Re: Refactor query normalization into core query jumbling

> > > I agree that ComputeConstantLengths should be in core. This one is
> > > not a gray area IMO. The query jumble already records constant locations,
> > > but leaves the lengths unset. ComputeConstantLengths is just the
> > > completion of that  work. There could be no other interpretation,
> > > unlike generate_normalized_query, of what the lengths should be.
> >
> > This is an interesting remark. One problem with any patches presented yet is that we don’t attach the lengths as part of the in-core query jumbling procedure: we plug the lengths later using the same structure as the query jumbling. It seems to me that this is half-baked overall. I think that we don’t want to pay the extra length computation in the core query jumbling at the end, then why does it make sense to include the lengths in the JumbleState structure at all? Shouldn’t we use a different structure filled inside PGSS for this purpose rather than reuse the same thing for PGSS and the in-core part (don’t have the code in front of me now).
>
> I see where you're coming from on that, but I don't think we can
> remove anything here in practice:

Yes. Not unless we want to rely on the parser to track the lengths in
Const, which could be invasive, but I have not looked into it.

Paying the length computation at the end of every jumble is also
going to impact performance, so that will not be a good idea.

> I still think it'd be reasonable for us to include
> ComputeConstantLengths in core to complete the picture of what we're
> doing with _jumbleElements and the length field already anyway. Its
> basically a way to fully hydrate the partially filled out JumbleState
> from the initial jumble.

I fully agree, ComputeConstantLengths is an optional post-jumble-query step
for a consumer that wishes to calculate the lengths. The length calculation
is not unique to a plug-in, so in my mind the work it's doing is core
jumbling functionality.

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Sami Imseih
Amazon Web Services (AWS)