postgresql/src/backend/nodes
Tom Lane bfa4440ca5 Pass collation to makeConst() instead of looking it up internally.
In nearly all cases, the caller already knows the correct collation, and
in a number of places, the value the caller has handy is more correct than
the default for the type would be.  (In particular, this patch makes it
significantly less likely that eval_const_expressions will result in
changing the exposed collation of an expression.)  So an internal lookup
is both expensive and wrong.
2011-03-25 20:10:42 -04:00
..
bitmapset.c Stamp copyrights for year 2011. 2011-01-01 13:18:15 -05:00
copyfuncs.c Make FKs valid at creation when added as column constraints. 2011-03-22 23:10:35 +00:00
equalfuncs.c Make FKs valid at creation when added as column constraints. 2011-03-22 23:10:35 +00:00
list.c Stamp copyrights for year 2011. 2011-01-01 13:18:15 -05:00
Makefile Remove cvs keywords from all files. 2010-09-20 22:08:53 +02:00
makefuncs.c Pass collation to makeConst() instead of looking it up internally. 2011-03-25 20:10:42 -04:00
nodeFuncs.c Revise collation derivation method and expression-tree representation. 2011-03-19 20:30:08 -04:00
nodes.c Stamp copyrights for year 2011. 2011-01-01 13:18:15 -05:00
outfuncs.c Make FKs valid at creation when added as column constraints. 2011-03-22 23:10:35 +00:00
params.c Stamp copyrights for year 2011. 2011-01-01 13:18:15 -05:00
print.c Add a relkind field to RangeTblEntry to avoid some syscache lookups. 2011-02-22 19:24:40 -05:00
read.c Stamp copyrights for year 2011. 2011-01-01 13:18:15 -05:00
readfuncs.c Revise collation derivation method and expression-tree representation. 2011-03-19 20:30:08 -04:00
README Remove useless whitespace at end of lines 2010-11-23 22:34:55 +02:00
tidbitmap.c Stamp copyrights for year 2011. 2011-01-01 13:18:15 -05:00
value.c Stamp copyrights for year 2011. 2011-01-01 13:18:15 -05:00

src/backend/nodes/README

Node Structures
===============

Andrew Yu (11/94)

Introduction
------------

The current node structures are plain old C structures. "Inheritance" is
achieved by convention. No additional functions will be generated. Functions
that manipulate node structures reside in this directory.


FILES IN THIS DIRECTORY (src/backend/nodes/)

    General-purpose node manipulation functions:
	copyfuncs.c	- copy a node tree
	equalfuncs.c	- compare two node trees
	outfuncs.c	- convert a node tree to text representation
	readfuncs.c	- convert text representation back to a node tree
	makefuncs.c	- creator functions for some common node types
	nodeFuncs.c	- some other general-purpose manipulation functions

    Specialized manipulation functions:
	bitmapset.c	- Bitmapset support
	list.c		- generic list support
	params.c	- Param support
	tidbitmap.c	- TIDBitmap support
	value.c		- support for Value nodes

FILES IN src/include/nodes/

    Node definitions:
	nodes.h		- define node tags (NodeTag)
	primnodes.h	- primitive nodes
	parsenodes.h	- parse tree nodes
	plannodes.h	- plan tree nodes
	relation.h	- planner internal nodes
	execnodes.h	- executor nodes
	memnodes.h	- memory nodes
	pg_list.h	- generic list


Steps to Add a Node
-------------------

Suppose you wanna define a node Foo:

1. Add a tag (T_Foo) to the enum NodeTag in nodes.h.  (If you insert the
   tag in a way that moves the numbers associated with existing tags,
   you'll need to recompile the whole tree after doing this.  It doesn't
   force initdb though, because the numbers never go to disk.)
2. Add the structure definition to the appropriate include/nodes/???.h file.
   If you intend to inherit from, say a Plan node, put Plan as the first field
   of your struct definition.
3. If you intend to use copyObject, equal, nodeToString or stringToNode,
   add an appropriate function to copyfuncs.c, equalfuncs.c, outfuncs.c
   and readfuncs.c accordingly.  (Except for frequently used nodes, don't
   bother writing a creator function in makefuncs.c)  The header comments
   in those files give general rules for whether you need to add support.
4. Add cases to the functions in nodeFuncs.c as needed.  There are many
   other places you'll probably also need to teach about your new node
   type.  Best bet is to grep for references to one or two similar existing
   node types to find all the places to touch.


Historical Note
---------------

Prior to the current simple C structure definitions, the Node structures
used a pseudo-inheritance system which automatically generated creator and
accessor functions. Since every node inherited from LispValue, the whole thing
was a mess. Here's a little anecdote:

    LispValue definition -- class used to support lisp structures
    in C.  This is here because we did not want to totally rewrite
    planner and executor code which depended on lisp structures when
    we ported postgres V1 from lisp to C. -cim 4/23/90