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2014-12-04
16:35 • Fixed ticket [6f2222d5]: Incorrect output on a LEFT JOIN plus 6 other changes (artifact: 63d1ebb2 user: drh)
16:29
If a table is the right operand of a LEFT JOIN, then any column of that table can be NULL even if that column has a NOT NULL constraint. Fix for ticket [6f2222d550f5b0ee7ed]. (check-in: 5a80957b user: drh tags: branch-3.8.7)
16:27
If a table is the right operand of a LEFT JOIN, then any column of that table can be NULL even if that column has a NOT NULL constraint. Fix for ticket [6f2222d550f5b0ee7ed]. (check-in: 6f6fcbe4 user: drh tags: trunk)
15:40 • New ticket [6f2222d5] Incorrect output on a LEFT JOIN. (artifact: 897deb67 user: drh)
Ticket Hash: 6f2222d550f5b0ee7ed37601c3322521a2e9c1be
Title: Incorrect output on a LEFT JOIN
Status: Fixed Type: Code_Defect
Severity: Severe Priority: Immediate
Subsystem: Unknown Resolution: Fixed
Last Modified: 2014-12-04 16:35:32
Version Found In: 3.8.6
User Comments:
drh added on 2014-12-04 15:40:03:

In the following SQL, the final SELECT statement should return just a single row, but beginning in SQLite 3.8.6 it returns 3 rows: 

CREATE TABLE x1(a);
INSERT INTO x1 VALUES(1);
CREATE TABLE x2(b NOT NULL);    -- Remove the NOT NULL and things work
CREATE TABLE x3(c, d);
INSERT INTO x3 VALUES('a', NULL);
INSERT INTO x3 VALUES('b', NULL);
INSERT INTO x3 VALUES('c', NULL);
SELECT * FROM x1 LEFT JOIN x2 LEFT JOIN x3 ON x3.d = x2.b;

As the comment states, removing the NOT NULL constraint on the x2.b column causes the output to be correct.

The problem appears to have been introduced by checkin [952868216854e83] on 2014-08-05.

drh added on 2014-12-04 16:35:32:

The problem was that the query planner was using NOT NULL constraints on table columns to optimize out certain operations. However, for the right-hand table of a LEFT JOIN, any column can be NULL despite having a NOT NULL constraint. The sqlite3ExprCanBeNull() routine in the query planner had to be enhanced to recognize that corner case.