Thread: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

[GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Paul A Jungwirth
Date:
The docs say that a Datum can be 4 bytes or 8 depending on the machine:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/static/sql-createtype.html

Is a Datum always 8 bytes for 64-bit architectures?

And if so, can my C extension skip a loop like this when compiling
there, and just do a memcpy (or even a cast)?:
   float8 *floats;   Datum *datums;
   datums = palloc(arrlen * sizeof(Datum));   for (i = 0; i < arrlen; i++) {     datums[i] = Float8GetDatum(floats[i]);
 }
 

Thanks!
Paul


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Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Pavel Stehule
Date:


2017-09-23 4:52 GMT+02:00 Paul A Jungwirth <pj@illuminatedcomputing.com>:
The docs say that a Datum can be 4 bytes or 8 depending on the machine:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/static/sql-createtype.html

Is a Datum always 8 bytes for 64-bit architectures?

And if so, can my C extension skip a loop like this when compiling
there, and just do a memcpy (or even a cast)?:

yes, it is 8 bytes on 64-bit.

I don't think so it is good idea to write 64bit only extensions.



    float8 *floats;
    Datum *datums;

    datums = palloc(arrlen * sizeof(Datum));
    for (i = 0; i < arrlen; i++) {
      datums[i] = Float8GetDatum(floats[i]);
    }

Thanks!
Paul


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Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Paul A Jungwirth
Date:
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 7:52 PM, Paul A Jungwirth
<pj@illuminatedcomputing.com> wrote:
> Is a Datum always 8 bytes for 64-bit architectures?

Never mind, I found this in `pg_config.h`:
   /* float8, int8, and related values are passed by value if 'true', by      reference if 'false' */   #define
FLOAT8PASSBYVALtrue
 

Paul


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Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Paul A Jungwirth
Date:
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 8:05 PM, Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@gmail.com> wrote:
> yes, it is 8 bytes on 64-bit.

Thanks!

> I don't think so it is good idea to write 64bit only extensions.

I agree, but how about this?:
   if (FLOAT8PASSBYVAL) {     datums = (Datum *)floats;   } else {     datums = palloc0(arrlen * sizeof(Datum));
for(i = 0; i < arrlen; i++) {       datums[i] = Float8GetDatum(floats[i]);     }   }
 

Thanks,
Paul


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Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Pavel Stehule
Date:


2017-09-23 5:10 GMT+02:00 Paul A Jungwirth <pj@illuminatedcomputing.com>:
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 8:05 PM, Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@gmail.com> wrote:
> yes, it is 8 bytes on 64-bit.

Thanks!

> I don't think so it is good idea to write 64bit only extensions.

I agree, but how about this?:

    if (FLOAT8PASSBYVAL) {
      datums = (Datum *)floats;
    } else {
      datums = palloc0(arrlen * sizeof(Datum));
      for (i = 0; i < arrlen; i++) {
        datums[i] = Float8GetDatum(floats[i]);
      }
    }

it can work.

You have to solve deallocation in only one path. palloc0 is not necessary in this case.
 

Thanks,
Paul

Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Tom Lane
Date:
Paul A Jungwirth <pj@illuminatedcomputing.com> writes:
> On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 8:05 PM, Pavel Stehule <pavel.stehule@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I don't think so it is good idea to write 64bit only extensions.

> I agree, but how about this?:

"Premature optimization is the root of all evil".  Do you have good reason
to think that it's worth your time to write unsafe/unportable code?  Do
you know that your compiler doesn't turn Float8GetDatum into a no-op
already?  (Mine does, on a 64-bit machine.)
        regards, tom lane


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Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Paul A Jungwirth
Date:
On Fri, Sep 22, 2017 at 8:38 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> "Premature optimization is the root of all evil".  Do you have good reason
> to think that it's worth your time to write unsafe/unportable code?  Do
> you know that your compiler doesn't turn Float8GetDatum into a no-op
> already?  (Mine does, on a 64-bit machine.)

Ha ha, thank you for keeping me honest! But can you explain what is
unsafe about the cast? For a little more context: I've loaded a float8
array from a file, but I need to pass a Datum array to
construct_md_array. With an 8-byte Datum, I can just pass the original
float array, right? But with smaller Datums I need to go through the
array and convert each element. (I'm not really worried about these
files being moved between machines, so I'm willing to make the on-disk
format the same as the in-memory format.)

