Re: NULL-handling in aggregate(DISTINCT ...)

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Andrew Gierth <andrew(at)tao11(dot)riddles(dot)org(dot)uk>
Cc: pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: NULL-handling in aggregate(DISTINCT ...)
Date: 2009-11-12 01:40:14
Message-ID: 12111.1257990014@sss.pgh.pa.us
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Andrew Gierth <andrew(at)tao11(dot)riddles(dot)org(dot)uk> writes:
> Now the question: If the limit of one argument for DISTINCT aggs were
> removed (which I'm considering doing as part of an update to the
> aggregate ORDER BY patch I posted a while back), what should be the
> behaviour of agg(distinct x,y) where one or both of x or y is null?
> And should it depend on the strictness of the transition function?

I think you could probably just change it: make DISTINCT work as per
regular DISTINCT (treat null like a value, keep one copy). All the
spec-conforming aggregates are strict and would ignore the null in the
next step anyway.

regards, tom lane

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