Re: Redundant Result node

On Fri, Aug 23, 2024 at 11:19 AM Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> Richard Guo <guofenglinux(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > ... we'll always make a separate ProjectionPath on top of the SortPath
> > in create_ordered_paths. It’s only when we create the plan node for
> > the projection step in createplan.c that we realize a separate Result
> > is unnecessary. This is not efficient.
>
> I'm not sure you're considering "efficiency" in the right light.
> In my mind, any time we can postpone work from path-creation time
> to plan-creation time, we're probably winning because we create
> many more paths than plans. Perhaps that's wrong in this case,
> but it's not anywhere near as obvious as you suggest.

I agree that it’s always desirable to postpone work from path-creation
time to plan-creation time. In this case, however, it’s a little
different. The projection step could actually be avoided from the
start if we perform the correct check in create_ordered_paths.

Thanks
Richard