Re: Using Ephemeral Named Relation like a temporary table

Hello,

Temporary tables are often used to store transient data in
batch processing and the contents can be accessed multiple
times. However, frequent use of temporary tables has a problem
that the system catalog tends to bloat. I know there has been
several proposals to attack this problem, but I would like to
propose a new one.

The idea is to use Ephemeral Named Relation (ENR) like a
temporary table. ENR information is not stored into the system
catalog, but in QueryEnvironment, so it never bloat the system
catalog.

Although we cannot perform insert, update or delete on ENR,
I wonder it could be beneficial if we need to reference to a
result of a query multiple times in a batch processing.

The attached is a concept patch. This adds a new syntax
"OPEN cursor INTO TABLE tablename" to pl/pgSQL, that stores
a result of the cursor query into a ENR with specified name.
However, this is a tentative interface to demonstrate the
concept of feature.

Here is an example;

postgres=# \sf fnc
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.fnc()
RETURNS TABLE(sum1 integer, avg1 integer, sum2 integer, avg2 integer)
LANGUAGE plpgsql
AS $function$
DECLARE
sum1 integer;
sum2 integer;
avg1 integer;
avg2 integer;
curs CURSOR FOR SELECT aid, bid, abalance FROM pgbench_accounts
WHERE abalance BETWEEN 100 AND 200;
BEGIN
OPEN curs INTO TABLE tmp_accounts;
SELECT count(abalance) , avg(abalance) INTO sum1, avg1
FROM tmp_accounts;
SELECT count(bbalance), avg(bbalance) INTO sum2, avg2
FROM tmp_accounts a, pgbench_branches b WHERE a.bid = b.bid;
RETURN QUERY SELECT sum1,avg1,sum2,avg2;
END;
$function$

postgres=# select fnc();
fnc
--------------------
(541,151,541,3937)
(1 row)

As above, we can use the same query result for multiple
aggregations, and also join it with other tables.

What do you think of using ENR for this way?

Regards,
Yugo Nagata

--
Yugo NAGATA <nagata(at)sraoss(dot)co(dot)jp>

Hi

st 29. 3. 2023 v 6:54 odesílatel Yugo NAGATA <nagata(at)sraoss(dot)co(dot)jp> napsal:

> Hello,
>
>
> Temporary tables are often used to store transient data in
> batch processing and the contents can be accessed multiple
> times. However, frequent use of temporary tables has a problem
> that the system catalog tends to bloat. I know there has been
> several proposals to attack this problem, but I would like to
> propose a new one.
>
> The idea is to use Ephemeral Named Relation (ENR) like a
> temporary table. ENR information is not stored into the system
> catalog, but in QueryEnvironment, so it never bloat the system
> catalog.
>
> Although we cannot perform insert, update or delete on ENR,
> I wonder it could be beneficial if we need to reference to a
> result of a query multiple times in a batch processing.
>
> The attached is a concept patch. This adds a new syntax
> "OPEN cursor INTO TABLE tablename" to pl/pgSQL, that stores
> a result of the cursor query into a ENR with specified name.
> However, this is a tentative interface to demonstrate the
> concept of feature.
>
> Here is an example;
>
> postgres=# \sf fnc
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.fnc()
> RETURNS TABLE(sum1 integer, avg1 integer, sum2 integer, avg2 integer)
> LANGUAGE plpgsql
> AS $function$
> DECLARE
> sum1 integer;
> sum2 integer;
> avg1 integer;
> avg2 integer;
> curs CURSOR FOR SELECT aid, bid, abalance FROM pgbench_accounts
> WHERE abalance BETWEEN 100 AND 200;
> BEGIN
> OPEN curs INTO TABLE tmp_accounts;
> SELECT count(abalance) , avg(abalance) INTO sum1, avg1
> FROM tmp_accounts;
> SELECT count(bbalance), avg(bbalance) INTO sum2, avg2
> FROM tmp_accounts a, pgbench_branches b WHERE a.bid = b.bid;
> RETURN QUERY SELECT sum1,avg1,sum2,avg2;
> END;
> $function$
>
> postgres=# select fnc();
> fnc
> --------------------
> (541,151,541,3937)
> (1 row)
>
> As above, we can use the same query result for multiple
> aggregations, and also join it with other tables.
>
> What do you think of using ENR for this way?
>

The idea looks pretty good. I think it can be very useful. I am not sure if
this design is intuitive. If I remember well, the Oracle's has similar
features, and can be nice if we use the same or more similar syntax
(although I am not sure how it can be implementable)? I think so PL/SQL
design has an advantage, because you don't need to solve the scope of the
cursor's assigned table.

