what does the @> operator in postgres do?

Question

I came across a query in postgres here which uses the @> operator on earth objects.

I've searched everywhere, but have come up empty on the meaning of this operator (and likely others like it, eg: @<, etc...).

> is obvious. I also found that @ will take the absolute value of something. So my best guess is this does an absolute greater than comparison of two values?

Is that correct? Is this documented somewhere in the postgres docs? I'm even more curious to understand what the operator does on earth objects.

Thanks!

Answer 1

In general @> is the "contains" operator.

It is defined for several data types.

• arrays: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-array.html
• range types: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-range.html
• geometric types: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-geometry.html
• JSON (and JSONB): http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions-json.html