PostgreSQL 8.4.7 Documentation
Prev | Fast Backward | Chapter 52. GIN Indexes | Fast Forward | Next

# 52.5. Limitations

GIN doesn't support full index scans. The reason for this is that `extractValue` is allowed to return zero keys, as for example might happen with an empty string or empty array. In such a case the indexed value will be unrepresented in the index. It is therefore impossible for GIN to guarantee that a scan of the index can find every row in the table.

Because of this limitation, when `extractQuery` returns `nkeys = 0` to indicate that all values match the query, GIN will emit an error. (If there are multiple ANDed indexable operators in the query, this happens only if they all return zero for `nkeys`.)

It is possible for an operator class to circumvent the restriction against full index scan. To do that, `extractValue` must return at least one (possibly dummy) key for every indexed value, and `extractQuery` must convert an unrestricted search into a partial-match query that will scan the whole index. This is inefficient but might be necessary to avoid corner-case failures with operators such as `LIKE` or subset inclusion.

GIN assumes that indexable operators are strict. This means that `extractValue` will not be called at all on a NULL value (so the value will go unindexed), and `extractQuery` will not be called on a NULL comparison value either (instead, the query is presumed to be unmatchable).

A possibly more serious limitation is that GIN cannot handle NULL keys — for example, an array containing a NULL cannot be handled except by ignoring the NULL.

Prev | Home | Next
GIN tips and tricks | Up | Examples