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Subject: BUG #19768: JSON_TABLE: row/text comparisons in context item or
 PASSING give wrong results or spurious collation
To: pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
From: PG Bug reporting form <noreply@postgresql.org>
Cc: venu2805k@gmail.com
Reply-To: venu2805k@gmail.com, pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2026 22:51:01 +0000
Message-ID: <19768-3633daa830be95db@postgresql.org>
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 <https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/19768-3633daa830be95db%40postgresql.org>
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The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference:      19768
Logged by:          Venu Kummari
Email address:      venu2805k@gmail.com
PostgreSQL version: 18.6
Operating system:   Linux x86_64
Description:       =20

PostgreSQL versions: 17.11, 18.6, master (26bd08f). Tested from source on
Linux x86_64.

The JSON_TABLE context-item expression fails to assign collations correctly,
causing incorrect results for row comparisons and collation errors for valid
text comparisons.

1. Incorrect result / assertion failure:

SELECT * FROM JSON_TABLE(
    jsonb_build_object('k', ROW(1, 2) < ROW(3, 4)),
    '$'
    COLUMNS (a bool PATH '$.k')
);

Expected: t
Actual: f on PostgreSQL 17.11 and 18.6. On an assertion-enabled master
build, the backend fails with:

TRAP: failed Assert("list_length(rcexpr->inputcollids) =3D=3D nopers"), Fil=
e:
"execExpr.c", Line: 2078

2. Collation error in the context item:

SELECT * FROM JSON_TABLE(
    jsonb_build_object('k', 'a' < 'b' COLLATE "C"),
    '$'
    COLUMNS (a bool PATH '$.k')
);

Expected: t
Actual: ERROR: could not determine which collation to use for string
comparison

3. Collation error in a PASSING argument:

SELECT * FROM JSON_TABLE(
    jsonb '{}',
    '$' PASSING 'a' < 'b' COLLATE "C" AS x
    COLUMNS (a bool PATH '$x')
);

This also fails with "could not determine which collation to use for string
comparison", despite the explicit COLLATE clause.

The same expressions work outside JSON_TABLE.

Suspected cause: transformJsonTable() in
src/backend/parser/parse_jsontable.c does not call assign_expr_collations()
for the context-item expression and PASSING arguments. The corresponding
XMLTABLE transformation performs collation assignment, as do JSON_TABLE
column expressions.

Without the required collation information, a RowCompareExpr can have an
empty inputcollids list, causing the executor to compare zero columns and
return an incorrect result.

A proposed patch adds the missing collation assignment and regression tests.
The patch was tested on master, and the core regression suite passed
(239/239 tests). The source change applies to REL_17_STABLE and
REL_18_STABLE.

The bug was discovered through grammar-based fuzzing.