Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On Nov 26, 2012, at 11:12 AM, Peter Eisentraut pete...@gmx.net wrote: Although my intuition would be [], the existing concatenation-like aggregates return null for no input rows, so this probably ought to be consistent with those. This annoys me at times, but I wrap such calls in COALESCE() and forget about it. So I agree to keep it consistent with other array-returning aggregate functions. Best, David -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/27/2012 02:38 PM, Andrew Dunstan wrote: On 11/26/2012 12:31 PM, Robert Haas wrote: On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net wrote: I don't understand why you would want to create such a cast. If the cast doesn't exist it will do exactly what it does now, i.e. use the type's output function and then json quote and escape it, which in the case of citext is the Right Thing (tm): andrew=# select to_json('foobar'::citext); to_json foo\bar I'm not sure either, but setting up a system where seemingly innocuous actions can in fact have surprising and not-easily-fixable consequences in other parts of the system doesn't seem like good design to me. Of course, maybe I'm misunderstanding what will happen; I haven't actually tested it myself. I'm all for caution, but the argument here seems a bit nebulous. We could create a sort of auxiliary type, as has been previously suggested, that would be in all respects the same as the json type except that it would be the target of the casts that would be used in to_json() and friends. But, that's a darned ugly thing to have to do, so I'd want a good concrete reason for doing it. Right now I'm having a hard time envisioning a problem that could be caused by just using the straightforward solution that's in my latest patch. So, are there any other opinions on this besides mine and Robert's? I'd like to move forward but I want to get this resolved first. cheers andrew -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/26/2012 12:31 PM, Robert Haas wrote: On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net wrote: I don't understand why you would want to create such a cast. If the cast doesn't exist it will do exactly what it does now, i.e. use the type's output function and then json quote and escape it, which in the case of citext is the Right Thing (tm): andrew=# select to_json('foobar'::citext); to_json foo\bar I'm not sure either, but setting up a system where seemingly innocuous actions can in fact have surprising and not-easily-fixable consequences in other parts of the system doesn't seem like good design to me. Of course, maybe I'm misunderstanding what will happen; I haven't actually tested it myself. I'm all for caution, but the argument here seems a bit nebulous. We could create a sort of auxiliary type, as has been previously suggested, that would be in all respects the same as the json type except that it would be the target of the casts that would be used in to_json() and friends. But, that's a darned ugly thing to have to do, so I'd want a good concrete reason for doing it. Right now I'm having a hard time envisioning a problem that could be caused by just using the straightforward solution that's in my latest patch. cheers andrew -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 3:16 PM, Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net wrote: Non-builtin types are now searched for a cast to json, and if it exists it is used instead of the type's text representation. I didn't add a special type to look for a cast to, as was discussed before, as it seemed a bit funky and unnecessary. It can easily be added, but I'm still not convinced it's a good idea. Note that this is only done for types that aren't builtin - we know how to turn all of those into json without needing to look for a cast. The place where I fear this will cause problems is with non-core text-like datatypes, such as citext. For example, I wonder if creating a cast from citext to json - which seems like a sensible thing to want to do for other reasons - changes the semantics of this function when applied to citext objects. -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/26/2012 10:55 AM, Robert Haas wrote: On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 3:16 PM, Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net wrote: Non-builtin types are now searched for a cast to json, and if it exists it is used instead of the type's text representation. I didn't add a special type to look for a cast to, as was discussed