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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>F.35. pg_trgm — support for similarity of text using trigram matching</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="pgsurgery.html" title="F.34. pg_surgery — perform low-level surgery on relation data" /><link rel="next" href="pgvisibility.html" title="F.36. pg_visibility — visibility map information and utilities" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">F.35. pg_trgm —
+ support for similarity of text using trigram matching</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pgsurgery.html" title="F.34. pg_surgery — perform low-level surgery on relation data">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="contrib.html" title="Appendix F. Additional Supplied Modules and Extensions">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Appendix F. Additional Supplied Modules and Extensions</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 16.2 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="pgvisibility.html" title="F.36. pg_visibility — visibility map information and utilities">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="PGTRGM"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">F.35. pg_trgm —
+ support for similarity of text using trigram matching <a href="#PGTRGM" class="id_link">#</a></h2></div></div></div><div class="toc"><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-CONCEPTS">F.35.1. Trigram (or Trigraph) Concepts</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-FUNCS-OPS">F.35.2. Functions and Operators</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-GUC">F.35.3. GUC Parameters</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-INDEX">F.35.4. Index Support</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-TEXT-SEARCH">F.35.5. Text Search Integration</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-REFERENCES">F.35.6. References</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-AUTHORS">F.35.7. Authors</a></span></dt></dl></div><a id="id-1.11.7.45.2" class="indexterm"></a><p>
+ The <code class="filename">pg_trgm</code> module provides functions and operators
+ for determining the similarity of
+ alphanumeric text based on trigram matching, as
+ well as index operator classes that support fast searching for similar
+ strings.
+ </p><p>
+ This module is considered <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">trusted</span>”</span>, that is, it can be
+ installed by non-superusers who have <code class="literal">CREATE</code> privilege
+ on the current database.
+ </p><div class="sect2" id="PGTRGM-CONCEPTS"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">F.35.1. Trigram (or Trigraph) Concepts <a href="#PGTRGM-CONCEPTS" class="id_link">#</a></h3></div></div></div><p>
+ A trigram is a group of three consecutive characters taken
+ from a string. We can measure the similarity of two strings by
+ counting the number of trigrams they share. This simple idea
+ turns out to be very effective for measuring the similarity of
+ words in many natural languages.
+ </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>
+ <code class="filename">pg_trgm</code> ignores non-word characters
+ (non-alphanumerics) when extracting trigrams from a string.
+ Each word is considered to have two spaces
+ prefixed and one space suffixed when determining the set
+ of trigrams contained in the string.
+ For example, the set of trigrams in the string
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">cat</code></span>”</span> is
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal"> c</code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal"> ca</code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">cat</code></span>”</span>, and
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">at </code></span>”</span>.
+ The set of trigrams in the string
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">foo|bar</code></span>”</span> is
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal"> f</code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal"> fo</code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">foo</code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">oo </code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal"> b</code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal"> ba</code></span>”</span>,
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">bar</code></span>”</span>, and
+ <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">ar </code></span>”</span>.
+ </p></div></div><div class="sect2" id="PGTRGM-FUNCS-OPS"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">F.35.2. Functions and Operators <a href="#PGTRGM-FUNCS-OPS" class="id_link">#</a></h3></div></div></div><p>
+ The functions provided by the <code class="filename">pg_trgm</code> module
+ are shown in <a class="xref" href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-FUNC-TABLE" title="Table F.26. pg_trgm Functions">Table F.26</a>, the operators
+ in <a class="xref" href="pgtrgm.html#PGTRGM-OP-TABLE" title="Table F.27. pg_trgm Operators">Table F.27</a>.
+ </p><div class="table" id="PGTRGM-FUNC-TABLE"><p class="title"><strong>Table F.26. <code class="filename">pg_trgm</code> Functions</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table class="table" summary="pg_trgm Functions" border="1"><colgroup><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ Function
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Description
+ </p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.6.3.2.2.1.1.1.1" class="indexterm"></a>
+ <code class="function">similarity</code> ( <code class="type">text</code>, <code class="type">text</code> )
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns a number that indicates how similar the two arguments are.
+ The range of the result is zero (indicating that the two strings are
+ completely dissimilar) to one (indicating that the two strings are
+ identical).
