SQL cast constructs can be performed during expression transformation
instead of during parsing.  This allows constructs like x::numeric(9,2)
and x::int2::float8 to behave as one would expect.

yet, but at least we can give a better error message:
regression=> select count(distinct f1) from int4_tbl;
ERROR:  aggregate(DISTINCT ...) is not implemented yet
instead of 'parser: parse error at or near distinct'.

make_const --- don't repeat cache searches that aren't needed.

mentioned in FROM but not elsewhere in the query: such tables should be
joined over anyway.  Aside from being more standards-compliant, this allows
removal of some very ugly hacks for COUNT(*) processing.  Also, allow
HAVING clause without aggregate functions, since SQL does.  Clean up
CREATE RULE statement-list syntax the same way Bruce just fixed the
main stmtmulti production.
CAUTION: addition of a field to RangeTblEntry nodes breaks stored rules;
you will have to initdb if you have any rules.

match then it tried for a self-commutative operator with the reversed input
data types.  This is pretty silly; there could never be such an operator,
except maybe in binary-compatible-type scenarios, and we have oper_inexact
for that.  Besides which, the oprsanity regress test would complain about
such an operator.  Remove nonfunctional code and simplify routine calling
convention accordingly.

sort order down into planner, instead of handling it only at the very top
level of the planner.  This fixes many things.  An explicit sort is now
avoided if there is a cheaper alternative (typically an indexscan) not
only for ORDER BY, but also for the internal sort of GROUP BY.  It works
even when there is no other reason (such as a WHERE condition) to consider
the indexscan.  It works for indexes on functions.  It works for indexes
on functions, backwards.  It's just so cool...

CAUTION: I have changed the representation of SortClause nodes, therefore
THIS UPDATE BREAKS STORED RULES.  You will need to initdb.

constants, not only string constants, at parse time.  Get rid of
parser_typecast2(), which is bogus and redundant...

of the SELECT part of the statement is just like a plain SELECT.  All
INSERT-specific processing happens after the SELECT parsing is done.
This eliminates many problems, e.g. INSERT ... SELECT ... GROUP BY using
the wrong column labels.  Ensure that DEFAULT clauses are coerced to
the target column type, whether or not stored clause produces the right
type.  Substantial cleanup of parser's array support.

used to overrun its fixed-size arrays before detecting error; not cool).
Also, replace uses of magic constant '8' with 'MAXFARGS'.

few percent speedup in INSERT...

lists are now plain old garden-variety Lists, allocated with palloc,
rather than specialized expansible-array data allocated with malloc.
This substantially simplifies their handling and eliminates several
sources of memory leakage.
Several basic types of erroneous queries (syntax error, attempt to
insert a duplicate key into a unique index) now demonstrably leak
zero bytes per query.

so that it has some SQL operators available.  It's difficult to write
automated tests of a data type that you haven't even got == for...

INTERSECT and EXCEPT is available for postgresql-v6.4!

The patch against v6.4 is included at the end of the current text
(in uuencoded form!)

I also included the text of my Master's Thesis. (a postscript
version). I hope that you find something of it useful and would be
happy if parts of it find their way into the PostgreSQL documentation
project (If so, tell me, then I send the sources of the document!)

The contents of the document are:
  -) The first chapter might be of less interest as it gives only an
     overview on SQL.

  -) The second chapter gives a description on much of PostgreSQL's
     features (like user defined types etc. and how to use these features)

  -) The third chapter starts with an overview of PostgreSQL's internal
     structure with focus on the stages a query has to pass (i.e. parser,
     planner/optimizer, executor). Then a detailed description of the
     implementation of the Having clause and the Intersect/Except logic is
     given.

Originally I worked on v6.3.2 but never found time enough to prepare
and post a patch. Now I applied the changes to v6.4 to get Intersect
and Except working with the new version. Chapter 3 of my documentation
deals with the changes against v6.3.2, so keep that in mind when
comparing the parts of the code printed there with the patched sources
of v6.4.

