Re: [HACKERS] Solution for LIMIT cost estimation
Chris <chrisb@nimrod.itg.telstra.com.au>
From: Chris Bitmead <chrisb@nimrod.itg.telstra.com.au>
To: pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org
Date: 2000-02-14T05:28:53Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Don Baccus wrote: > > At 03:32 PM 2/14/00 +1100, Chris Bitmead wrote: > > >I agree you should probably go the whole hog one way or the other. I > >think > >ignoring offset+limit is a useful option, but like I said at the > >beginning, it doesn't bother me _that_ much. > > It should bother you that folks who understand how SQL works might > be penalized in order to insulate the fact that those who don't know > how SQL works from an understanding of their own ignorance... > > Shouldn't we be more concerned with folks who bother to read an > SQL primer? Or Oracle or Informix docs on SQL? LIMIT is not SQL, both as a technical fact, and philosophically because it reaches outside of set theory. What LIMIT does without ORDER BY is non-deterministic, and therefore a subjective matter of what is the most useful: a faster answer, or a more consistant answer. My predudices are caused by what I use PostgreSQL for, which is more favourable to the latter.