Re: Duplicates being removed from intarray on subtraction of another intarray

On Mon, 2024-03-18 at 08:21 +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:
> Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/intarray.html
> 
> Hi,
> I recently ran into an unusual issue with the intarray extension where if
> you subtract one array from another the result is *also* sorted and
> de-duplicated. The documentation does not seem to imply that this should be
> the case, stating only that the operator "removes elements of the right
> array from the left array" and not that it also de-duplicates and sorts the
> result... It seems to only occur when subtracting an array. Is this the
> intended behavior?
> 
> SELECT '{3,1,1,2,2,2}'::int[] - 1; --> {3,2,2,2} as you would expect
> SELECT '{3,1,1,2,2,2}'::int[] - '{1}'::int[]; --> {2,3} instead of
> {3,2,2,2}

There is no harm in documenting that; I propose the attached patch.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe