Re: [HACKERS] PATCH: multivariate histograms and MCV lists

Hi Dean,

Here is an updated patch (hopefully) fixing the bugs you've reported so
far. In particular, it fixes this:

1) mostly harmless memset bug in UpdateStatisticsForTypeChange

2) passing the right list (stat_clauses) to mcv_clauselist_selectivity

3) corrections to a couple of outdated comments

4) handling of NOT clauses in MCV lists (and in histograms)

The query you posted does not fail anymore, but there's a room for
improvement. We should be able to handle queries like this:

    select * from foo where a=1 and not b=1;

But we don't, because we only recognize F_EQSEL, F_SCALARLTSEL and
F_SCALARGTSEL, but F_NEQSEL (which is what "not b=1" uses). Should be
simple to fix, I believe.

5) handling of mcv_lowsel in statext_clauselist_selectivity

I do believe the new behavior is correct - as I suspected, I broke this
during the last rebase, where I also moved some stuff from the histogram
part to the MCV part. I've also added the (sum of MCV frequencies), as
you suggested.

I think we could improve the estimate further by computing ndistinct
estimate, and then using that to compute average frequency of non-MCV
items. Essentially what var_eq_const does:

    if (otherdistinct > 1)
        selec /= otherdistinct;

Not sure how to do that when there are not just equality clauses.

BTW I think there's a bug in handling the fullmatch flag - it should not
be passed to AND/OR subclauses the way it is, because then

    WHERE a=1 OR (a=2 AND b=2)

will probably set it to 'true' because of (a=2 AND b=2). Which will
short-circuit the statext_clauselist_selectivity, forcing it to ignore
the non-MCV part.

But that's something I need to look at more closely tomorrow. Another
thing I probably need to do is to add more regression tests, protecting
against bugs similar to those you found.

Thanks for the feedback so far!


regards

-- 
Tomas Vondra                  http://www.2ndQuadrant.com
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services