Avoid using list_length() to test for empty list.
authorTom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Wed, 17 Aug 2022 15:12:35 +0000 (11:12 -0400)
committerTom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Wed, 17 Aug 2022 15:12:35 +0000 (11:12 -0400)
commitefd0c16becbf45e3b0215e124fde75fee8fcbce4
tree4583c8e845ce18ae4a6c6b4c008a4989c514b3cb
parent4a319fce7671ffbe2a730f79529b7a2ef3794d41
Avoid using list_length() to test for empty list.

The standard way to check for list emptiness is to compare the
List pointer to NIL; our list code goes out of its way to ensure
that that is the only representation of an empty list.  (An
acceptable alternative is a plain boolean test for non-null
pointer, but explicit mention of NIL is usually preferable.)

Various places didn't get that memo and expressed the condition
with list_length(), which might not be so bad except that there
were such a variety of ways to check it exactly: equal to zero,
less than or equal to zero, less than one, yadda yadda.  In the
name of code readability, let's standardize all those spellings
as "list == NIL" or "list != NIL".  (There's probably some
microscopic efficiency gain too, though few of these look to be
at all performance-critical.)

A very small number of cases were left as-is because they seemed
more consistent with other adjacent list_length tests that way.

Peter Smith, with bikeshedding from a number of us

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CAHut+PtQYe+ENX5KrONMfugf0q6NHg4hR5dAhqEXEc2eefFeig@mail.gmail.com
28 files changed:
src/backend/catalog/objectaddress.c
src/backend/catalog/pg_depend.c
src/backend/commands/event_trigger.c
src/backend/commands/functioncmds.c
src/backend/commands/publicationcmds.c
src/backend/commands/statscmds.c
src/backend/commands/subscriptioncmds.c
src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
src/backend/commands/typecmds.c
src/backend/executor/execPartition.c
src/backend/libpq/auth.c
src/backend/libpq/hba.c
src/backend/optimizer/path/costsize.c
src/backend/optimizer/plan/createplan.c
src/backend/optimizer/plan/planner.c
src/backend/partitioning/partprune.c
src/backend/replication/logical/tablesync.c
src/backend/replication/pgoutput/pgoutput.c
src/backend/rewrite/rewriteDefine.c
src/backend/statistics/mcv.c
src/backend/storage/lmgr/lmgr.c
src/backend/utils/adt/jsonb_gin.c
src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_gram.y
src/backend/utils/adt/ruleutils.c
src/backend/utils/adt/selfuncs.c
src/backend/utils/adt/tsquery.c
src/test/modules/test_ddl_deparse/test_ddl_deparse.c