Re: pg_get_indexdef() output not idempotent for partial indexes with ALL(ARRAY[…])::text[]

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Marcelo Lauxen <marcelolauxen16@gmail.com>
Cc: pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
Date: 2026-05-13T13:51:39Z
Lists: pgsql-bugs
Marcelo Lauxen <marcelolauxen16@gmail.com> writes:
> *PostgreSQL version*: 18.3 (Homebrew) on aarch64-apple-darwin24.6.0
> *pg_get_indexdef()* produces SQL that, when executed, yields a different
> pg_get_indexdef() output. This means a pg_dump → pg_restore cycle silently
> changes the deparsed form of partial index WHERE clauses that use NOT IN
> (...) on a varchar column, causing cosmetic drift in tools that compare
> index definitions (e.g. ORM schema dumps, annotation generators).

You are assuming a property that we've never guaranteed and don't plan
to start guaranteeing, ie that the output of expression decompilation
matches the input even in semantically-insignificant details.

My own advice about how to fix this particular example is not to use
varchar --- especially not unconstrained varchar, which doesn't even
have the thin excuse of being spec-compliant.  Postgres' native string
type is text.

			regards, tom lane