Use boolean array for nulls parameters

I personally don't see any benefit in this change. The focus shouldn't be
on fixing things that aren't broken. Perhaps, there is more value in using
bitmap data type to keep track of NULL values, which is typical storage vs
performance debate, and IMHO, it's better to err on using slightly more
storage for much better performance. IIRC, the bitmap idea has previously
discussed been rejected too.

On Tue, Jan 19, 2021 at 7:07 PM japin <japinli@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hi,

When I review the [1], I find that the tuple's nulls array use char type.
However there are many places use boolean array to repsent the nulls array,
so I think we can replace the char type nulls array to boolean type. This
change will break the SPI_xxx API, I'm not sure whether this chagnges cause
other problems or not. Any thought?

[1] -
/messages/by-id/CA+HiwqGkfJfYdeq5vHPh6eqPKjSbfpDDY+j-kXYFePQedtSLeg@mail.gmail.com

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ChengDu WenWu Information Technology Co.,Ltd.

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japin <japinli@hotmail.com> writes:

When I review the [1], I find that the tuple's nulls array use char type.
However there are many places use boolean array to repsent the nulls array,
so I think we can replace the char type nulls array to boolean type. This
change will break the SPI_xxx API, I'm not sure whether this chagnges cause
other problems or not. Any thought?

We have always considered that changing the APIs of published SPI
interfaces is a non-starter. The entire reason those calls still
exist at all is for the benefit of third-party extensions.

regards, tom lane

On Tue, 19 Jan 2021 at 23:45, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:

japin <japinli@hotmail.com> writes:

When I review the [1], I find that the tuple's nulls array use char type.
However there are many places use boolean array to repsent the nulls array,
so I think we can replace the char type nulls array to boolean type. This
change will break the SPI_xxx API, I'm not sure whether this chagnges cause
other problems or not. Any thought?

We have always considered that changing the APIs of published SPI
interfaces is a non-starter. The entire reason those calls still
exist at all is for the benefit of third-party extensions.

Thanks for your clarify. I agree that we should keep the APIs stable, maybe we
can modify this in someday when the APIs must be changed.

--
Regrads,
Japin Li.
ChengDu WenWu Information Technology Co.,Ltd.