Fast REVERSE() function?

Started by Chris Browneover 17 years ago7 messages
#1Chris Browne
cbbrowne@acm.org

I've got a case where I need to reverse strings, and find that, oddly
enough, there isn't a C-based reverse() function.

A search turns up pl/pgsql and SQL implementations:

create or replace function reverse_string(text) returns text as $$
DECLARE
reversed_string text;
incoming alias for $1;
BEGIN
reversed_string = '''';
for i in reverse char_length(incoming)..1 loop
reversed_string = reversed_string || substring(incoming from i for 1);
end loop;
return reversed_string;
END $$
language plpgsql;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION reverse(TEXT) RETURNS TEXT AS $$
SELECT
array_to_string(
ARRAY
( SELECT substring($1, s.i,1) FROM generate_series(length($1), 1, -1) AS s(i) ),
'');
$$ LANGUAGE SQL IMMUTABLE;

Unfortunately, neither is particularly fast. This should be
"blinding-quick" in C, in comparison; reversing a set of bytes should
be able to be done mighty quick!

(Aside: presumably we could walk thru the string destructively,
in-place, swapping bytes; I think that would be theoretically
quickest...)

I could probably add this in as an SPI() function; is there a good
reason to try to avoid doing so?
--
output = reverse("ofni.sesabatadxunil" "@" "enworbbc")
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#2Mario Weilguni
mario.weilguni@icomedias.com
In reply to: Chris Browne (#1)
Re: Fast REVERSE() function?

(Aside: presumably we could walk thru the string destructively,
in-place, swapping bytes; I think that would be theoretically
quickest...)

Hmmm... I guess it will not work für UTF-8 or any other multibyte charset

In reply to: Chris Browne (#1)
Re: Fast REVERSE() function?

On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 11:20:18AM -0400, Chris Browne wrote:

I've got a case where I need to reverse strings, and find that, oddly
enough, there isn't a C-based reverse() function.
A search turns up pl/pgsql and SQL implementations:

just for completenes - there is also pl/perl and c versions freely
available:
http://www.depesz.com/index.php/2007/07/30/indexable-field-like-something/
(pl/perl)
http://blog.frosties.org/post/2007/08/28/Fonction-reverse-C-avec-PostgreSQL
(c)

Best regards,

depesz

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#4Pavel Stehule
pavel.stehule@gmail.com
In reply to: Mario Weilguni (#2)
Re: Fast REVERSE() function?

Hello

2008/9/8 Mario Weilguni <mario.weilguni@icomedias.com>:

(Aside: presumably we could walk thru the string destructively,
in-place, swapping bytes; I think that would be theoretically
quickest...)

Hmmm... I guess it will not work für UTF-8 or any other multibyte charset

it isn't problem, but I am not sure, if ANSI SQL has this function?

Regards
Pavel Stehule

Show quoted text

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#5Andrew Dunstan
andrew@dunslane.net
In reply to: Mario Weilguni (#2)
Re: Fast REVERSE() function?

Mario Weilguni wrote:

(Aside: presumably we could walk thru the string destructively,
in-place, swapping bytes; I think that would be theoretically
quickest...)

Hmmm... I guess it will not work f�r UTF-8 or any other multibyte charset

Yes, quite.

Perl's reverse might work with UTF8 - I've never tried.

cheers

andrew

#6Pavel Stehule
pavel.stehule@gmail.com
In reply to: Andrew Dunstan (#5)
Re: Fast REVERSE() function?

2008/9/8 Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>:

Mario Weilguni wrote:

(Aside: presumably we could walk thru the string destructively,
in-place, swapping bytes; I think that would be theoretically
quickest...)

Hmmm... I guess it will not work für UTF-8 or any other multibyte charset

Yes, quite.

orafce contains multibyte (UTF8) reverse function.

Pavel

Show quoted text

Perl's reverse might work with UTF8 - I've never tried.

cheers

andrew

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#7Chris Browne
cbbrowne@acm.org
In reply to: Chris Browne (#1)
Re: Fast REVERSE() function?

depesz@depesz.com (hubert depesz lubaczewski) writes:

On Mon, Sep 08, 2008 at 11:20:18AM -0400, Chris Browne wrote:

I've got a case where I need to reverse strings, and find that, oddly
enough, there isn't a C-based reverse() function.
A search turns up pl/pgsql and SQL implementations:

just for completenes - there is also pl/perl and c versions freely
available:
http://www.depesz.com/index.php/2007/07/30/indexable-field-like-something/
(pl/perl)
http://blog.frosties.org/post/2007/08/28/Fonction-reverse-C-avec-PostgreSQL
(c)

I hadn't thought about the Unicode issue (mentioned elsewhere in the
thread); that's a good reason why the method I mentioned *wouldn't* be
a good one!

I'm NOT interested in pl/perl as an option; building and deploying all
of Perl is a mighty expensive way to get *ONE* function (and I don't
think that fundamentally changes if it's 10 functions!).

In the long run, I'd be keen on there being a REVERSE function
available in pg_catalog, which is why I'm asking about the C version,
as that would be the way to put it into the "core."
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