before, as it seemed a bit funky and unnecessary. It can easily be added, but I'm still not convinced it's a good idea. Note that this is only done for types that aren't builtin - we know how to turn all of those into json without needing to look for a cast. The place where I fear this will cause problems is with non-core text-like datatypes, such as citext. For example, I wonder if creating a cast from citext to json - which seems like a sensible thing to want to do for other reasons - changes the semantics of this function when applied to citext objects. I don't understand why you would want to create such a cast. If the cast doesn't exist it will do exactly what it does now, i.e. use the type's output function and then json quote and escape it, which in the case of citext is the Right Thing (tm): andrew=# select to_json('foobar'::citext); to_json foo\bar cheers andrew -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 11:43 AM, Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net wrote: I don't understand why you would want to create such a cast. If the cast doesn't exist it will do exactly what it does now, i.e. use the type's output function and then json quote and escape it, which in the case of citext is the Right Thing (tm): andrew=# select to_json('foobar'::citext); to_json foo\bar I'm not sure either, but setting up a system where seemingly innocuous actions can in fact have surprising and not-easily-fixable consequences in other parts of the system doesn't seem like good design to me. Of course, maybe I'm misunderstanding what will happen; I haven't actually tested it myself. -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 4:54 AM, Dimitri Fontaine dimi...@2ndquadrant.fr wrote: Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net writes: Here is a WIP patch for enhancements to json generation. First, there is the much_requested json_agg, which will aggregate rows directly to json. So the following will now work: select json_agg(my_table) from mytable; select json_agg(q) from (myquery here) q; Awesome, thanks! How do you handle the nesting of the source elements? I would expect a variant of the aggregate that takes two input parameters, the datum and the current nesting level. Consider a tree table using parent_id and a recursive query to display the tree. You typically handle the nesting with an accumulator and a call to repeat() to prepend some spaces before the value columns. What about passing that nesting level (integer) to the json_agg()? Here's a worked out example: CREATE TABLE parent_child ( parent_id integer NOT NULL, this_node_id integer NULL ); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (0, 1); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 2); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 3); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 4); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (2, 5); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (2, 6); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 7); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 8); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 9); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (9, 10); WITH RECURSIVE tree(id, level, parents) AS ( SELECT this_node_id as id, 0 as level, '{}'::int[] as parents FROM parent_child WHERE parent_id = 0 UNION ALL SELECT this_node_id as id, t.level + 1, t.parents || c.parent_id FROM parent_child c JOIN tree t ON t.id = c.parent_id ) SELECT json_agg(id, level) FROM tree; I've left the parents column in the query above as a debug facility, but it's not needed in that case. I don't think there is any way a json_agg() function could reasonably do this. The only possible dataset it could work on would be for homogeneously typed array-like data which is not very interesting for the broader case of nested json productions. I think the right way to do it is to work out the precise structure in sql and do the transformation directly on the type using the already existing transformation functions. That said, recursive structures are a pain presently because postgres composite types are not allowed to be recursive. So ISTM getting that restriction relaxed is the way to go; then you build it in sql and just fire whatever xxx_to_json happens to be the most appropriate...then your example would be a snap. merlin -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/21/12 3:16 PM, Andrew Dunstan wrote: One open question regarding this feature is whether this should return NULL or '[]' for 0 rows. Currently