Adjust the API for aggregate function calls so that a C-coded function
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Adjust the API for aggregate function calls so that a C-coded function can tell whether it is being used as an aggregate or not. This allows such a function to avoid re-pallocing a pass-by-reference transition value; normally it would be unsafe for a function to scribble on an input, but in the aggregate case it's safe to reuse the old transition value. Make int8inc() do this. This gets a useful improvement in the speed of COUNT(*), at least on narrow tables (it seems to be swamped by I/O when the table rows are wide). Per a discussion in early December with Neil Conway. I also fixed int_aggregate.c to check this, thereby turning it into something approaching a supportable technique instead of being a crude hack.
Files
| Path | Change | +/− |
|---|---|---|
| contrib/intagg/int_aggregate.c | modified | +70 −47 |
| contrib/intagg/int_aggregate.sql.in | modified | +3 −8 |
| doc/src/sgml/xaggr.sgml | modified | +16 −1 |
| doc/src/sgml/xfunc.sgml | modified | +15 −5 |
| src/backend/executor/nodeAgg.c | modified | +19 −2 |
| src/backend/utils/adt/int8.c | modified | +39 −10 |