1.4 doesn't allow binary operations on literals

[PavelSarek]

Bug report

System info: Any 1.4.x or the last 1.5 nightly build

Steps to reproduce:

Execute query:
select count * (1 / 1) from measurement
or
select * from measurement where 'a'='a'

Expected behavior: The same as in the previous versions, i.e. 1.3.x and older. The expression which can be reduced to a constant during AST processing is accepted and correctly evaluated. 'a'='a' would be equivalent to true, count * (1 / 1) would be the same as count * 1

Actual behavior: The expression is refused by the parser. With ERR: cannot perform a binary expression on two literals, or respectively ERR: invalid expression: 'a' = 'a'

Additional info:
Might be related to #9226

Rule binary_op in InfluxQL reference .

Use case: Some use-cases in Grafana using templating variables.

The first query is derived from autoscaling implementation:

SELECT sum("count")/($__interval_ms/3600000) GROUP BY time($__interval)

the second is used to add some modes to Grafana dashboard by switching some queries on/off based on templating variables.

[prokod]

@rbetts @jsternberg Could you please have a look on that ? Thx

[jsternberg]

@rbetts this seems like a candidate for backporting.

[rbetts]

@jsternberg approved.

[jasonbogdanski]

@PavelSarek Did you happen to find a workaround for auto scaling in Grafana? This is still an issue in Influxdb 1.4.3.

[PavelSarek]

@jasonbogdanski I'm afraid I have no workaround. We reverted to InfluxDB 1.3.7 for now.

[jasonbogdanski]

Thanks @PavelSarek, we're going to have to do the same thing.

[jsternberg]

This should be fixed in 1.4.3. @PavelSarek can you give me a reproducer?

I also just tested the example in the first post and it appears like this query returned zero results in 1.3.7. But, I'm not getting a parsing failure.

[jasonbogdanski]

@jsternberg I'm running a docker image of influxdb v1.4.3 from https://hub.docker.com/_/influxdb/. I can reproduce the issues using that version with select count / (1 / 1) from measurement. This issue was also posted again on #9273, which was tagged for a 1.6.0 release. However, I also seen it tagged on the v1.5.0 release.

[benjarrell]

@jsternberg I tried with 1.4.3 and a nightly (1.6.0~n201802060800) RPMs and still gives the same error using SELECT non_negative_derivative(mean("bytes_sent"), 10s) * 8 / (10000 / 1000) FROM "measurement"

[andyxning]

This is quit a non-backward compatible change. And it should be fixed ASAP.

[rbetts]

@andyxning we agree. This will be fixed and backported.

[jasonbogdanski]

@rbetts When do you expect this will be fixed and backported?

[andyxning]

@rbetts Seems this is a regression issue. Any ETA about this and which release will have this fixed? Without this fixed, we can not upgrade inflxudb to a newer 1.4.x version. Or has this been fixed on the master branch?

[jsternberg]

To clarify, there are two behaviors here that are both bugs. This first one:

select count * (1 / 1) from measurement

This was fixed and backported to 1.4.3.

This one:

select * from measurement where 'a'='a'

This did not produce an error in 1.3, but it also didn't work correctly to begin with. So the regression, which was it causing an error, was fixed and backported to 1.4.3. I've put up a few pull requests to fix the actual behavior so a true literal returns everything. This should be present in 1.5.0 and we will backport it to the 1.4.x line (so likely 1.4.4).

[andyxning]

Thanks for you explanation @jsternberg . Any ETA about the release of 1.4.4 with this regression fixed. I am willing to give it a try. :)

[rbetts]

@andyxning we are wrapping up a 1.5.0 (we built 1.5.0rc4 have been testing internally). This fix will make the 1.5.0 final which should be available on OSS this week if all goes well.

[andyxning]

@rbetts Good news. 👍