it returns NULL but I could be convinced to return '[]', and the change would be very small. Although my intuition would be [], the existing concatenation-like aggregates return null for no input rows, so this probably ought to be consistent with those. -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/26/2012 08:12 PM, Peter Eisentraut wrote: On 11/21/12 3:16 PM, Andrew Dunstan wrote: One open question regarding this feature is whether this should return NULL or '[]' for 0 rows. Currently it returns NULL but I could be convinced to return '[]', and the change would be very small. Although my intuition would be [], the existing concatenation-like aggregates return null for no input rows, so this probably ought to be consistent with those. In some previous mail Tom Lane claimed that by SQL standard either an array of all NULLs or a record with all fields NULLs (I don't remember which) is also considered NULL. If this is true, then an empty array - which can be said to consist of nothing but NULLs - should itself be NULL. If this is so, than the existing behaviour of returning NULL in such cases is what standard requires. Hannu Krosing -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/26/2012 02:46 PM, Hannu Krosing wrote: On 11/26/2012 08:12 PM, Peter Eisentraut wrote: On 11/21/12 3:16 PM, Andrew Dunstan wrote: One open question regarding this feature is whether this should return NULL or '[]' for 0 rows. Currently it returns NULL but I could be convinced to return '[]', and the change would be very small. Although my intuition would be [], the existing concatenation-like aggregates return null for no input rows, so this probably ought to be consistent with those. In some previous mail Tom Lane claimed that by SQL standard either an array of all NULLs or a record with all fields NULLs (I don't remember which) is also considered NULL. If this is true, then an empty array - which can be said to consist of nothing but NULLs - should itself be NULL. If this is so, than the existing behaviour of returning NULL in such cases is what standard requires. That would be more relevant if we were talking about postgres arrays, but the '[]' here would not be a postgres array - it would be a piece of json text. But in any case, the consensus seems to be to return null, and on the principle of doing the least work required I'm happy to comply. cheers andrew -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements: fk-tree-to-json()
On 11/22/2012 11:54 AM, Dimitri Fontaine wrote: Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net writes: Here is a WIP patch for enhancements to json generation. First, there is the much_requested json_agg, which will aggregate rows directly to json. So the following will now work: select json_agg(my_table) from mytable; select json_agg(q) from (myquery here) q; Awesome, thanks! How do you handle the nesting of the source elements? I would expect a variant of the aggregate that takes two input parameters, the datum and the current nesting level. Consider a tree table using parent_id and a recursive query to display the tree. You typically handle the nesting with an accumulator and a call to repeat() to prepend some spaces before the value columns. What about passing that nesting level (integer) to the json_agg()? It still would not produxe nesting, just a nicer format. If you want real nesting, you may want a version of my pl/python function row-with-all-dependents-by-foreign-key-to-json() which outputs a table row and then recursively all rows from other (or the same) table which have a foreign key relationship to this row I use it to backup removed objects. I would love to have something similar as a built-in function, though the current version has some limitations and lacks some checks, like check for FK loops. Function follows: --- CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION record_to_json_with_detail(table_name text, pk_value int) RETURNS text AS $$ import json,re def fk_info(table_name): fkplan = plpy.prepare( SELECT conrelid::regclass as reftable, pg_get_constraintdef(c.oid) as condef FROM pg_constraint c WHERE c.confrelid::regclass = $1::regclass AND c.contype = 'f' , (text,)) cdefrx = re.compile('FOREIGN KEY [(](.*)[)] REFERENCES .*[(](.*)[)].