postgresql/src/include
Andrew Gierth 02ddd49932 Change floating-point output format for improved performance.
Previously, floating-point output was done by rounding to a specific
decimal precision; by default, to 6 or 15 decimal digits (losing
information) or as requested using extra_float_digits. Drivers that
wanted exact float values, and applications like pg_dump that must
preserve values exactly, set extra_float_digits=3 (or sometimes 2 for
historical reasons, though this isn't enough for float4).

Unfortunately, decimal rounded output is slow enough to become a
noticable bottleneck when dealing with large result sets or COPY of
large tables when many floating-point values are involved.

Floating-point output can be done much faster when the output is not
rounded to a specific decimal length, but rather is chosen as the
shortest decimal representation that is closer to the original float
value than to any other value representable in the same precision. The
recently published Ryu algorithm by Ulf Adams is both relatively
simple and remarkably fast.

Accordingly, change float4out/float8out to output shortest decimal
representations if extra_float_digits is greater than 0, and make that
the new default. Applications that need rounded output can set
extra_float_digits back to 0 or below, and take the resulting
performance hit.

We make one concession to portability for systems with buggy
floating-point input: we do not output decimal values that fall
exactly halfway between adjacent representable binary values (which
would rely on the reader doing round-to-nearest-even correctly). This
is known to be a problem at least for VS2013 on Windows.

Our version of the Ryu code originates from
https://github.com/ulfjack/ryu/ at commit c9c3fb1979, but with the
following (significant) modifications:

 - Output format is changed to use fixed-point notation for small
   exponents, as printf would, and also to use lowercase 'e', a
   minimum of 2 exponent digits, and a mandatory sign on the exponent,
   to keep the formatting as close as possible to previous output.

 - The output of exact midpoint values is disabled as noted above.

 - The integer fast-path code is changed somewhat (since we have
   fixed-point output and the upstream did not).

 - Our project style has been largely applied to the code with the
   exception of C99 declaration-after-statement, which has been
   retained as an exception to our present policy.

 - Most of upstream's debugging and conditionals are removed, and we
   use our own configure tests to determine things like uint128
   availability.

Changing the float output format obviously affects a number of
regression tests. This patch uses an explicit setting of
extra_float_digits=0 for test output that is not expected to be
exactly reproducible (e.g. due to numerical instability or differing
algorithms for transcendental functions).

Conversions from floats to numeric are unchanged by this patch. These
may appear in index expressions and it is not yet clear whether any
change should be made, so that can be left for another day.

This patch assumes that the only supported floating point format is
now IEEE format, and the documentation is updated to reflect that.

Code by me, adapting the work of Ulf Adams and other contributors.

References:
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3192369

Reviewed-by: Tom Lane, Andres Freund, Donald Dong
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/87r2el1bx6.fsf@news-spur.riddles.org.uk
2019-02-13 15:20:33 +00:00
..
access Move max_wal_senders out of max_connections for connection slot handling 2019-02-12 10:07:56 +09:00
bootstrap Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
catalog Allow extensions to generate lossy index conditions. 2019-02-11 21:26:14 -05:00
commands Move vacuumlazy.c into access/heap. 2019-01-15 12:06:19 -08:00
common Change floating-point output format for improved performance. 2019-02-13 15:20:33 +00:00
datatype Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
executor Allow to reset execGrouping.c style tuple hashtables. 2019-02-09 01:05:49 -08:00
fe_utils pgbench: add \cset and \gset commands 2019-01-10 13:42:20 -03:00
foreign Rename nodes/relation.h to nodes/pathnodes.h. 2019-01-29 16:49:25 -05:00
jit Renaming for new subscripting mechanism 2019-02-01 12:50:32 -03:00
lib simplehash: Add support for resetting a hashtable's contents. 2019-02-09 01:05:49 -08:00
libpq Add more columns to pg_stat_ssl 2019-02-01 00:33:47 +01:00
mb Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
nodes Allow extensions to generate lossy index conditions. 2019-02-11 21:26:14 -05:00
optimizer Allow extensions to generate lossy index conditions. 2019-02-11 21:26:14 -05:00
parser Create the infrastructure for planner support functions. 2019-02-09 18:08:48 -05:00
partitioning Fix header inclusion issue. 2019-02-11 22:37:24 -05:00
port Use strtof() and not strtod() for float4 input. 2019-02-13 15:19:44 +00:00
portability Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
postmaster Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
regex Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
replication Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
rewrite Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
snowball Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
statistics Rename nodes/relation.h to nodes/pathnodes.h. 2019-01-29 16:49:25 -05:00
storage Move max_wal_senders out of max_connections for connection slot handling 2019-02-12 10:07:56 +09:00
tcop Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
tsearch Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
utils Fix misleading PG_RE_THROW commentary 2019-02-11 15:56:09 -03:00
.gitignore Refactor dlopen() support 2018-09-06 11:33:04 +02:00
c.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
fmgr.h Change function call information to be variable length. 2019-01-26 14:17:52 -08:00
funcapi.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
getaddrinfo.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
getopt_long.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
Makefile Install JIT related headers. 2019-01-28 13:51:12 -08:00
miscadmin.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
pg_config.h.in Use strtof() and not strtod() for float4 input. 2019-02-13 15:19:44 +00:00
pg_config.h.win32 Use strtof() and not strtod() for float4 input. 2019-02-13 15:19:44 +00:00
pg_config_ext.h.in Autoconfiscate selection of 64-bit int type for 64-bit large object API. 2012-10-07 21:52:43 -04:00
pg_config_ext.h.win32 Autoconfiscate selection of 64-bit int type for 64-bit large object API. 2012-10-07 21:52:43 -04:00
pg_config_manual.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
pg_getopt.h Use our own getopt() on OpenBSD. 2019-01-18 15:06:26 -05:00
pg_trace.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
pgstat.h Add more columns to pg_stat_ssl 2019-02-01 00:33:47 +01:00
pgtar.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
pgtime.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
port.h Use strtof() and not strtod() for float4 input. 2019-02-13 15:19:44 +00:00
postgres.h Change function call information to be variable length. 2019-01-26 14:17:52 -08:00
postgres_ext.h Phase 2 of pgindent updates. 2017-06-21 15:19:25 -04:00
postgres_fe.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
rusagestub.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00
windowapi.h Update copyright for 2019 2019-01-02 12:44:25 -05:00