Optimize CASE expression for "expr or expr" usage.

datafusion/physical-expr/src/expressions/case.rs

@@ -60,6 +60,11 @@ enum EvalMethod {
     /// are literal values
     /// CASE WHEN condition THEN literal ELSE literal END
     ScalarOrScalar,
+    /// This is a specialization for a specific use case where we can take a fast path
+    /// if there is just one when/then pair and both the `then` and `else` are expressions
+    ///
+    /// CASE WHEN condition THEN expression ELSE expression END
+    ExpressionOrExpression,
 }
 
 /// The CASE expression is similar to a series of nested if/else and there are two forms that
@@ -149,6 +154,8 @@ impl CaseExpr {
                 && else_expr.as_ref().unwrap().as_any().is::<Literal>()
             {
                 EvalMethod::ScalarOrScalar
+            } else if when_then_expr.len() == 1 && else_expr.is_some() {
+                EvalMethod::ExpressionOrExpression
             } else {
                 EvalMethod::NoExpression
             };
@@ -394,6 +401,43 @@ impl CaseExpr {
 
         Ok(ColumnarValue::Array(zip(&when_value, &then_value, &else_)?))
     }
+
+    fn expr_or_expr(&self, batch: &RecordBatch) -> Result<ColumnarValue> {
+        let return_type = self.data_type(&batch.schema())?;
+
+        // evalute when condition on batch
+        let when_value = self.when_then_expr[0].0.evaluate(batch)?;
+        let when_value = when_value.into_array(batch.num_rows())?;
+        let when_value = as_boolean_array(&when_value).map_err(|e| {
+            DataFusionError::Context(
+                "WHEN expression did not return a BooleanArray".to_string(),
+                Box::new(e),
+            )
+        })?;
+
+        // Treat 'NULL' as false value
+        let when_value = match when_value.null_count() {
+            0 => Cow::Borrowed(when_value),
+            _ => Cow::Owned(prep_null_mask_filter(when_value)),
+        };
+
+        let then_value = self.when_then_expr[0]
+            .1
+            .evaluate_selection(batch, &when_value)?
+            .into_array(batch.num_rows())?;
+
+        // evaluate else expression on the values not covered by when_value
+        let remainder = not(&when_value)?;
+        let e = self.else_expr.as_ref().unwrap();
+        // keep `else_expr`'s data type and return type consistent
+        let expr = try_cast(Arc::clone(e), &batch.schema(), return_type.clone())
+            .unwrap_or_else(|_| Arc::clone(e));
+        let else_ = expr
+            .evaluate_selection(batch, &remainder)?
+            .into_array(batch.num_rows())?;
+
+        Ok(ColumnarValue::Array(zip(&remainder, &else_, &then_value)?))
+    }
 }
 
 impl PhysicalExpr for CaseExpr {
@@ -457,6 +501,7 @@ impl PhysicalExpr for CaseExpr {
                 self.case_column_or_null(batch)
             }
             EvalMethod::ScalarOrScalar => self.scalar_or_scalar(batch),
+            EvalMethod::ExpressionOrExpression => self.expr_or_expr(batch),
         }
     }
 
@@ -1174,6 +1219,45 @@ mod tests {
         Ok(())
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn test_expr_or_expr_specialization() -> Result<()> {
+        let batch = case_test_batch1()?;
+        let schema = batch.schema();
+        let when = binary(
+            col("a", &schema)?,
+            Operator::LtEq,
+            lit(2i32),
+            &batch.schema(),
+        )?;
+        let then = binary(
+            col("a", &schema)?,
+            Operator::Plus,
+            lit(1i32),
+            &batch.schema(),
+        )?;
+        let else_expr = binary(
+            col("a", &schema)?,
+            Operator::Minus,
+            lit(1i32),
+            &batch.schema(),
+        )?;
+        let expr = CaseExpr::try_new(None, vec![(when, then)], Some(else_expr))?;
+        assert!(matches!(
+            expr.eval_method,
+            EvalMethod::ExpressionOrExpression
+        ));
+        let result = expr
+            .evaluate(&batch)?
+            .into_array(batch.num_rows())
+            .expect("Failed to convert to array");
+        let result = as_int32_array(&result).expect("failed to downcast to Int32Array");
+
+        let expected = &Int32Array::from(vec![Some(2), Some(1), None, Some(4)]);
+
+        assert_eq!(expected, result);
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
     fn make_col(name: &str, index: usize) -> Arc<dyn PhysicalExpr> {
         Arc::new(Column::new(name, index))
     }

datafusion/sqllogictest/test_files/case.slt

@@ -224,3 +224,14 @@ query I
 SELECT CASE arrow_cast([1,2,3], 'FixedSizeList(3, Int64)') WHEN arrow_cast([1,2,3], 'FixedSizeList(3, Int64)') THEN 1 ELSE 0 END;
 ----
 1
+
+# CASE WHEN with single predicate and two non-trivial branches (expr or expr usage)
+query I
+SELECT CASE WHEN a < 5 THEN a + b ELSE b - NVL(a, 0) END FROM foo
+----
+3
+7
+1
+NULL
+NULL
+7