*') fkres = plpy.execute(fkplan, (table_name,)) for row in fkres: reffields, thisfields = cdefrx.match(row['condef']).groups() yield thisfields, row['reftable'],reffields def select_from_table_by_col(table_name, col_name, col_value): qplan = plpy.prepare('select * from %s where %s = $1' % (table_name, col_name), ('int',)) return plpy.execute(qplan, (col_value,)) def recursive_rowdict(table_name, row_dict): rd = dict([(a,b) for (a,b) in row_dict.items() if b is not None]) # skip NULLs rd['__row_class__'] = table_name for id_col, ref_tab, ref_col in fk_info(table_name): q2res = select_from_table_by_col(ref_tab, ref_col,row_dict[id_col]) if q2res: try: rd['__refs__::' + id_col] += [recursive_rowdict(ref_tab,row) for row in q2res] except KeyError: rd['__refs__::' + id_col] = [recursive_rowdict(ref_tab,row) for row in q2res] return rd q1res = select_from_table_by_col(table_name, 'id', pk_value) return json.dumps(recursive_rowdict(table_name, q1res[0]), indent=3) $$ LANGUAGE plpythonu; create table test1(id serial primary key, selfkey int references test1, data text); create table test2(id serial primary key, test1key int references test1, data text); insert into test1 values(1,null,'top'); insert into test1 values(2,1,'lvl1'); insert into test2 values(1,1,'lvl1-2'); insert into test2 values(2,2,'lvl2-2'); select record_to_json_with_detail('test1',1); record_to_json_with_detail --- { __row_class__: test1, data: top, id: 1, __refs__::id: [ { __row_class__: test1, selfkey: 1, data: lvl1, id: 2, __refs__::id: [ { __row_class__: test2, test1key: 2, data: lvl2-2, id: 2 } ] }, { __row_class__: test2, test1key: 1, data: lvl1-2, id: 1 } ] } (1 row) Time: 6.576 ms --- Hannu Krosing -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
Hannu Krosing ha...@2ndquadrant.com writes: In some previous mail Tom Lane claimed that by SQL standard either an array of all NULLs or a record with all fields NULLs (I don't remember which) is also considered NULL. If this is true, then an empty array - which can be said to consist of nothing but NULLs - should itself be NULL. What I think you're referring to is that the spec says that foo IS NULL should return true if foo is a record containing only null fields. That's a fairly narrow statement. It does NOT say that NULL and (NULL,NULL,...) are indistinguishable for all purposes; only that this particular test doesn't distinguish them. Also I don't think they have the same statement for arrays. The analogy to other aggregates is probably a better thing to argue from. On the other hand, I don't know anyone outside the SQL standards committee who thinks it's actually a good idea that SUM() across no rows returns null rather than zero. regards, tom lane -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements : strange IS NULL behaviour
On 11/26/2012 09:05 PM, Tom Lane wrote: Hannu Krosing ha...@2ndquadrant.com writes: In some previous mail Tom Lane claimed that by SQL standard either an array of all NULLs or a record with all fields NULLs (I don't remember which) is also considered NULL. If this is true, then an empty array - which can be said to consist of nothing but NULLs - should itself be NULL. What I think you're referring to is that the spec says that foo IS NULL should return true if foo is a record containing only null fields. Is this requirement recursive ? That is , should ROW(NULL, NULL, ROW(NULL, ROW(NULL, NULL))) IS NULL also be true ? Currently PostgreSQL does this kind of IS NULL for simple rows hannu=# SELECT ROW(NULL, NULL) IS NULL; ?column? -- t (1 row) and also for first level row types hannu=# SELECT ROW(NULL, ROW(NULL, NULL)) IS NULL; ?column? -- t (1 row) but then mysteriously stops working at third level hannu=# SELECT ROW(NULL, NULL, ROW(NULL, ROW(NULL, NULL))) IS NULL; ?column? -- f (1 row) That's a fairly narrow statement. It does NOT say that NULL and (NULL,NULL,...) are indistinguishable for all purposes; only that this particular test doesn't distinguish them. Also I don't think they have the same statement for arrays. The analogy to other aggregates is probably a better thing to argue from. On the other hand, I don't know anyone outside the SQL standards committee who thinks it's actually a good idea that SUM() across no rows returns null rather than zero. Might be done in order to be in sync with other aggregates - for example the return NULL for no rows behaviour makes perfect sense for MIN(), AVG(), etc. Hannu -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements : strange IS NULL behaviour
