Mathematical operators are provided for many PostgreSQL types. For types without standard mathematical conventions (e.g., date/time types) we describe the actual behavior in subsequent sections.

Table 9.4 shows the available mathematical operators.

The bitwise operators work only on integral data types and are also available for the bit string types bit and bit varying, as shown in Table 9.14.

Table 9.5 shows the available mathematical functions. In the table, dp indicates double precision. Many of these functions are provided in multiple forms with different argument types. Except where noted, any given form of a function returns the same data type as its argument. The functions working with double precision data are mostly implemented on top of the host system's C library; accuracy and behavior in boundary cases can therefore vary depending on the host system.

Table 9.6 shows functions for generating random numbers.

The random() function uses a simple linear congruential algorithm. It is fast but not suitable for cryptographic applications; see the pgcrypto module for a more secure alternative. If setseed() is called, the results of subsequent random() calls in the current session are repeatable by re-issuing setseed() with the same argument. Without any prior setseed() call in the same session, the first random() call obtains a seed from a platform-dependent source of random bits.

Table 9.7 shows the available trigonometric functions. All these functions take arguments and return values of type double precision. Each of the trigonometric functions comes in two variants, one that measures angles in radians and one that measures angles in degrees.

Table 9.8 shows the available hyperbolic functions. All these functions take arguments and return values of type double precision.