---
title: "pg_opfamily"
id: catalog-pg-opfamily
pg_version: "20devel"
---

<a id="catalog-pg-opfamily"></a>

## 52.35. pg_opfamily

The catalog pg_opfamily defines operator families. Each operator family is a collection of operators and associated support routines that implement the semantics specified for a particular index access method. Furthermore, the operators in a family are all "compatible", in a way that is specified by the access method. The operator family concept allows cross-data-type operators to be used with indexes and to be reasoned about using knowledge of access method semantics. 

Operator families are described at length in [Section 36.16](xindex.md). 

**pg_opfamily Columns**

| Column Type | Description | 
| --- | --- |
| `oid` `oid` | Row identifier |
| `opfmethod` `oid` (references [pg_am](catalog-pg-am.md).`oid`) | Index access method operator family is for |
| `opfname` `name` | Name of this operator family |
| `opfnamespace` `oid` (references [pg_namespace](catalog-pg-namespace.md).`oid`) | Namespace of this operator family |
| `opfowner` `oid` (references [pg_authid](catalog-pg-authid.md).`oid`) | Owner of the operator family |

The majority of the information defining an operator family is not in its pg_opfamily row, but in the associated rows in [pg_amop](catalog-pg-amop.md), [pg_amproc](catalog-pg-amproc.md), and [pg_opclass](catalog-pg-opclass.md).