Hannu Krosing ha...@2ndquadrant.com writes: On 11/26/2012 09:05 PM, Tom Lane wrote: The analogy to other aggregates is probably a better thing to argue from. On the other hand, I don't know anyone outside the SQL standards committee who thinks it's actually a good idea that SUM() across no rows returns null rather than zero. Might be done in order to be in sync with other aggregates - for example the return NULL for no rows behaviour makes perfect sense for MIN(), AVG(), etc. Well, if they'd made COUNT() of no rows return null, then I'd agree that they were pursuing consistency. As it stands, it's neither consistent nor very sensible. regards, tom lane -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 3:05 PM, Tom Lane t...@sss.pgh.pa.us wrote: The analogy to other aggregates is probably a better thing to argue from. On the other hand, I don't know anyone outside the SQL standards committee who thinks it's actually a good idea that SUM() across no rows returns null rather than zero. Me neither. -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net writes: Here is a WIP patch for enhancements to json generation. First, there is the much_requested json_agg, which will aggregate rows directly to json. So the following will now work: select json_agg(my_table) from mytable; select json_agg(q) from (myquery here) q; Awesome, thanks! How do you handle the nesting of the source elements? I would expect a variant of the aggregate that takes two input parameters, the datum and the current nesting level. Consider a tree table using parent_id and a recursive query to display the tree. You typically handle the nesting with an accumulator and a call to repeat() to prepend some spaces before the value columns. What about passing that nesting level (integer) to the json_agg()? Here's a worked out example: CREATE TABLE parent_child ( parent_id integer NOT NULL, this_node_id integer NULL ); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (0, 1); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 2); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 3); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 4); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (2, 5); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (2, 6); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 7); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 8); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 9); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (9, 10); WITH RECURSIVE tree(id, level, parents) AS ( SELECT this_node_id as id, 0 as level, '{}'::int[] as parents FROM parent_child WHERE parent_id = 0 UNION ALL SELECT this_node_id as id, t.level + 1, t.parents || c.parent_id FROM parent_child c JOIN tree t ON t.id = c.parent_id ) SELECT json_agg(id, level) FROM tree; I've left the parents column in the query above as a debug facility, but it's not needed in that case. Regards, -- Dimitri Fontaine http://2ndQuadrant.fr PostgreSQL : Expertise, Formation et Support -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/22/2012 05:54 AM, Dimitri Fontaine wrote: Andrew Dunstan and...@dunslane.net writes: Here is a WIP patch for enhancements to json generation. First, there is the much_requested json_agg, which will aggregate rows directly to json. So the following will now work: select json_agg(my_table) from mytable; select json_agg(q) from (myquery here) q; Awesome, thanks! How do you handle the nesting of the source elements? I would expect a variant of the aggregate that takes two input parameters, the datum and the current nesting level. Consider a tree table using parent_id and a recursive query to display the tree. You typically handle the nesting with an accumulator and a call to repeat() to prepend some spaces before the value columns. What about passing that nesting level (integer) to the json_agg()? Here's a worked out example: CREATE TABLE parent_child ( parent_id integer NOT NULL, this_node_id integer NULL ); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (0, 1); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 2); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 3); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (1, 4); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (2, 5); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (2, 6); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 7); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 8); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (4, 9); INSERT INTO parent_child (parent_id, this_node_id) VALUES (9, 10); WITH RECURSIVE tree(id, level, parents) AS ( SELECT this_node_id as id, 0 as level, '{}'::int[] as parents FROM parent_child WHERE parent_id = 0 UNION ALL SELECT this_node_id as id, t.level + 1, t.parents || c.parent_id FROM parent_child c JOIN tree t ON t.id = c.parent_id ) SELECT