Merge pull request #57715 from frappe/pg-audit/collation-taxonomy

docs(postgres): catalog the collation-dependent text pick
This commit is contained in:
Mihir Kandoi
2026-08-02 22:20:20 +05:30
committed by GitHub
2 changed files with 8 additions and 1 deletions

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@@ -170,6 +170,13 @@ audit of these fixes found four recurring mistakes:
- **Fabricated arithmetic** — `Sum(x) * Max(y)` where `y` varies within the group invents a
number no row ever had (and `Max` biases it upward) — poisonous when it feeds validation,
budgets, valuation, or GL/stock values. Fix per-row: `Sum(x * y)`.
- **Collation-dependent pick (text columns)** — `Max()`/`Min()` over text is a *sort*, and the two
engines sort text differently: MariaDB's `utf8mb4` collations fold case, PostgreSQL (as CI runs
it) orders by byte value. `MAX('abc', 'ABD')` is `ABD` on MariaDB and `abc` on PostgreSQL. So a
`Max()` over a text column that varies **in case** within its group is a live P2 divergence, not
the arbitrary-pick preservation the wrap is usually justified as. Confirmed on CI; see #56241.
Note a local macOS PostgreSQL gives a **false all-clear** — its collation happens to agree with
MariaDB on case. Fix: take a representative row rather than sorting text.
- **Wrong bound** — where the value has a semantic, pick the bound deliberately:
`Min(schedule_date)` for a "required by", `Min(idx)` for first-line ordering, a qty-weighted
average for a rate. A blind `Max` can understate urgency or overstate a figure.