RUM: improved inverted index for full-text search based on GIN index

RUM is an extension which adds a RUM index to Postgresql.

RUM index is based on GIN that stores additional per-entry information in a posting tree. For example, positional information of lexemes or timestamps. In comparison to GIN it can use this information to make faster index-only scans for:

Phrase search
Text search with ranking by text distance operator
Text SELECTs with ordering by some non-indexed additional column e.g. by timestamp.

RUM works best in scenarios when the possible keys are highly repeatable. I.e. all texts are composed of a limited amount of words, so per-lexeme indexing gives significant speed-up in searching texts containing word combinations or phrases.

Main operators for ordering are:

tsvector <=> tsquery | float4 | Distance between tsvector and tsquery. value <=> value | float8 | Distance between two values.

Where value is timestamp, timestamptz, int2, int4, int8, float4, float8, money and oid

Usage#

Enable the extension#

You can get started with rum by enabling the extension in your Supabase dashboard.

Go to the Database page in the Dashboard.
Click on Extensions in the sidebar.
Search for "rum" and enable the extension.

Syntax#

For type: tsvector#

To understand the following you may need first to see Official PostgreSQL documentation on text search

rum_tsvector_ops

CREATE TABLE test_rum(t text, a tsvector);

CREATE TRIGGER tsvectorupdate
BEFORE UPDATE OR INSERT ON test_rum
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE tsvector_update_trigger('a', 'pg_catalog.english', 't');

INSERT INTO test_rum(t) VALUES ('The situation is most beautiful');
INSERT INTO test_rum(t) VALUES ('It is a beautiful');
INSERT INTO test_rum(t) VALUES ('It looks like a beautiful place');

CREATE INDEX rumidx ON test_rum USING rum (a rum_tsvector_ops);

And we can execute tsvector selects with ordering by text distance operator:

SELECT t, a `<=>` to_tsquery('english', 'beautiful | place') AS rank
    FROM test_rum
    WHERE a @@ to_tsquery('english', 'beautiful | place')
    ORDER BY a `<=>` to_tsquery('english', 'beautiful | place');
                t                |  rank
---------------------------------+---------
 It looks like a beautiful place | 8.22467
 The situation is most beautiful | 16.4493
 It is a beautiful               | 16.4493
(3 rows)

rum_tsvector_addon_ops

CREATE TABLE tsts (id int, t tsvector, d timestamp);
CREATE INDEX tsts_idx ON tsts USING rum (t rum_tsvector_addon_ops, d)
    WITH (attach = 'd', to = 't');

Now we can execute the selects with ordering distance operator on attached column:

SELECT id, d, d `<=>` '2016-05-16 14:21:25' FROM tsts WHERE t @@ 'wr&qh' ORDER BY d `<=>` '2016-05-16 14:21:25' LIMIT 5;
 id  |                d                |   ?column?
-----+---------------------------------+---------------
 355 | Mon May 16 14:21:22.326724 2016 |      2.673276
 354 | Mon May 16 13:21:22.326724 2016 |   3602.673276
 371 | Tue May 17 06:21:22.326724 2016 |  57597.326724
 406 | Wed May 18 17:21:22.326724 2016 | 183597.326724
 415 | Thu May 19 02:21:22.326724 2016 | 215997.326724
(5 rows)

For type: anyarray#

rum_anyarray_ops

This operator class stores anyarray elements with length of the array. It supports operators &&, @>, <@, =, % operators. It also supports ordering by <=> operator.

CREATE TABLE test_array (i int2[]);
INSERT INTO test_array VALUES ('{}'), ('{0}'), ('{1,2,3,4}'), ('{1,2,3}'), ('{1,2}'), ('{1}');
CREATE INDEX idx_array ON test_array USING rum (i rum_anyarray_ops);

Now we can execute the query using index scan:

SELECT * FROM test_array WHERE i && '{1}' ORDER BY i `<=>` '{1}' ASC;
     i
-----------
 {1}
 {1,2}
 {1,2,3}
 {1,2,3,4}
(4 rows)

rum_anyarray_addon_ops

The does the same with anyarray index as rum_tsvector_addon_ops i.e. allows to order select results using distance operator by attached column.

Limitations#

RUM has slower build and insert times than GIN due to:

It is bigger due to the additional attributes stored in the index.
It uses generic WAL records.

Resources#

Official RUM documentation

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