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Fix COUNT bug when pulling up scalar subqueries (fallback planner)#397

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count-aggr-first-fallback
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Fix COUNT bug when pulling up scalar subqueries (fallback planner)#397
Alena0704 wants to merge 1 commit into
OPENGPDB_STABLEfrom
count-aggr-first-fallback

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@Alena0704 Alena0704 commented Jul 2, 2026

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With the Postgres planner (optimizer=off or an ORCA fallback), a correlated
scalar subquery with an aggregate is pulled up into an INNER join with a
grouped subquery (convert_EXPR_to_join), which drops outer rows that have
no match. The original subquery keeps them: it computes the aggregate over
empty input, so e.g. COUNT yields 0 there:

select ... from t1
where t1.a > (select count(*) from t2 where t2.a = t1.d);

A row with no match in t2 must be compared as "t1.a > 0" and can pass, but
the INNER join dropped it.

To fix this, pull the subquery up into a LEFT join, so no-match rows survive
as null-extended rows, and rewrite the comparison to return the same value
the subquery would:

outer OP CASE WHEN match_flag THEN expr ELSE empty_input_default END

match_flag is a constant TRUE column added to the subquery. For a matched
row the CASE returns the real expression; for a null-extended row the flag
is NULL and the CASE returns the empty-input default (0 for COUNT, NULL for
other aggregates).

The comparison runs above the LEFT join as a filter, not as the join
condition: as a join qual it would null-extend matched rows that fail it,
and the default would let them back in.

The LEFT join is not always needed. If a no-match row cannot pass the
comparison anyway -- e.g. "1 = (select count(*) ...)" turns into "1 = 0"
for it -- dropping it is fine and the INNER join is kept as before. This is
detected by substituting the empty-input default into the comparison and
constant-folding it. Ordinary sum/avg/min/max comparisons fall into this
group: their empty-input value is NULL, and a comparison with NULL does not
pass, so those plans do not change.

If the comparison cannot be placed above the join (the sublink is in an
outer join's ON clause) or the subquery's targetlist is correlated, the
pull-up bails out and the sublink runs as a SubPlan, as before.

Co-Authored-By: excaliiibur excaliiibur@foxmail.com

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Alena0704 force-pushed the count-aggr-first-fallback branch from e640835 to 68c09fb Compare July 2, 2026 20:05
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Alena0704 marked this pull request as draft July 2, 2026 20:12
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Alena0704 force-pushed the count-aggr-first-fallback branch 3 times, most recently from 9ffda49 to 0f6cfed Compare July 2, 2026 21:06
@Alena0704 Alena0704 closed this Jul 2, 2026
@Alena0704 Alena0704 reopened this Jul 2, 2026
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Alena0704 force-pushed the count-aggr-first-fallback branch 4 times, most recently from 148ead5 to c9b09dc Compare July 14, 2026 13:23
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Alena0704 marked this pull request as ready for review July 14, 2026 15:59
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Alena0704 force-pushed the count-aggr-first-fallback branch 7 times, most recently from caca6e8 to 49938bd Compare July 16, 2026 15:55
…elated

scalar subquery with an aggregate is pulled up into an INNER join with a
grouped subquery (convert_EXPR_to_join), which drops outer rows that have
no match. The original subquery keeps them: it computes the aggregate over
empty input, so e.g. COUNT yields 0 there:

	select ... from t1
		where t1.a > (select count(*) from t2 where t2.a = t1.d);

A row with no match in t2 must be compared as "t1.a > 0" and can pass, but
the INNER join dropped it.

To fix this, pull the subquery up into a LEFT join, so no-match rows survive
as null-extended rows, and rewrite the comparison to return the same value
the subquery would:

    outer OP CASE WHEN match_flag THEN expr ELSE empty_input_default END

match_flag is a constant TRUE column added to the subquery. For a matched
row the CASE returns the real expression; for a null-extended row the flag
is NULL and the CASE returns the empty-input default (0 for COUNT, NULL for
other aggregates).

The comparison runs above the LEFT join as a filter, not as the join
condition: as a join qual it would null-extend matched rows that fail it,
and the default would let them back in.

The LEFT join is not always needed. If a no-match row cannot pass the
comparison anyway -- e.g. "1 = (select count(*) ...)" turns into "1 = 0"
for it -- dropping it is fine and the INNER join is kept as before. This is
detected by substituting the empty-input default into the comparison and
constant-folding it. Ordinary sum/avg/min/max comparisons fall into this
group: their empty-input value is NULL, and a comparison with NULL does not
pass, so those plans do not change.

If the comparison cannot be placed above the join (the sublink is in an
outer join's ON clause) or the subquery's targetlist is correlated, the
pull-up bails out and the sublink runs as a SubPlan, as before.

Co-Authored-By: excaliiibur <excaliiibur@foxmail.com>
@Alena0704
Alena0704 force-pushed the count-aggr-first-fallback branch from 49938bd to acff7ac Compare July 17, 2026 09:21
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