Here are some remarks on the patch. There are some things that have
still to be done but at the moment I don't have time to do them
myself. (I'm doing my military service at the moment) Sorry for that
:-(

-) I used a rewrite technique for the implementation of the Except/Intersect
   logic which rewrites the query to a semantically equivalent query before
   it is handed to the rewrite system (for views, rules etc.), planner,
   executor etc.

-) In v6.3.2 the types of the attributes of two select statements
   connected by the UNION keyword had to match 100%. In v6.4 the types
   only need to be familiar (i.e. int and float can be mixed). Since this
   feature did not exist when I worked on Intersect/Except it
   does not work correctly for Except/Intersect queries WHEN USED IN
   COMBINATION WITH UNIONS! (i.e. sometimes the wrong type is used for the
   resulting table. This is because until now the types of the attributes of
   the first select statement have been used for the resulting table.
   When Intersects and/or Excepts are used in combination with Unions it
   might happen, that the first select statement of the original query
   appears at another position in the query which will be executed. The reason
   for this is the technique used for the implementation of
   Except/Intersect which does a query rewrite!)
   NOTE: It is NOT broken for pure UNION queries and pure INTERSECT/EXCEPT
         queries!!!

-) I had to add the field intersect_clause to some data structures
   but did not find time to implement printfuncs for the new field.
   This does NOT break the debug modes but when an Except/Intersect
   is used the query debug output will be the already rewritten query.

-) Massive changes to the grammar rules for SELECT and INSERT statements
   have been necessary (see comments in gram.y and documentation for
   deatails) in order to be able to use mixed queries like
   (SELECT ... UNION (SELECT ... EXCEPT SELECT)) INTERSECT SELECT...;

-) When using UNION/EXCEPT/INTERSECT you will get:
   NOTICE: equal: "Don't know if nodes of type xxx are equal".
   I did not have  time to add comparsion support for all the needed nodes,
   but the default behaviour of the function equal met my requirements.
   I did not dare to supress this message!

   That's the reason why the regression test for union will fail: These
   messages are also included in the union.out file!

-) Somebody of you changed the union_planner() function for v6.4
   (I copied the targetlist to new_tlist and that was removed and
   replaced by a cleanup of the original targetlist). These chnages
   violated some having queries executed against views so I changed
   it back again. I did not have time to examine the differences between the
   two versions but now it works :-)
   If you want to find out, try the file queries/view_having.sql on
   both versions and compare the results . Two queries won't produce a
   correct result with your version.

regards

    Stefan

Extend new type coersion techniques to aggregates.

rewrite system.  Restructure parse_target to make it easier to
understand.

From: David Hartwig <daybee@bellatlantic.net>

I have attached a patch to allow GROUP BY and/or ORDER BY function or
expressions.  Note worthy items:

1. The expression or function need not be in the target list.
Example:
            SELECT  name FROM foo GROUP BY lower(name);

2.   Simplified the grammar to use expressions only.

3.  Cleaned up earlier patch in this area to make use of existing
utility functions.

3.  Reduced some of the members in the SortGroupBy parse node.   The
original data members were redundant with the new expression node.
(MUST do a "make clean" now)

4.  Added a new parse node "JoinUsing".   The JOIN USING clause was
overloading this SortGroupBy structure.   With the afore mentioned
reduction of members, the two clauses lost all their commonality.

5.  A bug still exist where, if a function or expression is GROUPed BY,
and an aggregate function does not include a attribute from the
expression or function, the backend crashes.   (or something like
that)   The bug pre-dates this patch.    Example:

    SELECT lower(a) AS lowcase, count(b) FROM foo GROUP BY lowcase;
                 *** BOOM  ***

    --Also when not in target list
    SELECT  count(b) FROM foo GROUP BY lower(a);
                *** BOOM  AGAIN ***

Merge "resjunk" handling with automatic type conversion
 when selecting from another column.

condition where the target label is ambiguous.

Add coerce_target_expr().