Parsing Queries

GaussDB(DWS) provides functions to_tsquery and plainto_tsquery for converting a query to the tsquery data type. to_tsquery offers access to more features than plainto_tsquery, but is less forgiving about its input.

to_tsquery([ config regconfig, ] querytext text) returns tsquery

to_tsquery creates a tsquery value from querytext, which must consist of single tokens separated by the Boolean operators & (AND), | (OR), and ! (NOT). These operators can be grouped using parentheses. In other words, the input to to_tsquery must already follow the general rules for tsquery input, as described in Text Search Types. The difference is that while basic tsquery input takes the tokens at face value, to_tsquery normalizes each token to a lexeme using the specified or default configuration, and discards any tokens that are stop words according to the configuration. For example:

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SELECT to_tsquery('english', 'The & Fat & Rats');
   to_tsquery   
---------------
 'fat' & 'rat'
(1 row)

As in basic tsquery input, weight(s) can be attached to each lexeme to restrict it to match only tsvector lexemes of those weight(s). For example:

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SELECT to_tsquery('english', 'Fat | Rats:AB');
    to_tsquery    
------------------
 'fat' | 'rat':AB
(1 row)

Also, the asterisk (*) can be attached to a lexeme to specify prefix matching:

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SELECT to_tsquery('supern:*A & star:A*B');
        to_tsquery        
--------------------------
 'supern':*A & 'star':*AB
(1 row)

Such a lexeme will match any word having the specified string and weight in a tsquery.

plainto_tsquery([ config regconfig, ] querytext text) returns tsquery

plainto_tsquery transforms unformatted text querytext to tsquery. The text is parsed and normalized much as for to_tsvector, then the & (AND) Boolean operator is inserted between surviving words.

For example:

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SELECT plainto_tsquery('english', 'The Fat Rats');
 plainto_tsquery 
-----------------
 'fat' & 'rat'
(1 row)

Note that plainto_tsquery cannot recognize Boolean operators, weight labels, or prefix-match labels in its input:

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SELECT plainto_tsquery('english', 'The Fat & Rats:C');
   plainto_tsquery   
---------------------
 'fat' & 'rat' & 'c'
(1 row)

Here, all the input punctuation was discarded as being space symbols.