json_agg(id, level) FROM tree; I've left the parents column in the query above as a debug facility, but it's not needed in that case. the function only takes a single argument and aggregates all the values into a json array. If the arguments are composites they will produce json objects. People complained that to get a resultset as json you have to do in 9.2 select array_to_json(array_agg(q)) ... which is both a bit cumbersome and fairly inefficient. json_agg(q) is equivalent to the above expression but is both simpler and much more efficient. If you want a tree structured object you'll need to construct it yourself - this function won't do the nesting for you. That's beyond its remit. cheers andrew -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
[HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
Here is a WIP patch for enhancements to json generation. First, there is the much_requested json_agg, which will aggregate rows directly to json. So the following will now work: select json_agg(my_table) from mytable; select json_agg(q) from (myquery here) q; One open question regarding this feature is whether this should return NULL or '[]' for 0 rows. Currently it returns NULL but I could be convinced to return '[]', and the change would be very small. Next is to_json(), which will turn any value into json, so we're no longer restricted to rows and arrays. Non-builtin types are now searched for a cast to json, and if it exists it is used instead of the type's text representation. I didn't add a special type to look for a cast to, as was discussed before, as it seemed a bit funky and unnecessary. It can easily be added, but I'm still not convinced it's a good idea. Note that this is only done for types that aren't builtin - we know how to turn all of those into json without needing to look for a cast. Along with this there is an hstore_to_json() function added to the hstore module, and a cast from hstore to json that uses it. This function treats every value in the hstore as a string. There is also a function with the working title of hstore_to_json_loose() that does a heuristic conversion that treats values of 't' and 'f' as booleans, and strings that look like numbers as numbers unless they start with a leading 0 followed by another digit (could be zip codes, phone numbers etc.) The difference between these is illustrated here (notice that quoted 't' becomes unquoted 'true' and quoted '1' becomes '1'): andrew=# select json_agg(q) from foo q; json_agg - [{a:a,b:1,h:{c: t, d: null, q: 1, x: y}}] (1 row) andrew=# select json_agg(q) from (select a, b, hstore_to_json_loose(h) as h from foo) q; json_agg [{a:a,b:1,h:{c: true, d: null, q: 1, x: y}}] (1 row) Note: this patch will need a change in the oids used for the new functions if applied against git tip, as they have been overtaken by time. Comments welcome. cheers andrew *** a/contrib/hstore/hstore--1.1.sql --- b/contrib/hstore/hstore--1.1.sql *** *** 234,239 LANGUAGE C IMMUTABLE STRICT; --- 234,252 CREATE CAST (text[] AS hstore) WITH FUNCTION hstore(text[]); + CREATE FUNCTION hstore_to_json(hstore) + RETURNS json + AS 'MODULE_PATHNAME', 'hstore_to_json' + LANGUAGE C IMMUTABLE STRICT; + + CREATE CAST (hstore AS json) + WITH FUNCTION hstore_to_json(hstore); + + CREATE FUNCTION hstore_to_json_loose(hstore) + RETURNS json + AS 'MODULE_PATHNAME', 'hstore_to_json_loose' + LANGUAGE C IMMUTABLE STRICT; + CREATE FUNCTION hstore(record) RETURNS hstore AS 'MODULE_PATHNAME', 'hstore_from_record' *** a/contrib/hstore/hstore_io.c --- b/contrib/hstore/hstore_io.c *** *** 8,14 --- 8,17 #include access/htup_details.h #include catalog/pg_type.h #include funcapi.h + #include lib/stringinfo.h #include libpq/pqformat.h + #include utils/builtins.h + #include utils/json.h #include utils/lsyscache.h #include utils/typcache.h *** *** 1209,1211 hstore_send(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS) --- 1212,1425 PG_RETURN_BYTEA_P(pq_endtypsend(buf)); } + + + /* + * hstore_to_json_loose + * + * This is a heuristic conversion to json which treats + * 't' and 'f' as booleans and strings that look like numbers as numbers, + * as long as they don't start with a leading zero followed by another digit + * (think zip codes or phone numbers starting with 0). + */ + PG_FUNCTION_INFO_V1(hstore_to_json_loose); + Datum hstore_to_json_loose(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS); + Datum + hstore_to_json_loose(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS) + { + HStore *in = PG_GETARG_HS(0); + int buflen, + i; + int count = HS_COUNT(in); + char *out, + *ptr; + char *base = STRPTR(in); + HEntry *entries = ARRPTR(in); + boolis_number; + StringInfo src, dst; + + if (count == 0) + { + out = palloc(1); + *out = '\0'; + PG_RETURN_TEXT_P(cstring_to_text(out)); + } + + buflen = 3; + + /* + * Formula adjusted slightly from the logic in hstore_out. + * We have to take account of out treatment of booleans + * to be a bit more pessimistic about the length of values. + */ + + for (i = 0; i count; i++) + { + /* include and colon-space and comma-space */ + buflen += 6 + 2 * HS_KEYLEN(entries, i); + /* include only if nonnull */ + buflen += 3 + (HS_VALISNULL(entries, i) + ? 