OPEN curs INTO TABLE tmp_accounts; -- it looks little bit strange. I miss
info, so tmp_accounts is not normal table

what about

OPEN curs INTO CURSOR TABLE xxx;

or

OPEN curs FOR CURSOR TABLE xxx

Regards

Pavel

>
> Regards,
> Yugo Nagata
>
> --
> Yugo NAGATA <nagata(at)sraoss(dot)co(dot)jp>
>

On Wed, Mar 29, 2023 at 12:54 AM Yugo NAGATA <nagata(at)sraoss(dot)co(dot)jp> wrote:

> Hello,
>
>
> Temporary tables are often used to store transient data in
> batch processing and the contents can be accessed multiple
> times. However, frequent use of temporary tables has a problem
> that the system catalog tends to bloat. I know there has been
> several proposals to attack this problem, but I would like to
> propose a new one.
>
> The idea is to use Ephemeral Named Relation (ENR) like a
> temporary table. ENR information is not stored into the system
> catalog, but in QueryEnvironment, so it never bloat the system
> catalog.
>
> Although we cannot perform insert, update or delete on ENR,
> I wonder it could be beneficial if we need to reference to a
> result of a query multiple times in a batch processing.
>
> The attached is a concept patch. This adds a new syntax
> "OPEN cursor INTO TABLE tablename" to pl/pgSQL, that stores
> a result of the cursor query into a ENR with specified name.
> However, this is a tentative interface to demonstrate the
> concept of feature.
>
> Here is an example;
>
> postgres=# \sf fnc
> CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.fnc()
> RETURNS TABLE(sum1 integer, avg1 integer, sum2 integer, avg2 integer)
> LANGUAGE plpgsql
> AS $function$
> DECLARE
> sum1 integer;
> sum2 integer;
> avg1 integer;
> avg2 integer;
> curs CURSOR FOR SELECT aid, bid, abalance FROM pgbench_accounts
> WHERE abalance BETWEEN 100 AND 200;
> BEGIN
> OPEN curs INTO TABLE tmp_accounts;
> SELECT count(abalance) , avg(abalance) INTO sum1, avg1
> FROM tmp_accounts;
> SELECT count(bbalance), avg(bbalance) INTO sum2, avg2
> FROM tmp_accounts a, pgbench_branches b WHERE a.bid = b.bid;
> RETURN QUERY SELECT sum1,avg1,sum2,avg2;
> END;
> $function$
>
> postgres=# select fnc();
> fnc
> --------------------
> (541,151,541,3937)
> (1 row)
>
> As above, we can use the same query result for multiple
> aggregations, and also join it with other tables.
>
> What do you think of using ENR for this way?
>
> Regards,
> Yugo Nagata
>
> --
> Yugo NAGATA <nagata(at)sraoss(dot)co(dot)jp>
>

This looks like a slightly more flexible version of the Oracle pl/sql table
type.

For those not familiar, PL/SQL can have record types, and in-memory
collections of records types, and you can either build up multiple records
in a collection manually, or you can bulk-collect them from a query. Then,
you can later reference that collection in a regular SQL query with FROM
TABLE(collection_name). It's a neat system for certain types of workloads.

example link, I'm sure there's better out there:
https://oracle-base.com/articles/12c/using-the-table-operator-with-locally-defined-types-in-plsql-12cr1

My first take is there are likely customers out there that will want this.
However, those customers will want to manually add/delete rows from the
ENR, so we'll want a way to do that.

I haven't looked at ENRs in a while, when would the memory from that ENR
get freed?