apache / apache/datafusion

Implement expression simplification for filtering (vs generically)

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#6,179 6 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement
Dominant language
Rust
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Avg merge
3d 7h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

### Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge?

When simplifying expressions in general, care must be taken with nulls. For example it seems like this expression can be simplified to `false`:

```sql
A AND !A
```

however, if `A` is `null` then the expression actually evaluates to `null` and not `false`

The existing simplification code handles these cases by checking `is_nullable`:

https://github.com/apache/arrow-datafusion/blob/71efcf5ee8900a1efe12fb812e210e6941060733/datafusion/optimizer/src/simplify_expressions/expr_simplifier.rs#L575-L582

However, if we are using `A AND !A` as a filter, we can actually simplify the whole thing to `false` because for filtering:

* `true` --> row is kept
* `false` --> row is not kept
* `null` --> row is not kept (same as false)

### Describe the solution you'd like

I would like someone to figure out how to take advantage of the above observation to apply more simplification rules when simplifying predicates

### Describe alternatives you've considered

_No response_

### Additional context

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reading datafusion/optimizer/src/simplify_expressions/expr_simplifier.rs around the existing is_nullable handling. Compare general expression simplification with the three-valued filtering semantics described in the issue, then determine which predicate-specific rules preserve filter behavior. Done means the design and implementation simplify eligible filter predicates without changing retained rows.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
databases
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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