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.6.3.2.2.2.1.1.1" class="indexterm"></a>
+ <code class="function">show_trgm</code> ( <code class="type">text</code> )
+ → <code class="returnvalue">text[]</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns an array of all the trigrams in the given string.
+ (In practice this is seldom useful except for debugging.)
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.6.3.2.2.3.1.1.1" class="indexterm"></a>
+ <code class="function">word_similarity</code> ( <code class="type">text</code>, <code class="type">text</code> )
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns a number that indicates the greatest similarity between
+ the set of trigrams in the first string and any continuous extent
+ of an ordered set of trigrams in the second string. For details, see
+ the explanation below.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.6.3.2.2.4.1.1.1" class="indexterm"></a>
+ <code class="function">strict_word_similarity</code> ( <code class="type">text</code>, <code class="type">text</code> )
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Same as <code class="function">word_similarity</code>, but forces
+ extent boundaries to match word boundaries. Since we don't have
+ cross-word trigrams, this function actually returns greatest similarity
+ between first string and any continuous extent of words of the second
+ string.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.6.3.2.2.5.1.1.1" class="indexterm"></a>
+ <code class="function">show_limit</code> ()
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns the current similarity threshold used by the <code class="literal">%</code>
+ operator. This sets the minimum similarity between
+ two words for them to be considered similar enough to
+ be misspellings of each other, for example.
+ (<span class="emphasis"><em>Deprecated</em></span>; instead use <code class="command">SHOW</code>
+ <code class="varname">pg_trgm.similarity_threshold</code>.)
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.6.3.2.2.6.1.1.1" class="indexterm"></a>
+ <code class="function">set_limit</code> ( <code class="type">real</code> )
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Sets the current similarity threshold that is used by the <code class="literal">%</code>
+ operator. The threshold must be between 0 and 1 (default is 0.3).
+ Returns the same value passed in.
+ (<span class="emphasis"><em>Deprecated</em></span>; instead use <code class="command">SET</code>
+ <code class="varname">pg_trgm.similarity_threshold</code>.)
+ </p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p>
+ Consider the following example:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+# SELECT word_similarity('word', 'two words');
+ word_similarity
+-----------------
+ 0.8
+(1 row)
+</pre><p>
+
+ In the first string, the set of trigrams is
+ <code class="literal">{" w"," wo","wor","ord","rd "}</code>.
+ In the second string, the ordered set of trigrams is
+ <code class="literal">{" t"," tw","two","wo "," w"," wo","wor","ord","rds","ds "}</code>.
+ The most similar extent of an ordered set of trigrams in the second string
+ is <code class="literal">{" w"," wo","wor","ord"}</code>, and the similarity is
+ <code class="literal">0.8</code>.
+ </p><p>
+ This function returns a value that can be approximately understood as the
+ greatest similarity between the first string and any substring of the second
+ string. However, this function does not add padding to the boundaries of
+ the extent. Thus, the number of additional characters present in the
+ second string is not considered, except for the mismatched word boundaries.
+ </p><p>
+ At the same time, <code class="function">strict_word_similarity</code>
+ selects an extent of words in the second string. In the example above,
+ <code class="function">strict_word_similarity</code> would select the
+ extent of a single word <code class="literal">'words'</code>, whose set of trigrams is
+ <code class="literal">{" w"," wo","wor","ord","rds","ds "}</code>.
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+# SELECT strict_word_similarity('word', 'two words'), similarity('word', 'words');
+ strict_word_similarity | similarity
+------------------------+------------
+ 0.571429 | 0.571429
+(1 row)
+</pre><p>
+ </p><p>
+ Thus, the <code class="function">strict_word_similarity</code> function
+ is useful for finding the similarity to whole words, while
+ <code class="function">word_similarity</code> is more suitable for
+ finding the similarity for parts of words.
