Similarity function in Postgres with pg_trgm

Question

I'm trying to use the similarity function in Postgres to do some fuzzy text matching, however whenever I try to use it I get the error:

function similarity(character varying, unknown) does not exist

If I add explicit casts to text I get the error:

function similarity(text, text) does not exist

My query is:

SELECT (similarity("table"."field"::text, %s::text)) AS "similarity", "table".* FROM "table" WHERE similarity > .5 ORDER BY "similarity" DESC LIMIT 10

Do I need to do something to initalize pg_trgm?

Answer 1

You have to install pg_trgm. In debian, source this sql: /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/contrib/pg_trgm.sql. From the command line:

psql -f /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/contrib/pg_trgm.sql

Or inside a psql shell:

\i /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/contrib/pg_trgm.sql

The script defaults to installing in the public schema, edit the search path at the top if you want to install it somewhere else (so that uninstalling/upgrading can be done simply by dropping the schema).