Re: MERGE Specification

Dear All,

I have seen a lively discussion about the DO NOTING action in MERGE command.
And, I think most people want it. So it will be added to my next patch.

Before the implementation, I still have some questions to confirm:

1. If we have a DO NOTHING action specified, it should be the last WHEN
clause. It must be of the NOT MATCHED cases, and it CANNOT have any
additional action qualifications. Am I correct?

2. If no DO NOTHING specified, we will imply a INSERT DEFAULT VALUES action
as the end of MERGE.
My question is, is this action taken only for the NOT MATCHED tuples? If
this is the case, then what about the MATCHED tuples that match not previous
actions? Ignore them?
That means we are in fact going to add two implicit WHEN clause:
a) WHEN NOT MATCHED INSERT default values;
b) WHEN MATCHED THEN DO NOTHING.
OR, is the INSERT DEFAULT VALUES applied to ALL tuples not matter they are
MATCHED or not?

Besides, (I mean no offense, but) can this method really avoid losing row?

So far as I know, the DEFAULT values for table attributes are defined when
the table is created and no variables are allowed in the default value
expressions. That means, they are usually constants or simple serial
numbers.

Image that we have a MERGE command that has thousands of NOT MATCHED tuples
going to the implicit action. Then, the target table will inserted with
thousands of rows with DEAULT VALUES. These row will have similar (if not
exactly the same) simple content, which contains NO information from the
source table of MERGE. Is this really what we want? If it is not, then what
is the use of the INSERT DEFAULT VALUES action?

Regards