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43.3. pg_am

The catalog pg_am stores information about index access methods. There is one row for each index access method supported by the system. The contents of this catalog are discussed in detail in Chapter 49.

Table 43-3. pg_am Columns

Name Type References Description
amname name   Name of the access method
amstrategies int2   Number of operator strategies for this access method
amsupport int2   Number of support routines for this access method
amorderstrategy int2   Zero if the index offers no sort order, otherwise the strategy number of the strategy operator that describes the sort order
amcanunique bool   Does the access method support unique indexes?
amcanmulticol bool   Does the access method support multicolumn indexes?
amoptionalkey bool   Does the access method support a scan without any constraint for the first index column?
amindexnulls bool   Does the access method support null index entries?
amstorage bool   Can index storage data type differ from column data type?
amclusterable bool   Can an index of this type be clustered on?
aminsert regproc pg_proc.oid "Insert this tuple" function
ambeginscan regproc pg_proc.oid "Start new scan" function
amgettuple regproc pg_proc.oid "Next valid tuple" function
amgetmulti regproc pg_proc.oid "Fetch multiple tuples" function
amrescan regproc pg_proc.oid "Restart this scan" function
amendscan regproc pg_proc.oid "End this scan" function
ammarkpos regproc pg_proc.oid "Mark current scan position" function
amrestrpos regproc pg_proc.oid "Restore marked scan position" function
ambuild regproc pg_proc.oid "Build new index" function
ambulkdelete regproc pg_proc.oid Bulk-delete function
amvacuumcleanup regproc pg_proc.oid Post-VACUUM cleanup function
amcostestimate regproc pg_proc.oid Function to estimate cost of an index scan
amoptions regproc pg_proc.oid Function to parse and validate reloptions for an index