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up vote 18 down vote favorite
2

I'm using Postgres's native array type, and trying to find the records where the ID is not in the array recipient IDs.

I can find where they are IN:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "messages" WHERE (3 = ANY (recipient_ids))

But this doesn't work:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "messages" WHERE (3 != ANY (recipient_ids))
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "messages" WHERE (3 = NOT ANY (recipient_ids))

what's the right way to test for this condition?

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what is the error? –  Janus Troelsen Jul 30 '12 at 22:43
    
does WHERE 3 NOT IN recipient_ids work? –  Janus Troelsen Jul 30 '12 at 22:45
    
Related note: as for text[] and int[] array: select not(array[1,2,3] @> array[3]); –  Steve Peak Mar 29 at 13:47

4 Answers 4

up vote 20 down vote accepted 
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "messages" WHERE NOT (3 = ANY (recipient_ids))

You can always negate WHERE (condition) with WHERE NOT (condition)

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up vote 7 down vote

You could turn it around a bit and say "3 is not equal to all the IDs":

where 3 != all (recipient_ids)

From the fine manual:

9.21.4. ALL (array)

expression operator ALL (array expression)

The right-hand side is a parenthesized expression, which must yield an array value. The left-hand expression is evaluated and compared to each element of the array using the given operator, which must yield a Boolean result. The result of ALL is "true" if all comparisons yield true (including the case where the array has zero elements). The result is "false" if any false result is found.

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up vote 4 down vote

not (3 = any(recipient_ids))?

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up vote 2 down vote

Note that the ANY/ALL operators will not work with array indexes. If indexes are in mind:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "messages" WHERE 3 && recipient_ids

and the negative:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "messages" WHERE NOT (3 && recipient_ids)

An index can then be created like: CREATE INDEX recipient_ids_idx on tableName USING GIN(recipient_ids)

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