 tsvector                  
-------------------------------------------
 '    ' 'contains' 'lexeme' 'spaces' 'the'
(1 row)

Use double dollar signs ($$) to mark entries containing single quotation marks (').

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SELECT $$the lexeme 'Joe''s' contains a quote$$::tsvector;
                    tsvector                    
------------------------------------------------
 'Joe''s' 'a' 'contains' 'lexeme' 'quote' 'the'
(1 row)

Optionally, integer positions can be attached to lexemes:

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SELECT 'a:1 fat:2 cat:3 sat:4 on:5 a:6 mat:7 and:8 ate:9 a:10 fat:11 rat:12'::tsvector;
                                   tsvector                                    
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 'a':1,6,10 'and':8 'ate':9 'cat':3 'fat':2,11 'mat':7 'on':5 'rat':12 'sat':4
(1 row)

A position normally indicates the source word's location in the document. Positional information can be used for proximity ranking. Position values range from 1 to 16383. The default maximum value is 16383. Duplicate positions for the same lexeme are discarded.

Lexemes that have positions can further be labeled with a weight, which can be A, B, C, or D. D is the default and hence is not shown on output:

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SELECT 'a:1A fat:2B,4C cat:5D'::tsvector;
          tsvector          
----------------------------
 'a':1A 'cat':5 'fat':2B,4C
(1 row)

Weights are typically used to reflect document structure, for example, by marking title words differently from body words. Text search ranking functions can assign different priorities to the different weight markers.

The following example is the standard usage of the tsvector type. For example:

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SELECT 'The Fat Rats'::tsvector;
      tsvector      
--------------------
 'Fat' 'Rats' 'The'
(1 row)

For most English-text-searching applications the above words would be considered non-normalized, which should usually be passed through to_tsvector to normalize the words appropriately for searching:

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SELECT to_tsvector('english', 'The Fat Rats');
   to_tsvector   
-----------------
 'fat':2 'rat':3
(1 row)

tsquery

The tsquery type represents a retrieval condition. A tsquery value stores lexemes that are to be searched for, and combines them honoring the Boolean operators & (AND), | (OR), and ! (NOT). Parentheses can be used to enforce grouping of the operators. The to_tsquery and plainto_tsquery functions will normalize lexemes before the lexemes are converted to the tsquery type.

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SELECT 'fat & rat'::tsquery;
    tsquery    
---------------
 'fat' & 'rat'
(1 row)

SELECT 'fat & (rat | cat)'::tsquery;
          tsquery          
---------------------------
 'fat' & ( 'rat' | 'cat' )
(1 row)

SELECT 'fat & rat & ! cat'::tsquery;
        tsquery         
------------------------
 'fat' & 'rat' & !'cat'
(1 row)

In the absence of parentheses, ! (NOT) binds most tightly, and & (AND) binds more tightly than | (OR).

Lexemes in a tsquery can be labeled with one or more weight letters, which restrict them to match only tsvector lexemes with matching weights:

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SELECT 'fat:ab & cat'::tsquery;
     tsquery      
------------------
 'fat':AB & 'cat'
(1 row)

Also, lexemes in a tsquery can be labeled with * to specify prefix matching:

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SELECT 'super:*'::tsquery;
  tsquery  
-----------
 'super':*
(1 row)

This query will match any word in a tsvector that begins with "super".

Note that prefixes are first processed by text search configurations, which means the following example returns true:

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SELECT to_tsvector( 'postgraduate' ) @@ to_tsquery( 'postgres:*' ) AS RESULT;
  result  
----------
 t
(1 row)

because postgres gets stemmed to postgr:

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SELECT to_tsquery('postgres:*');
 to_tsquery 
------------
 'postgr':*
(1 row)

which then matches postgraduate.

'Fat:ab & Cats' is normalized to the tsquery type as follows:

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SELECT to_tsquery('Fat:ab & Cats');
    to_tsquery    
------------------
 'fat':AB & 'cat'
(1 row)