Re: [HACKERS] [PATCH] Generic type subscripting

> On Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 02:21:22PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Pavel Stehule <pavel(dot)stehule(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > But maybe we try to design some that are designed already. Is there some
> > info about index specification in SQL/JSON?
>
> We do have precedent for this, it's the rules about resolving argument
> types for overloaded functions. But the conclusion that that precedent
> leads to is that we should check whether the subscript expression can
> be *implicitly* coerced to either integer or text, and fail if neither
> coercion or both coercions succeed. I'd be okay with that from a system
> design standpoint, but it's hard to say without trying it whether it
> will work out nicely from a usability standpoint. In a quick trial
> it seems it might be okay:
>
> regression=# create function mysub(int) returns text language sql
> regression-# as $$select 'int'$$;
> CREATE FUNCTION
> regression=# create function mysub(text) returns text language sql
> as $$select 'text'$$;
> CREATE FUNCTION
> regression=# select mysub(42);
> mysub
> -------
> int
> (1 row)
>
> regression=# select mysub('foo');
> mysub
> -------
> text
> (1 row)
>
> regression=# select mysub(42::bigint);
> ERROR: function mysub(bigint) does not exist

I'm not sure I completely follow and can't immediately find the relevant
code for overloaded functions, so I need to do a perception check.
Following this design in jsonb_subscripting_transform we try to coerce
the subscription expression to both integer and text (and maybe even to
jsonpath), and based on the result of which coercion has succeeded chose
different logic to handle it, right?

And just for me to understand. In the above example of the overloaded
function, with the integer we can coerce it only to text (since original
type of the expression is integer), and with the bigint it could be
coerced both to integer and text, that's why failure, isn't?