Let's remove expr::token and replace all of its functionality with expr::function_call.
expr::token is a struct whose job is to represent a partition key token.
The idea is that when the user types in `token(p1, p2) < 1234`,
this will be internally represented as an expression which uses
expr::token to represent the `token(p1, p2)` part.
The situation with expr::token is a bit complicated.
On one hand side it's supposed to represent the partition token,
but sometimes it's also assumed that it can represent a generic
call to the token() function, for example `token(1, 2, 3)` could
be a function_call, but it could also be expr::token.
The query planning code assumes that each occurence of expr::token
represents the partition token without checking the arguments.
Because of this allowing `token(1, 2, 3)` to be represented
as expr::token is dangerous - the query planning
might think that it is `token(p1, p2, p3)` and plan the query
based on this, which would be wrong.
Currently expr::token is created only in one specific case.
When the parser detects that the user typed in a restriction
which has a call to `token` on the LHS it generates expr::token.
In all other cases it generates an `expr::function_call`.
Even when the `function_call` represents a valid partition token,
it stays a `function_call`. During preparation there is no check
to see if a `function_call` to `token` could be turned into `expr::token`.
This is a bit inconsistent - sometimes `token(p1, p2, p3)` is represented
as `expr::token` and the query planner handles that, but sometimes it might
be represented as `function_call`, which the query planner doesn't handle.
There is also a problem because there's a lot of duplication
between a `function_call` and `expr::token`. All of the evaluation
and preparation is the same for `expr::token` as it's for a `function_call`
to the token function. Currently it's impossible to evaluate `expr::token`
and preparation has some flaws, but implementing it would basically
consist of copy-pasting the corresponding code from token `function_call`.
One more aspect is multi-table queries. With `expr::token` we turn
a call to the `token()` function into a struct that is schema-specific.
What happens when a single expression is used to make queries to multiple
tables? The schema is different, so something that is representad
as `expr::token` for one schema would be represented as `function_call`
in the context of a different schema.
Translating expressions to different tables would require careful
manipulation to convert `expr::token` to `function_call` and vice versa.
This could cause trouble for index queries.
Overall I think it would be best to remove expr::token.
Although having a clear marker for the partition token
is sometimes nice for query planning, in my opinion
the pros are outweighted by the cons.
I'm a big fan of having a single way to represent things,
having two separate representations of the same thing
without clear boundaries between them causes trouble.
Instead of having expr::token and function_call we can
just have the function_call and check if it represents
a partition token when needed.
Signed-off-by: Jan Ciolek <jan.ciolek@scylladb.com>
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