+ </p><div class="table" id="PGTRGM-OP-TABLE"><p class="title"><strong>Table F.27. <code class="filename">pg_trgm</code> Operators</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table class="table" summary="pg_trgm Operators" border="1"><colgroup><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ Operator
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Description
+ </p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">%</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">boolean</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns <code class="literal">true</code> if its arguments have a similarity
+ that is greater than the current similarity threshold set by
+ <code class="varname">pg_trgm.similarity_threshold</code>.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">&lt;%</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">boolean</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns <code class="literal">true</code> if the similarity between the trigram
+ set in the first argument and a continuous extent of an ordered trigram
+ set in the second argument is greater than the current word similarity
+ threshold set by <code class="varname">pg_trgm.word_similarity_threshold</code>
+ parameter.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">%&gt;</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">boolean</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Commutator of the <code class="literal">&lt;%</code> operator.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">&lt;&lt;%</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">boolean</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns <code class="literal">true</code> if its second argument has a continuous
+ extent of an ordered trigram set that matches word boundaries,
+ and its similarity to the trigram set of the first argument is greater
+ than the current strict word similarity threshold set by the
+ <code class="varname">pg_trgm.strict_word_similarity_threshold</code> parameter.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">%&gt;&gt;</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">boolean</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Commutator of the <code class="literal">&lt;&lt;%</code> operator.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">&lt;-&gt;</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">distance</span>”</span> between the arguments, that is
+ one minus the <code class="function">similarity()</code> value.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">&lt;&lt;-&gt;</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">distance</span>”</span> between the arguments, that is
+ one minus the <code class="function">word_similarity()</code> value.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">&lt;-&gt;&gt;</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Commutator of the <code class="literal">&lt;&lt;-&gt;</code> operator.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">&lt;&lt;&lt;-&gt;</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Returns the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">distance</span>”</span> between the arguments, that is
+ one minus the <code class="function">strict_word_similarity()</code> value.
+ </p></td></tr><tr><td class="func_table_entry"><p class="func_signature">
+ <code class="type">text</code> <code class="literal">&lt;-&gt;&gt;&gt;</code> <code class="type">text</code>
+ → <code class="returnvalue">real</code>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Commutator of the <code class="literal">&lt;&lt;&lt;-&gt;</code> operator.
+ </p></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /></div><div class="sect2" id="PGTRGM-GUC"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">F.35.3. GUC Parameters <a href="#PGTRGM-GUC" class="id_link">#</a></h3></div></div></div><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt id="GUC-PGTRGM-SIMILARITY-THRESHOLD"><span class="term">
+ <code class="varname">pg_trgm.similarity_threshold</code> (<code class="type">real</code>)
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.7.2.1.1.3" class="indexterm"></a>
+ </span> <a href="#GUC-PGTRGM-SIMILARITY-THRESHOLD" class="id_link">#</a></dt><dd><p>
+ Sets the current similarity threshold that is used by the <code class="literal">%</code>
+ operator. The threshold must be between 0 and 1 (default is 0.3).
+ </p></dd><dt id="GUC-PGTRGM-WORD-SIMILARITY-THRESHOLD"><span class="term">
+ <code class="varname">pg_trgm.word_similarity_threshold</code> (<code class="type">real</code>)
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.7.2.2.1.3" class="indexterm"></a>
+ </span> <a href="#GUC-PGTRGM-WORD-SIMILARITY-THRESHOLD" class="id_link">#</a></dt><dd><p>
+ Sets the current word similarity threshold that is used by the
+ <code class="literal">&lt;%</code> and <code class="literal">%&gt;</code> operators. The threshold
+ must be between 0 and 1 (default is 0.6).
+ </p></dd><dt id="GUC-PGTRGM-STRICT-WORD-SIMILARITY-THRESHOLD"><span class="term">
+ <code class="varname">pg_trgm.strict_word_similarity_threshold</code> (<code class="type">real</code>)
+ <a id="id-1.11.7.45.7.2.3.1.3" class="indexterm"></a>
+ </span> <a href="#GUC-PGTRGM-STRICT-WORD-SIMILARITY-THRESHOLD" class="id_link">#</a></dt><dd><p>
+ Sets the current strict word similarity threshold that is used by the
+ <code class="literal">&lt;&lt;%</code> and <code class="literal">%&gt;&gt;</code> operators. The threshold
+ must be between 0 and 1 (default is 0.5).
+ </p></dd></dl></div></div><div class="sect2" id="PGTRGM-INDEX"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">F.35.4. Index Support <a href="#PGTRGM-INDEX" class="id_link">#</a></h3></div></div></div><p>
+ The <code class="filename">pg_trgm</code> module provides GiST and GIN index
+ operator classes that allow you to create an index over a text column for
+ the purpose of very fast similarity searches. These index types support
+ the above-described similarity operators, and additionally support
+ trigram-based index searches for <code class="literal">LIKE</code>, <code class="literal">ILIKE</code>,
+ <code class="literal">~</code>, <code class="literal">~*</code> and <code class="literal">=</code> queries.
