Re: Gsoc2012 idea, tablesample

Hi, Heikki Thanks for your advice. I will change my plan accordingly. But I have a few questions.
> 1. We probably don't want the SQL syntax to be added to the grammar.
> This should be written as an extension, using custom functions as the
> API, instead of extra SQL syntax.
>

1. "This should be written as an extension, using custom functions as the API". Could you explain a bit more what does this mean?
> 2. It's not very useful if it's just a dummy replacement for "WHERE
> random() < ?". It has to be more advanced than that. Quality of the
> sample is important, as is performance. There was also an interesting
> idea of on implementing monetary unit sampling.

2. In the plan, I mentioned using optimizer statistics to improve the quality of sampling. I may emphasize on that point. I will read about monetary unit sampling and add into the plan about possibility of implementing this idea.
> Another idea that Robert Haas suggested was to add support doing a TID
> scan for a query like "WHERE ctid< '(501,1)'". That's not enough work
> for GSoC project on its own, but could certainly be a part of it.

3. I read about the replies on using ctid. But I don't quite understand how that might help. ctid is just a physical location of row version within the table. If I do "where ctid<'(501, 1)'", what is actually happening? Can I add in this as an optional implementation? I think I can check how to do this if I can have enough time in this project.

Best Regards and ThanksHuang Qi VictorComputer Science Department- National University of Singapore

> Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:16:29 +0300
> From: heikki(dot)linnakangas(at)enterprisedb(dot)com
> To: josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com
> CC: huangqiyx(at)hotmail(dot)com; pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org; andres(at)anarazel(dot)de; alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com; neil(dot)conway(at)gmail(dot)com; daniel(at)heroku(dot)com; cbbrowne(at)gmail(dot)com; kevin(dot)grittner(at)wicourts(dot)gov
> Subject: [HACKERS] Gsoc2012 idea, tablesample
>
> On 24.03.2012 22:12, Joshua Berkus wrote:
> > Qi,
> >
> > Yeah, I can see that. That's a sign that you had a good idea for a project, actually: your idea is interesting enough that people want to debate it. Make a proposal on Monday and our potential mentors will help you refine the idea.
>
> Yep. The discussion withered, so let me try to summarize:
>
> 1. We probably don't want the SQL syntax to be added to the grammar.
> This should be written as an extension, using custom functions as the
> API, instead of extra SQL syntax.
>
> 2. It's not very useful if it's just a dummy replacement for "WHERE
> random() < ?". It has to be more advanced than that. Quality of the
> sample is important, as is performance. There was also an interesting
> idea of on implementing monetary unit sampling.
>
> I think this would be a useful project if those two points are taken
> care of.
>
> Another idea that Robert Haas suggested was to add support doing a TID
> scan for a query like "WHERE ctid< '(501,1)'". That's not enough work
> for GSoC project on its own, but could certainly be a part of it.
>
> --
> Heikki Linnakangas
> EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com
>
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