RE: [HACKERS] RE: [GENERAL] Long update query ? (also Re: [GENERAL] CNF vs. DNF)

> > Very nice, but that's like trying to code factorization of
> numbers... not
> > pretty, and very CPU intensive on complex queries...
>
> Yes, but how large are the WHERE clauses going to be?  Considering the
> cost of cnfify() and UNION, it seems like a clear win.  Is it general
> enough to solve our problems?

Could be... the examples I received where the cnfify() was really bad were
cases where the query was submitted alredy in DNF... and where the UNION was
a simple one. However, I don't know of any algorithms for generic
simplification of logical constraints. One problem is resolution/selection
of factors:

SELECT * FROM a WHERE (a = 1 AND b = 2 AND c = 3) OR (a = 4 AND b = 2 AND c
= 3) OR (a = 1 AND b = 5 AND c = 3) OR (a = 1 AND b = 2 AND c = 6);

Try that on for size. You can understand why that code gets ugly, fast.
Somebody could try coding it, but it's not a clear win to me.

My original heuristic was missing one thing: "Where the heuristic fails to
process or decide, default to CNF." Since that's the current behavior, we're
less likely to break things.

Taral