+ The similarity comparisons are case-insensitive in a default build of
+ <code class="filename">pg_trgm</code>.
+ Inequality operators are not supported.
+ Note that those indexes may not be as efficient as regular B-tree indexes
+ for equality operator.
+ </p><p>
+ Example:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE TABLE test_trgm (t text);
+CREATE INDEX trgm_idx ON test_trgm USING GIST (t gist_trgm_ops);
+</pre><p>
+or
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE INDEX trgm_idx ON test_trgm USING GIN (t gin_trgm_ops);
+</pre><p>
+ </p><p>
+ <code class="literal">gist_trgm_ops</code> GiST opclass approximates a set of
+ trigrams as a bitmap signature. Its optional integer parameter
+ <code class="literal">siglen</code> determines the
+ signature length in bytes. The default length is 12 bytes.
+ Valid values of signature length are between 1 and 2024 bytes. Longer
+ signatures lead to a more precise search (scanning a smaller fraction of the index and
+ fewer heap pages), at the cost of a larger index.
+ </p><p>
+ Example of creating such an index with a signature length of 32 bytes:
+ </p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE INDEX trgm_idx ON test_trgm USING GIST (t gist_trgm_ops(siglen=32));
+</pre><p>
+ At this point, you will have an index on the <code class="structfield">t</code> column that
+ you can use for similarity searching. A typical query is
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t, similarity(t, '<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>') AS sml
+ FROM test_trgm
+ WHERE t % '<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>'
+ ORDER BY sml DESC, t;
+</pre><p>
+ This will return all values in the text column that are sufficiently
+ similar to <em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>, sorted from best match to worst. The
+ index will be used to make this a fast operation even over very large data
+ sets.
+ </p><p>
+ A variant of the above query is
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t, t &lt;-&gt; '<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>' AS dist
+ FROM test_trgm
+ ORDER BY dist LIMIT 10;
+</pre><p>
+ This can be implemented quite efficiently by GiST indexes, but not
+ by GIN indexes. It will usually beat the first formulation when only
+ a small number of the closest matches is wanted.
+ </p><p>
+ Also you can use an index on the <code class="structfield">t</code> column for word
+ similarity or strict word similarity. Typical queries are:
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t, word_similarity('<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>', t) AS sml
+ FROM test_trgm
+ WHERE '<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>' &lt;% t
+ ORDER BY sml DESC, t;
+</pre><p>
+ and
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t, strict_word_similarity('<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>', t) AS sml
+ FROM test_trgm
+ WHERE '<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>' &lt;&lt;% t
+ ORDER BY sml DESC, t;
+</pre><p>
+ This will return all values in the text column for which there is a
+ continuous extent in the corresponding ordered trigram set that is
+ sufficiently similar to the trigram set of <em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>,
+ sorted from best match to worst. The index will be used to make this
+ a fast operation even over very large data sets.
+ </p><p>
+ Possible variants of the above queries are:
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t, '<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>' &lt;&lt;-&gt; t AS dist
+ FROM test_trgm
+ ORDER BY dist LIMIT 10;
+</pre><p>
+ and
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT t, '<em class="replaceable"><code>word</code></em>' &lt;&lt;&lt;-&gt; t AS dist
+ FROM test_trgm
+ ORDER BY dist LIMIT 10;
+</pre><p>
+ This can be implemented quite efficiently by GiST indexes, but not
+ by GIN indexes.
+ </p><p>
+ Beginning in <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> 9.1, these index types also support
+ index searches for <code class="literal">LIKE</code> and <code class="literal">ILIKE</code>, for example
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT * FROM test_trgm WHERE t LIKE '%foo%bar';
+</pre><p>
+ The index search works by extracting trigrams from the search string
+ and then looking these up in the index. The more trigrams in the search
+ string, the more effective the index search is. Unlike B-tree based
+ searches, the search string need not be left-anchored.
+ </p><p>
+ Beginning in <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> 9.3, these index types also support
+ index searches for regular-expression matches
+ (<code class="literal">~</code> and <code class="literal">~*</code> operators), for example
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+SELECT * FROM test_trgm WHERE t ~ '(foo|bar)';
+</pre><p>
+ The index search works by extracting trigrams from the regular expression
+ and then looking these up in the index. The more trigrams that can be
+ extracted from the regular expression, the more effective the index search
+ is. Unlike B-tree based searches, the search string need not be
+ left-anchored.
