Replace the hard-wired type knowledge in TypeCategory() and IsPreferredType()

with system catalog lookups, as was foreseen to be necessary almost since
their creation.  Instead put the information into two new pg_type columns,
typcategory and typispreferred.  Add support for setting these when
creating a user-defined base type.

The category column is just a "char" (i.e. a poor man's enum), allowing
a crude form of user extensibility of the category list: just use an
otherwise-unused character.  This seems sufficient for foreseen uses,
but we could upgrade to having an actual category catalog someday, if
there proves to be a huge demand for custom type categories.

In this patch I have attempted to hew exactly to the behavior of the
previous hardwired logic, except for introducing new type categories for
arrays, composites, and enums.  In particular the default preferred state
for user-defined types remains TRUE.  That seems worth revisiting, but it
should be done as a separate patch from introducing the infrastructure.
Likewise, any adjustment of the standard set of categories should be done
separately.

1 files changed, 17 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/src/backend/parser/parse_func.c b/src/backend/parser/parse_func.c
index 3bb5c452a8e..785e8816a94 100644
--- a/src/backend/parser/parse_func.c
+++ b/src/backend/parser/parse_func.c
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
  *
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/parser/parse_func.c,v 1.203 2008/07/16 01:30:22 tgl Exp $
+ *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/backend/parser/parse_func.c,v 1.204 2008/07/30 17:05:04 tgl Exp $
  *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -439,8 +439,9 @@ func_select_candidate(int nargs,
 	int			nbestMatch,
 				nmatch;
 	Oid			input_base_typeids[FUNC_MAX_ARGS];
-	CATEGORY	slot_category[FUNC_MAX_ARGS],
+	TYPCATEGORY	slot_category[FUNC_MAX_ARGS],
 				current_category;
+	bool		current_is_preferred;
 	bool		slot_has_preferred_type[FUNC_MAX_ARGS];
 	bool		resolved_unknowns;
 
@@ -591,7 +592,7 @@ func_select_candidate(int nargs,
 		if (input_base_typeids[i] != UNKNOWNOID)
 			continue;
 		resolved_unknowns = true;		/* assume we can do it */
-		slot_category[i] = INVALID_TYPE;
+		slot_category[i] = TYPCATEGORY_INVALID;
 		slot_has_preferred_type[i] = false;
 		have_conflict = false;
 		for (current_candidate = candidates;
@@ -600,29 +601,28 @@ func_select_candidate(int nargs,
 		{
 			current_typeids = current_candidate->args;
 			current_type = current_typeids[i];
-			current_category = TypeCategory(current_type);
-			if (slot_category[i] == INVALID_TYPE)
+			get_type_category_preferred(current_type,
+										&current_category,
+										&current_is_preferred);
+			if (slot_category[i] == TYPCATEGORY_INVALID)
 			{
 				/* first candidate */
 				slot_category[i] = current_category;
-				slot_has_preferred_type[i] =
-					IsPreferredType(current_category, current_type);
+				slot_has_preferred_type[i] = current_is_preferred;
 			}
 			else if (current_category == slot_category[i])
 			{
 				/* more candidates in same category */
-				slot_has_preferred_type[i] |=
-					IsPreferredType(current_category, current_type);
+				slot_has_preferred_type[i] |= current_is_preferred;
 			}
 			else
 			{
 				/* category conflict! */
-				if (current_category == STRING_TYPE)
+				if (current_category == TYPCATEGORY_STRING)
 				{
 					/* STRING always wins if available */
 					slot_category[i] = current_category;
-					slot_has_preferred_type[i] =
-						IsPreferredType(current_category, current_type);
+					slot_has_preferred_type[i] = current_is_preferred;
 				}
 				else
 				{
@@ -633,7 +633,7 @@ func_select_candidate(int nargs,
 				}
 			}
 		}
-		if (have_conflict && slot_category[i] != STRING_TYPE)
+		if (have_conflict && slot_category[i] != TYPCATEGORY_STRING)
 		{
 			/* Failed to resolve category conflict at this position */
 			resolved_unknowns = false;
@@ -658,14 +658,15 @@ func_select_candidate(int nargs,
 				if (input_base_typeids[i] != UNKNOWNOID)
 					continue;
 				current_type = current_typeids[i];
-				current_category = TypeCategory(current_type);
+				get_type_category_preferred(current_type,
+											&current_category,
+											&current_is_preferred);
 				if (current_category != slot_category[i])
 				{
 					keepit = false;
 					break;
 				}
-				if (slot_has_preferred_type[i] &&
-					!IsPreferredType(current_category, current_type))
+				if (slot_has_preferred_type[i] && !current_is_preferred)
 				{
 					keepit = false;
 					break;