array header, and to compute sizing and alignment of array elements
the same way normal tuple access operations do --- viz, using the
tupmacs.h macros att_addlength and att_align. This makes the world
safe for arrays of cstrings or intervals, and should make it much
easier to write array-type-polymorphic functions; as examples see
the cleanups of array_out and contrib/array_iterator. By Joe Conway
and Tom Lane.
Reused the Expr node to hold DISTINCT which strongly resembles
the existing OP info. Define DISTINCT_EXPR which strongly resembles
the existing OPER_EXPR opType, but with handling for NULLs required
by SQL99.
We have explicit support for single-element DISTINCT comparisons
all the way through to the executor. But, multi-element DISTINCTs
are handled by expanding into a comparison tree in gram.y as is done for
other row comparisons. Per discussions, it might be desirable to move
this into one or more purpose-built nodes to be handled in the backend.
Define the optional ROW keyword and token per SQL99.
This allows single-element row constructs, which were formerly disallowed
due to shift/reduce conflicts with parenthesized a_expr clauses.
Define the SQL99 TREAT() function. Currently, use as a synonym for CAST().
returns-set boolean field in Func and Oper nodes. This allows cleaner,
more reliable tests for expressions returning sets in the planner and
parser. For example, a WHERE clause returning a set is now detected
and complained of in the parser, not only at runtime.
some kibitzing from Tom Lane. Not everything works yet, and there's
no documentation or regression test, but let's commit this so Joe
doesn't need to cope with tracking changes in so many files ...
entries, per pghackers discussion. This fixes aggregates to live in
namespaces, and also simplifies/speeds up lookup in parse_func.c.
Also, add a 'proimplicit' flag to pg_proc that controls whether a type
coercion function may be invoked implicitly, or only explicitly. The
current settings of these flags are more permissive than I would like,
but we will need to debate and refine the behavior; for now, I avoided
breaking regression tests as much as I could.
in schemas other than the system namespace; however, there's no search
path yet, and not all operations work yet on tables outside the system
namespace.
the parsetree representation. As yet we don't *do* anything with schema
names, just drop 'em on the floor; but you can enter schema-compatible
command syntax, and there's even a primitive CREATE SCHEMA command.
No doc updates yet, except to note that you can now extract a field
from a function-returning-row's result with (foo(...)).fieldname.
now has an RTE of its own, and references to its outputs now are Vars
referencing the JOIN RTE, rather than CASE-expressions. This allows
reverse-listing in ruleutils.c to use the correct alias easily, rather
than painfully reverse-engineering the alias namespace as it used to do.
Also, nested FULL JOINs work correctly, because the result of the inner
joins are simple Vars that the planner can cope with. This fixes a bug
reported a couple times now, notably by Tatsuo on 18-Nov-01. The alias
Vars are expanded into COALESCE expressions where needed at the very end
of planning, rather than during parsing.
Also, beginnings of support for showing plan qualifier expressions in
EXPLAIN. There are probably still cases that need work.
initdb forced due to change of stored-rule representation.
a separate statement (though it can still be invoked as part of VACUUM, too).
pg_statistic redesigned to be more flexible about what statistics are
stored. ANALYZE now collects a list of several of the most common values,
not just one, plus a histogram (not just the min and max values). Random
sampling is used to make the process reasonably fast even on very large
tables. The number of values and histogram bins collected is now
user-settable via an ALTER TABLE command.
There is more still to do; the new stats are not being used everywhere
they could be in the planner. But the remaining changes for this project
should be localized, and the behavior is already better than before.
A not-very-related change is that sorting now makes use of btree comparison
routines if it can find one, rather than invoking '<' twice.
clause with an alias is a <subquery> and therefore hides table references
appearing within it, according to the spec. This is the same as the
preliminary patch I posted to pgsql-patches yesterday, plus some really
grotty code in ruleutils.c to reverse-list a query tree with the correct
alias name depending on context. I'd rather not have done that, but unless
we want to force another initdb for 7.1, there's no other way for now.
