Re: Performance improvement for joins where outer side is unique

"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> writes:
> Don't the semantics of a SEMI JOIN also state that the output columns only
> come from the outer relation? i.e., the inner relation doesn't contribute
> either rows or columns to the final result?  Or is that simply
> an implementation artifact of the fact that the only current way to perform
> a semi-join explicitly is via exists/in?

I think it's an artifact.  What nodes.h actually says about it is you get
the values of one randomly-selected matching inner row, which seems like
a fine definition for the purposes we plan to put it to.
        regards, tom lane