Re: minimum operators for b-tree, r-tree

elein <elein(at)varlena(dot)com> writes:
> When creating a new data type, what are
> the operators absolutely necessary for that
> type to particpate in a btree index?

You must supply all the operators described in the standard strategy
set:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/static/xindex.html#XINDEX-STRATEGIES
plus the support function(s):
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/static/xindex.html#XINDEX-SUPPORT

The system is not designed to cope with an incomplete opclass, and I'm
not sure it would work if you tried.

BTW, although <> isn't part of a btree opclass it is a good idea to
provide it (and link it to the opclass by making it the negator of =).
There's at least one place in the system that knows about using this.

The way I prefer to handle this stuff for btree is to write a single
three-way comparison function (compare a to b, return +1/0/-1). This
can be used directly as the btree support function, and then the six
comparison-operator functions are one-line wrappers around it.

regards, tom lane