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From: Richard Guo <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: pgsql: Teach planner to transform "x IS [NOT] DISTINCT FROM NULL" to a
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2026 01:20:34 +0000
Message-ID: <[email protected]> (raw)

Teach planner to transform "x IS [NOT] DISTINCT FROM NULL" to a NullTest

In the spirit of 8d19d0e13, this patch teaches the planner about the
principle that NullTest with !argisrow is fully equivalent to SQL's IS
[NOT] DISTINCT FROM NULL.

The parser already performs this transformation for literal NULLs.
However, a DistinctExpr expression with one input evaluating to NULL
during planning (e.g., via const-folding of "1 + NULL" or parameter
substitution in custom plans) currently remains as a DistinctExpr
node.

This patch closes the gap for const-folded NULLs.  It specifically
targets the case where one input is a constant NULL and the other is a
nullable non-constant expression.  (If the other input were otherwise,
the DistinctExpr node would have already been simplified to a constant
TRUE or FALSE.)

This transformation can be beneficial because NullTest is much more
amenable to optimization than DistinctExpr, since the planner knows a
good deal about the former and next to nothing about the latter.

Author: Richard Guo <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Tender Wang <[email protected]>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CAMbWs49BMAOWvkdSHxpUDnniqJcEcGq3_8dd_5wTR4xrQY8urA@mail.gmail.com

Branch
------
master

Details
-------
https://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/f41ab51573a4c3d11f906b32a068182a1fd8596d

Modified Files
--------------
src/backend/optimizer/util/clauses.c    | 24 ++++++++++++
src/test/regress/expected/predicate.out | 69 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
src/test/regress/sql/predicate.sql      | 27 ++++++++++++-
3 files changed, 118 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)



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