Re: POC, WIP: OR-clause support for indexes

On Thu, Aug 17, 2023 at 3:08 AM a.rybakina <a(dot)rybakina(at)postgrespro(dot)ru> wrote:
> This is an interesting feature. I didn't notice this function before, I studied many times consider_new_or_cause, which were called there. As far as I know, there is a selectivity calculation going on there, but as far as I remember, I called it earlier after my conversion, and unfortunately it didn't solve my problem with calculating selectivity. I'll reconsider it again, maybe I can find something I missed.

Back in 2003, commit 9888192f removed (or at least simplified) what
were then called "CNF/DNF CONVERSION ROUTINES". Prior to that point
the optimizer README had something about leaving clause lists
un-normalized leading to selectivity estimation problems. Bear in mind
that this is a couple of years before ScalarArrayOpExpr was first
invented. Apparently even back then "The OR-of-ANDs format is useful
for indexscan implementation". It's possible that that old work will
offer some hints on what to do now.

In a way it's not surprising that work in this area would have some
impact on selectivies. The surprising part is the extent of the
problem, I suppose.

I see that a lot of the things in this area are just used by BitmapOr
clauses, such as build_paths_for_OR() -- but you're not necessarily
able to use any of that stuff. Also, choose_bitmap_and() has some
stuff about how it compensates to avoid "too-small selectivity that
makes a redundant AND step look like it reduces the total cost". It
also mentions some problems with match_join_clauses_to_index() +
extract_restriction_or_clauses(). Again, this might be a good place to
look for more clues.

--
Peter Geoghegan