In commit 727f68e0f5 we added the ability to SELECT:
* Individual elements of a map: `SELECT map_col[key]`.
* Individual elements of a set: `SELECT set_col[key]` returns key if the key exists in the set, or null if it doesn't, allowing to check if the element exists in the set.
* Individual pieces of a UDT: `SELECT udt_col.field`.
But at the time, we didn't provide any way to retrieve the **meta-data** for this value, namely its timestamp and TTL. We did not support `SELECT TIMESTAMP(collection[key])`, or `SELECT TIMESTAMP(udt.field)`.
Users requested to support such SELECTs in the past (see issue #15427), and Cassandra 5.0 added support for this feature - for both maps and sets and udts - so we also need this feature for compatibility. This feature was also requested recently by vector-search developers, who wanted to read Alternator columns - stored as map elements, not individual columns - with their WRITETIME information.
The first four patches in this series adds the feature (in four smaller patches instead one big one), the fifth and sixth patches add tests (cqlpy and boost tests, respectively). The seventh patch adds documentation.
All the new tests pass on Cassandra 5, failed on Scylla before the present fix, and pass with it.
The fix was surprisingly difficult. Our existing implementation (from 727f68e0f5 building on earlier machinery) doesn't just "read" `map_col[key]` and allow us to return just its timestamp. Rather, the implementation reads the entire map, serializes it in some temporary format that does **not** include the timestamps and ttls, and then takes the subscript key, at which point we no longer have the timestamp or ttl of the element. So the fix had to cross all these layers of the implementation.
While adding support for UDT fields in a pre-existing grammar nonterminal "subscriptExpr", we unintentionally added support for UDT fields also in LWT expressions (which used this nonterminal). LWT missing support for UDT fields was a long-time known compatibility issue (#13624) so we unintentionally fixed it :-) Actually, to completely fix it we needed another small change in the expression implementation, so the eighth patch in this series does this.
Fixes#15427Fixes#13624Closesscylladb/scylladb#29134
* github.com:scylladb/scylladb:
cql3: support UDT fields in LWT expressions
cql3: document WRITETIME() and TTL() for elements of map, set or UDT
test/boost: test WRITETIME() and TTL() on map collection elements
test/cqlpy: test WRITETIME() and TTL() on element of map, set or UDT
cql3: prepare and evaluate WRITETIME/TTL on collection elements and UDT fields
cql3: parse per-element timestamps/TTLs in the selection layer
cql3: add extended wire format for per-element timestamps and TTLs
cql3: extend WRITETIME/TTL grammar to accept collection and UDT elements
Wire up the selection and result-set infrastructure to consume the
extended collection wire format introduced in the previous patch and
expose per-element timestamps and TTLs to the expression evaluator.
* Add collection_cell_metadata: maps from raw element-key bytes to
timestamp and remaining TTL, one entry per collection or UDT cell.
Add a corresponding collection_element_metadata span to
evaluation_inputs so that evaluators can access it.
* Add a flag _collect_collection_timestamps to selection (selection.hh/cc).
When any selected expression contains a WRITETIME(col[key])/TTL(col[key])
or WRITETIME(col.field)/TTL(col.field) attribute, the flag is set and
the send_collection_timestamps partition-slice option is enabled,
causing storage nodes to use the extended wire format from the
previous patch.
* Implement result_set_builder::add_collection() (selection.cc): when
_collect_collection_timestamps is set, parse the extended format,
decode per-element timestamps and remaining TTLs (computed from the
stored expiry time and the query time), and store them in
_collection_element_metadata indexed by column position. When the
flag is not set, the existing plain-bytes path is unchanged.
After this patch, the new selection feature is still not available to
the end-user because the prepare step still forbids it. The next patch
will finally complete the expression preparation and evaluation.
It will read the new collection_element_metadata and return the correct
timestamp or TTL value.
Temporaries are similar to bind variables - they are values provided from
outside the expression. While bind variables are provided by the user, temporaries
are generated internally.
The intended use is for aggregate accumulator storage. Currently aggregates
store the accumulator in aggregate_function_selector::_accumulator, which
means the entire selector hierarchy must be cloned for every query. With
expressions, we can have a single expression object reused for many computations,
but we need a way to inject the accumulator into an aggregation, which this
new expression element provides.
Adding a function declaration to expression.hh causes many
recompilations. Reduce that by:
- moving some restrictions-related definitions to
the existing expr/restrictions.hh
- moving evaluation related names to a new header
expr/evaluate.hh
- move utilities to a new header
expr/expr-utilities.hh
expression.hh contains only expression definitions and the most
basic and common helpers, like printing.