Since I'm expecting ~10 million elements per array, it seems like
skipping the conversion will have a real effect. I checked the
assembly and do see a difference (on both Mac+clang and Linux+gcc).
Here is the Mac command line:
   platter:floatfile paul$ clang -Wall -Wmissing-prototypes
-Wpointer-arith -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wendif-labels
-Wmissing-format-attribute -Wformat-security -fno-strict-aliasing
-fwrapv -Wno-unused-command-line-argument -O2  -I. -I./
-I/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql@9.6/9.6.3/include/server
-I/usr/local/Cellar/postgresql@9.6/9.6.3/include/internal
-I/usr/local/opt/gettext/include -I/usr/local/opt/openldap/include
-I/usr/local/opt/openssl/include -I/usr/local/opt/readline/include
-I/usr/local/opt/tcl-tk/include -g -S -o floatfile.s floatfile.c

Here is the assembly for the cast:
     .loc    2 391 23 is_stmt 1      ## floatfile.c:391:23     movq    -48(%rbp), %r15   Ltmp176:     ##DEBUG_VALUE:
load_floatfile:datums<- %R15
 

Here is the assembly for the loop (after just changing the code to `if
(FLOAT8PASSBYVAL && false)`):
     .loc    2 393 21 is_stmt 1      ## floatfile.c:393:21     movslq    %r15d, %r13     .loc    2 393 28 is_stmt 0
## floatfile.c:393:28     leaq    (,%r13,8), %rdi     .loc    2 393 14                ## floatfile.c:393:14     callq
_palloc     movq    %rax, %r12   Ltmp177:     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:i <- 0     .loc    2 394 19 is_stmt 1
discriminator1 ## floatfile.c:394:19     testl    %r15d, %r15d   Ltmp178:     .loc    2 394 5 is_stmt 0 discriminator 1
##floatfile.c:394:5     je    LBB7_11   Ltmp179:   ## BB#9:     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:arrlen <- %R15D
##DEBUG_VALUE:load_floatfile:nulls <- [%RBP+-80]     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:floats <- [%RBP+-72]
##DEBUG_VALUE:load_floatfile:filename <- %RBX     .loc    2 0 5 discriminator 1   ## floatfile.c:0:5     movq
-72(%rbp),%rbx   Ltmp180:     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:floats <- %RBX     xorl    %r14d, %r14d   Ltmp181:
.p2align   4, 0x90   LBB7_10:                                ## =>This Inner Loop Header: Depth=1     ##DEBUG_VALUE:
load_floatfile:floats<- %RBX     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:arrlen <- %R15D     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:nulls
<-[%RBP+-80]     .loc    2 395 34 is_stmt 1      ## floatfile.c:395:34     movsd    (%rbx,%r14,8), %xmm0    ## xmm0 =
mem[0],zero    .loc    2 395 19 is_stmt 0      ## floatfile.c:395:19     callq    _Float8GetDatum     .loc    2 395 17
             ## floatfile.c:395:17     movq    %rax, (%r12,%r14,8)   Ltmp182:     .loc    2 394 30 is_stmt 1
discriminator2 ## floatfile.c:394:30     incq    %r14     .loc    2 394 19 is_stmt 0 discriminator 1 ##
floatfile.c:394:19    cmpq    %r13, %r14   Ltmp183:     .loc    2 394 5 discriminator 1 ## floatfile.c:394:5     jl
LBB7_10  Ltmp184:   LBB7_11:     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:arrlen <- %R15D     ##DEBUG_VALUE: load_floatfile:nulls
<-[%RBP+-80]
 

I get the same results on gcc too: the palloc, the loop, and even
`call Float8GetDatum@PLT`.

I'll do some timing of each version too, but it doesn't look like a
pointless optimization. I'd still like to know what is unsafe about it
though.

Thanks!
Paul


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Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Tom Lane
Date:
Paul A Jungwirth <pj@illuminatedcomputing.com> writes:
> Since I'm expecting ~10 million elements per array, it seems like
> skipping the conversion will have a real effect. I checked the
> assembly and do see a difference (on both Mac+clang and Linux+gcc).

I wonder whether you're using up-to-date Postgres headers (ones
where Float8GetDatum is a static inline function).  For me, both
of those platforms recognize it as a no-op --- in fact, clang
turns a loop like
   for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {       datums[i] = Float8GetDatum(floats[i]);   }

into something that looks suspiciously like an inlined, loop-unrolled
memcpy().
        regards, tom lane


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Re: [GENERAL] Is float8 a reference type?

From
Paul A Jungwirth
Date:
On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 9:40 AM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> I wonder whether you're using up-to-date Postgres headers (ones
> where Float8GetDatum is a static inline function).

I'm building against 9.6.3 on both machines. I'm not doing anything
special to change the compilation options. Here is my whole Makefile:
   MODULES = floatfile   EXTENSION = floatfile   EXTENSION_VERSION = 1.0.0   DATA =
floatfile--$(EXTENSION_VERSION).sql
   PG_CONFIG = pg_config   PGXS := $(shell $(PG_CONFIG) --pgxs)   include $(PGXS)

But what I'm really interested in is this: What are the bad things
that can happen if I do `datums = (Datum *)floats`, as long as it's
only when Datums are 8 bytes wide? Is there a platform with
pass-by-val float8s where that won't work?

Thanks,
Paul


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