(Don't forget that an alias is required.) Views reimplemented as expanding
to subselect-in-FROM. Grouping, aggregates, DISTINCT in views actually
work now (he says optimistically). No UNION support in subselects/views
yet, but I have some ideas about that. Rule-related permissions checking
moved out of rewriter and into executor.
INITDB REQUIRED!
for example, an SQL function can be used in a functional index. (I make
no promises about speed, but it'll work ;-).) Clean up and simplify
handling of functions returning sets.
from Param nodes, per discussion a few days ago on pghackers. Add new
expression node type FieldSelect that implements the functionality where
it's actually needed. Clean up some other unused fields in Func nodes
as well.
NOTE: initdb forced due to change in stored expression trees for rules.
There's now only one transition value and transition function.
NULL handling in aggregates is a lot cleaner. Also, use Numeric
accumulators instead of integer accumulators for sum/avg on integer
datatypes --- this avoids overflow at the cost of being a little slower.
Implement VARIANCE() and STDDEV() aggregates in the standard backend.
Also, enable new LIKE selectivity estimators by default. Unrelated
change, but as long as I had to force initdb anyway...
the oper field should be a valid Node structure so it can be dumped by
outfuncs.c without risk of coredump. (We had been using a raw pointer
to character string, which surely is NOT a valid Node.) This doesn't
cause any backwards compatibility problems for stored rules, since
raw unanalyzed parsetrees are never stored.
represent the result of a binary-compatible type coercion. At runtime
it just evaluates its argument --- but during type resolution, exprType
will pick up the output type of the RelabelType node instead of the type
of the argument. This solves some longstanding problems with dropped
type coercions, an example being 'select now()::abstime::int4' which
used to produce date-formatted output, not an integer, because the
coercion to int4 was dropped on the floor.
subselects can only appear on the righthand side of a binary operator.
That's still true for quantified predicates like x = ANY (SELECT ...),
but a subselect that delivers a single result can now appear anywhere
in an expression. This is implemented by changing EXPR_SUBLINK sublinks
to represent just the (SELECT ...) expression, without any 'left hand
side' or combining operator --- so they're now more like EXISTS_SUBLINK.
To handle the case of '(x, y, z) = (SELECT ...)', I added a new sublink
type MULTIEXPR_SUBLINK, which acts just like EXPR_SUBLINK used to.
But the grammar will only generate one for a multiple-left-hand-side
row expression.
documented intepretation of the lefthand and oper fields. Fix a number of
obscure problems while at it --- for example, the old code failed if the parser
decided to insert a type-coercion function just below the operator of a
SubLink.
CAUTION: this will break stored rules that contain subplans. You may
need to initdb.
and fix_opids processing to a single recursive pass over the plan tree
executed at the very tail end of planning, rather than haphazardly here
and there at different places. Now that tlist Vars do not get modified
until the very end, it's possible to get rid of the klugy var_equal and
match_varid partial-matching routines, and just use plain equal()
throughout the optimizer. This is a step towards allowing merge and
hash joins to be done on expressions instead of only Vars ...
sort order down into planner, instead of handling it only at the very top
level of the planner. This fixes many things. An explicit sort is now
avoided if there is a cheaper alternative (typically an indexscan) not
only for ORDER BY, but also for the internal sort of GROUP BY. It works
even when there is no other reason (such as a WHERE condition) to consider
the indexscan. It works for indexes on functions. It works for indexes
on functions, backwards. It's just so cool...
CAUTION: I have changed the representation of SortClause nodes, therefore
THIS UPDATE BREAKS STORED RULES. You will need to initdb.
store all ordering information in pathkeys lists (which are now lists of
lists of PathKeyItem nodes, not just lists of lists of vars). This was
a big win --- the code is smaller and IMHO more understandable than it
was, even though it handles more cases. I believe the node changes will
not force an initdb for anyone; planner nodes don't show up in stored
rules.
Bruce Momjian
Tom Lane
Thomas G. Lockhart
Jan Wieck
Vadim B. Mikheev