Get comparable PostgreSQL version number

Question

I need to make sure that an available PostgreSQL version is not lower than required one. The version string could be requested as follows:

SELECT VERSION();

It returns me something like:

PostgreSQL 9.5.4, compiled by Visual C++ build 1800, 64-bit

Theoretically I could parse this string, but I am not sure that future versions of PostgreSQL server will keep this word order.

Does PostgreSQL have some predictable version report possibly split in major and minor version number?

Answer 1

show server_version_num; --returns 90602::text
show server_version; --returns 9.6.2::text

Answer 2

https://blog.2ndquadrant.com/finding-postgresql-version/ says:

You can use that more easily within an SQL query like this

SELECT current_setting('server_version_num');