• Tom Lane's avatar
    Distinguish selectivity of < from <= and > from >=. · 7d08ce28
    Tom Lane authored
    Historically, the selectivity functions have simply not distinguished
    < from <=, or > from >=, arguing that the fraction of the population that
    satisfies the "=" aspect can be considered to be vanishingly small, if the
    comparison value isn't any of the most-common-values for the variable.
    (If it is, the code path that executes the operator against each MCV will
    take care of things properly.)  But that isn't really true unless we're
    dealing with a continuum of variable values, and in practice we seldom are.
    If "x = const" would estimate a nonzero number of rows for a given const
    value, then it follows that we ought to estimate different numbers of rows
    for "x < const" and "x <= const", even if the const is not one of the MCVs.
    Handling this more honestly makes a significant difference in edge cases,
    such as the estimate for a tight range (x BETWEEN y AND z where y and z
    are close together).
    
    Hence, split scalarltsel into scalarltsel/scalarlesel, and similarly
    split scalargtsel into scalargtsel/scalargesel.  Adjust <= and >=
    operator definitions to reference the new selectivity functions.
    Improve the core ineq_histogram_selectivity() function to make a
    correction for equality.  (Along the way, I learned quite a bit about
    exactly why that function gives good answers, which I tried to memorialize
    in improved comments.)
    
    The corresponding join selectivity functions were, and remain, just stubs.
    But I chose to split them similarly, to avoid confusion and to prevent the
    need for doing this exercise again if someone ever makes them less stubby.
    
    In passing, change ineq_histogram_selectivity's clamp for extreme
    probability estimates so that it varies depending on the histogram
    size, instead of being hardwired at 0.0001.  With the default histogram
    size of 100 entries, you still get the old clamp value, but bigger
    histograms should allow us to put more faith in edge values.
    
    Tom Lane, reviewed by Aleksander Alekseev and Kuntal Ghosh
    
    Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/12232.1499140410@sss.pgh.pa.us
    7d08ce28
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