1 + : 2 * HS_VALLEN(entries, i)); + } + + out = ptr = palloc(buflen); + + src = makeStringInfo(); + dst = makeStringInfo(); + + *ptr++ = '{'; + + for (i = 0; i count; i++) + { + resetStringInfo(src); +
Re: [HACKERS] WIP json generation enhancements
On 11/21/2012 03:16 PM, Andrew Dunstan wrote: Here is a WIP patch for enhancements to json generation. First, there is the much_requested json_agg, which will aggregate rows directly to json. So the following will now work: select json_agg(my_table) from mytable; select json_agg(q) from (myquery here) q; One open question regarding this feature is whether this should return NULL or '[]' for 0 rows. Currently it returns NULL but I could be convinced to return '[]', and the change would be very small. Next is to_json(), which will turn any value into json, so we're no longer restricted to rows and arrays. Non-builtin types are now searched for a cast to json, and if it exists it is used instead of the type's text representation. I didn't add a special type to look for a cast to, as was discussed before, as it seemed a bit funky and unnecessary. It can easily be added, but I'm still not convinced it's a good idea. Note that this is only done for types that aren't builtin - we know how to turn all of those into json without needing to look for a cast. Along with this there is an hstore_to_json() function added to the hstore module, and a cast from hstore to json that uses it. This function treats every value in the hstore as a string. There is also a function with the working title of hstore_to_json_loose() that does a heuristic conversion that treats values of 't' and 'f' as booleans, and strings that look like numbers as numbers unless they start with a leading 0 followed by another digit (could be zip codes, phone numbers etc.) The difference between these is illustrated here (notice that quoted 't' becomes unquoted 'true' and quoted '1' becomes '1'): andrew=# select json_agg(q) from foo q; json_agg - [{a:a,b:1,h:{c: t, d: null, q: 1, x: y}}] (1 row) andrew=# select json_agg(q) from (select a, b, hstore_to_json_loose(h) as h from foo) q; json_agg [{a:a,b:1,h:{c: true, d: null, q: 1, x: y}}] (1 row) Note: this patch will need a change in the oids used for the new functions if applied against git tip, as they have been overtaken by time. Comments welcome. Updated patch that works with git tip and has regression tests. cheers andrew *** a/contrib/hstore/expected/hstore.out --- b/contrib/hstore/expected/hstore.out *** *** 1453,1455 select count(*) from testhstore where h = 'pos=98, line=371, node=CBA, indexe --- 1453,1491 1 (1 row) + -- json + select hstore_to_json('a key =1, b = t, c = null, d= 12345, e = 012345, f= 1.234, g= 2.345e+4'); + hstore_to_json + - + {b: t, c: null, d: 12345, e: 012345, f: 1.234, g: 2.345e+4, a key: 1} + (1 row) + + select cast( hstore 'a key =1, b = t, c = null, d= 12345, e = 012345, f= 1.234, g= 2.345e+4' as json); + json + - + {b: t, c: null, d: 12345, e: 012345, f: 1.234, g: 2.345e+4, a key: 1} + (1 row) + + select hstore_to_json_loose('a key =1, b = t, c = null, d= 12345, e = 012345, f= 1.234, g= 2.345e+4'); +hstore_to_json_loose + -- + {b: true, c: null, d: 12345, e: 012345, f: 1.234, g: 2.345e+4, a key: 1} + (1 row) + + create table test_json_agg (f1 text, f2 hstore); + insert into test_json_agg values ('rec1','a key =1, b = t, c = null, d= 12345, e = 012345, f= 1.234, g= 2.345e+4'), +('rec2','a key =2, b = f, c = null, d= -12345, e = 012345.6, f= -1.234, g= 0.345e-4'); + select json_agg(q) from test_json_agg q; + json_agg + + [{f1:rec1,f2:{b: t, c: null, d: 12345, e: 012345, f: 1.234, g: 2.345e+4, a key: 1}}, + + {f1:rec2,f2:{b: f, c: null, d: -12345, e: 012345.6, f: -1.234, g: 0.345e-4, a key: 2}}] + (1 row) + + select json_agg(q) from (select f1, hstore_to_json_loose(f2) as f2 from test_json_agg) q; +json_agg + -- + [{f1:rec1,f2:{b: true, c: null, d: 12345, e: 012345,