Re: Add RESPECT/IGNORE NULLS and FROM FIRST/LAST options

On 4/22/23 14:14, Tatsuo Ishii wrote:
> I revisited the thread:
> https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/CAGMVOdsbtRwE_4%2Bv8zjH1d9xfovDeQAGLkP_B6k69_VoFEgX-A%40mail.gmail.com
>
> and came up with attached POC patch (I used some varibale names
> appearing in the Krasiyan Andreev's patch). I really love to have
> RESPECT/IGNORE NULLS because I believe they are convenient for
> users.

Excellent. I was thinking about picking my version of this patch up
again, but I think this might be better than mine.

I am curious why set_mark is false in the IGNORE version instead of also
being const_offset. Surely the nth non-null in the frame will never go
backwards.

Dealing with marks was the main reason (I think) that my patch was not
accepted.

> For FIRST/LAST I am not so excited since there are alternatives
> as our document stats,

I disagree with this. The point of having FROM LAST is to avoid
calculating a new window and running a new pass over it.

> so FIRST/LAST are not included in the patch.

I do agree that we can have <null treatment> without <from first or
last> so let's move forward with this and handle the latter later.

> Currently in the patch only nth_value is allowed to use RESPECT/IGNORE
> NULLS.

This should not be hard coded. It should be a new field in pg_proc
(with a sanity check that it is only true for window functions). That
way custom window functions can implement it.

> I think it's not hard to implement it for others (lead, lag,
> first_value and last_value).

It doesn't seem like it should be, no.

> No document nor test patches are included for now.

I can volunteer to work on these if you want.

> Note that RESPECT/IGNORE are not registered as reserved keywords in
> this patch (but registered as unreserved keywords). I am not sure if
> this is acceptable or not.

For me, this is perfectly okay. Keep them at the lowest level of
reservation as possible.
--
Vik Fearing