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Commite4f29ce

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Improve documentation about array concat operator vs. underlying functions.
The documentation implied that there was seldom any reason to use thearray_append, array_prepend, and array_cat functions directly. But that'snot really true, because they can help make it clear which case is meant,which the || operator can't do since it's overloaded to represent all threecases. Add some discussion and examples illustrating the potentiallyconfusing behavior that can ensue if the parser misinterprets what wasmeant.Per a complaint from Michael Herold. Back-patch to 9.2, which is where ||started to behave this way.
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‎doc/src/sgml/array.sgml‎

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Original file line numberDiff line numberDiff line change
@@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ SELECT array_length(schedule, 1) FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Carol';
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<programlisting>
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SELECT cardinality(schedule) FROM sal_emp WHERE name = 'Carol';
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cardinality
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cardinality
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-------------
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4
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(1 row)
@@ -494,11 +494,7 @@ SELECT array_dims(ARRAY[1,2] || ARRAY[[3,4],[5,6]]);
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<function>array_prepend</function>, <function>array_append</function>,
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or <function>array_cat</function>. The first two only support one-dimensional
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arrays, but <function>array_cat</function> supports multidimensional arrays.
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Note that the concatenation operator discussed above is preferred over
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direct use of these functions. In fact, these functions primarily exist for use
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in implementing the concatenation operator. However, they might be directly
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useful in the creation of user-defined aggregates. Some examples:
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Some examples:
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<programlisting>
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SELECT array_prepend(1, ARRAY[2,3]);
@@ -531,6 +527,45 @@ SELECT array_cat(ARRAY[5,6], ARRAY[[1,2],[3,4]]);
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{{5,6},{1,2},{3,4}}
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</programlisting>
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</para>
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<para>
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In simple cases, the concatenation operator discussed above is preferred
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over direct use of these functions. However, because the concatenation
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operator is overloaded to serve all three cases, there are situations where
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use of one of the functions is helpful to avoid ambiguity. For example
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consider:
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<programlisting>
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SELECT ARRAY[1, 2] || '{3, 4}'; -- the untyped literal is taken as an array
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?column?
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-----------
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{1,2,3,4}
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SELECT ARRAY[1, 2] || '7'; -- so is this one
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ERROR: malformed array literal: "7"
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SELECT ARRAY[1, 2] || NULL; -- so is an undecorated NULL
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?column?
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----------
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{1,2}
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(1 row)
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SELECT array_append(ARRAY[1, 2], NULL); -- this might have been meant
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array_append
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--------------
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{1,2,NULL}
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</programlisting>
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In the examples above, the parser sees an integer array on one side of the
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concatenation operator, and a constant of undetermined type on the other.
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The heuristic it uses to resolve the constant's type is to assume it's of
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the same type as the operator's other input &mdash; in this case,
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integer array. So the concatenation operator is presumed to
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represent <function>array_cat</>, not <function>array_append</>. When
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that's the wrong choice, it could be fixed by casting the constant to the
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array's element type; but explicit use of <function>array_append</> might
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be a preferable solution.
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</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="arrays-searching">

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