Re: Yet another fast GiST build

On 07/04/2021 09:00, Heikki Linnakangas wrote:
> On 08/03/2021 19:06, Andrey Borodin wrote:
>> There were numerous GiST-build-related patches in this thread. Yet uncommitted is a patch with sortsupport routines
forbtree_gist contrib module.
 
>> Here's its version which needs review.
> 
> Reviewing this now again. One thing caught my eye:
> 
>> +static int
>> +gbt_bit_sort_build_cmp(Datum a, Datum b, SortSupport ssup)
>> +{
>> +    return DatumGetInt32(DirectFunctionCall2(byteacmp,
>> +                                             PointerGetDatum(a),
>> +                                             PointerGetDatum(b)));
>> +}
> 
> That doesn't quite match the sort order used by the comparison
> functions, gbt_bitlt and such. The comparison functions compare the bits
> first, and use the length as a tie-breaker. Using byteacmp() will
> compare the "bit length" first. However, gbt_bitcmp() also uses
> byteacmp(), so I'm a bit confused. So, huh?

Ok, I think I understand that now. In btree_gist, the *_cmp() function 
operates on non-leaf values, and *_lt(), *_gt() et al operate on leaf 
values. For all other datatypes, the leaf and non-leaf representation is 
the same, but for bit/varbit, the non-leaf representation is different. 
The leaf representation is VarBit, and non-leaf is just the bits without 
the 'bit_len' field. That's why it is indeed correct for gbt_bitcmp() to 
just use byteacmp(), whereas gbt_bitlt() et al compares the 'bit_len' 
field separately. That's subtle, and 100% uncommented.

What that means for this patch is that gbt_bit_sort_build_cmp() should 
*not* call byteacmp(), but bitcmp(). Because it operates on the original 
datatype stored in the table.

- Heikki