Compares two keys (not indexed items!) and returns an integer less than zero, zero, or greater than zero, indicating whether the first key is less than, equal to, or greater than the second. Null keys are never passed to this function.

Returns a palloc'd array of keys given an item to be indexed. The number of returned keys must be stored into*nkeys. If any of the keys can be null, also palloc an array of*nkeysbool fields, store its address at*nullFlags, and set these null flags as needed.*nullFlags can be leftNULL (its initial value) if all keys are non-null. The return value can beNULL if the item contains no keys.

Returns a palloc'd array of keys given a value to be queried; that is,query is the value on the right-hand side of an indexable operator whose left-hand side is the indexed column.n is the strategy number of the operator within the operator class (seeSection 35.14.2). Often,extractQuery will need to consultn to determine the data type ofquery and the method it should use to extract key values. The number of returned keys must be stored into*nkeys. If any of the keys can be null, also palloc an array of*nkeysbool fields, store its address at*nullFlags, and set these null flags as needed.*nullFlags can be leftNULL (its initial value) if all keys are non-null. The return value can beNULL if thequery contains no keys.

searchMode is an output argument that allowsextractQuery to specify details about how the search will be done. If*searchMode is set toGIN_SEARCH_MODE_DEFAULT (which is the value it is initialized to before call), only items that match at least one of the returned keys are considered candidate matches. If*searchMode is set toGIN_SEARCH_MODE_INCLUDE_EMPTY, then in addition to items containing at least one matching key, items that contain no keys at all are considered candidate matches. (This mode is useful for implementing is-subset-of operators, for example.) If*searchMode is set toGIN_SEARCH_MODE_ALL, then all non-null items in the index are considered candidate matches, whether they match any of the returned keys or not. (This mode is much slower than the other two choices, since it requires scanning essentially the entire index, but it may be necessary to implement corner cases correctly. An operator that needs this mode in most cases is probably not a good candidate for a GIN operator class.) The symbols to use for setting this mode are defined inaccess/gin.h.

pmatch is an output argument for use when partial match is supported. To use it,extractQuery must allocate an array of*nkeys booleans and store its address at*pmatch. Each element of the array should be set to TRUE if the corresponding key requires partial match, FALSE if not. If*pmatch is set toNULL then GIN assumes partial match is not required. The variable is initialized toNULL before call, so this argument can simply be ignored by operator classes that do not support partial match.

extra_data is an output argument that allowsextractQuery to pass additional data to theconsistent andcomparePartial methods. To use it,extractQuery must allocate an array of*nkeys Pointers and store its address at*extra_data, then store whatever it wants to into the individual pointers. The variable is initialized toNULL before call, so this argument can simply be ignored by operator classes that do not require extra data. If*extra_data is set, the whole array is passed to theconsistent method, and the appropriate element to thecomparePartial method.

Returns TRUE if an indexed item satisfies the query operator with strategy numbern (or might satisfy it, if the recheck indication is returned). This function does not have direct access to the indexed item's value, sinceGIN does not store items explicitly. Rather, what is available is knowledge about which key values extracted from the query appear in a given indexed item. Thecheck array has lengthnkeys, which is the same as the number of keys previously returned byextractQuery for thisquery datum. Each element of thecheck array is TRUE if the indexed item contains the corresponding query key, i.e., if (check[i] == TRUE) the i-th key of theextractQuery result array is present in the indexed item. The originalquery datum is passed in case theconsistent method needs to consult it, and so are thequeryKeys[] andnullFlags[] arrays previously returned byextractQuery.extra_data is the extra-data array returned byextractQuery, orNULL if none.

WhenextractQuery returns a null key inqueryKeys[], the correspondingcheck[] element is TRUE if the indexed item contains a null key; that is, the semantics ofcheck[] are likeIS NOT DISTINCT FROM. Theconsistent function can examine the correspondingnullFlags[] element if it needs to tell the difference between a regular value match and a null match.

On success,*recheck should be set to TRUE if the heap tuple needs to be rechecked against the query operator, or FALSE if the index test is exact. That is, a FALSE return value guarantees that the heap tuple does not match the query; a TRUE return value with*recheck set to FALSE guarantees that the heap tuple does match the query; and a TRUE return value with*recheck set to TRUE means that the heap tuple might match the query, so it needs to be fetched and rechecked by evaluating the query operator directly against the originally indexed item.

triConsistent is similar toconsistent, but instead of a booleancheck[], there are three possible values for each key:GIN_TRUE,GIN_FALSE andGIN_MAYBE.GIN_FALSE andGIN_TRUE have the same meaning as regular boolean values.GIN_MAYBE means that the presence of that key is not known. WhenGIN_MAYBE values are present, the function should only return GIN_TRUE if the item matches whether or not the index item contains the corresponding query keys. Likewise, the function must return GIN_FALSE only if the item does not match, whether or not it contains the GIN_MAYBE keys. If the result depends on the GIN_MAYBE entries, i.e. the match cannot be confirmed or refuted based on the known query keys, the function must return GIN_MAYBE.

When there are no GIN_MAYBE values in thecheck vector,GIN_MAYBE return value is equivalent of settingrecheck flag in the booleanconsistent function.

Compare a partial-match query key to an index key. Returns an integer whose sign indicates the result: less than zero means the index key does not match the query, but the index scan should continue; zero means that the index key does match the query; greater than zero indicates that the index scan should stop because no more matches are possible. The strategy numbern of the operator that generated the partial match query is provided, in case its semantics are needed to determine when to end the scan. Also,extra_data is the corresponding element of the extra-data array made byextractQuery, orNULL if none. Null keys are never passed to this function.