+ </p><p>
+ For both <code class="literal">LIKE</code> and regular-expression searches, keep in mind
+ that a pattern with no extractable trigrams will degenerate to a full-index
+ scan.
+ </p><p>
+ The choice between GiST and GIN indexing depends on the relative
+ performance characteristics of GiST and GIN, which are discussed elsewhere.
+ </p></div><div class="sect2" id="PGTRGM-TEXT-SEARCH"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">F.35.5. Text Search Integration <a href="#PGTRGM-TEXT-SEARCH" class="id_link">#</a></h3></div></div></div><p>
+ Trigram matching is a very useful tool when used in conjunction
+ with a full text index. In particular it can help to recognize
+ misspelled input words that will not be matched directly by the
+ full text search mechanism.
+ </p><p>
+ The first step is to generate an auxiliary table containing all
+ the unique words in the documents:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE TABLE words AS SELECT word FROM
+ ts_stat('SELECT to_tsvector(''simple'', bodytext) FROM documents');
+</pre><p>
+
+ where <code class="structname">documents</code> is a table that has a text field
+ <code class="structfield">bodytext</code> that we wish to search. The reason for using
+ the <code class="literal">simple</code> configuration with the <code class="function">to_tsvector</code>
+ function, instead of using a language-specific configuration,
+ is that we want a list of the original (unstemmed) words.
+ </p><p>
+ Next, create a trigram index on the word column:
+
+</p><pre class="programlisting">
+CREATE INDEX words_idx ON words USING GIN (word gin_trgm_ops);
+</pre><p>
+
+ Now, a <code class="command">SELECT</code> query similar to the previous example can
+ be used to suggest spellings for misspelled words in user search terms.
+ A useful extra test is to require that the selected words are also of
+ similar length to the misspelled word.
+ </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>
+ Since the <code class="structname">words</code> table has been generated as a separate,
+ static table, it will need to be periodically regenerated so that
+ it remains reasonably up-to-date with the document collection.
+ Keeping it exactly current is usually unnecessary.
+ </p></div></div><div class="sect2" id="PGTRGM-REFERENCES"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">F.35.6. References <a href="#PGTRGM-REFERENCES" class="id_link">#</a></h3></div></div></div><p>
+ GiST Development Site
+ <a class="ulink" href="http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/postgres/gist/" target="_top">http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/postgres/gist/</a>
+ </p><p>
+ Tsearch2 Development Site
+ <a class="ulink" href="http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/postgres/gist/tsearch/V2/" target="_top">http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/postgres/gist/tsearch/V2/</a>
+ </p></div><div class="sect2" id="PGTRGM-AUTHORS"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">F.35.7. Authors <a href="#PGTRGM-AUTHORS" class="id_link">#</a></h3></div></div></div><p>
+ Oleg Bartunov <code class="email">&lt;<a class="email" href="mailto:oleg@sai.msu.su">oleg@sai.msu.su</a>&gt;</code>, Moscow, Moscow University, Russia
+ </p><p>
+ Teodor Sigaev <code class="email">&lt;<a class="email" href="mailto:teodor@sigaev.ru">teodor@sigaev.ru</a>&gt;</code>, Moscow, Delta-Soft Ltd.,Russia
+ </p><p>
+ Alexander Korotkov <code class="email">&lt;<a class="email" href="mailto:a.korotkov@postgrespro.ru">a.korotkov@postgrespro.ru</a>&gt;</code>, Moscow, Postgres Professional, Russia
+ </p><p>
+ Documentation: Christopher Kings-Lynne
+ </p><p>
+ This module is sponsored by Delta-Soft Ltd., Moscow, Russia.
+ </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="pgsurgery.html" title="F.34. pg_surgery — perform low-level surgery on relation data">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="contrib.html" title="Appendix F. Additional Supplied Modules and Extensions">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="pgvisibility.html" title="F.36. pg_visibility — visibility map information and utilities">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">F.34. pg_surgery — perform low-level surgery on relation data </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 16.2 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> F.36. pg_visibility — visibility map information and utilities</td></tr></table></div></body></html> \ No newline at end of file