Remove "invalid concatenation of jsonb objects" error case.

The jsonb || jsonb operator arbitrarily rejected certain combinations
of scalar and non-scalar inputs, while being willing to concatenate
other combinations.  This was of course quite undocumented.  Rather
than trying to document it, let's just remove the restriction,
creating a uniform rule that unless we are handling an object-to-object
concatenation, non-array inputs are converted to one-element arrays,
resulting in an array-to-array concatenation.  (This does not change
the behavior for any case that didn't throw an error before.)

Per complaint from Joel Jacobson.  Back-patch to all supported branches.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/163099.1608312033@sss.pgh.pa.us

Author: tglsfdc

doc/src/sgml/func.sgml

@@ -14715,8 +14715,12 @@ table2-mapping
        </para>
        <para>
         Concatenates two <type>jsonb</type> values.
-        Concatenating two objects generates an object with the union of their
+        Concatenating two arrays generates an array containing all the
+        elements of each input.  Concatenating two objects generates an
+        object containing the union of their
         keys, taking the second object's value when there are duplicate keys.
+        All other cases are treated by converting a non-array input into a
+        single-element array, and then proceeding as for two arrays.
         Does not operate recursively: only the top-level array or object
         structure is merged.
        </para>
@@ -14727,6 +14731,22 @@ table2-mapping
        <para>
         <literal>'{"a": "b"}'::jsonb || '{"c": "d"}'::jsonb</literal>
         <returnvalue>{"a": "b", "c": "d"}</returnvalue>
+       </para>
+       <para>
+        <literal>'[1, 2]'::jsonb || '3'::jsonb</literal>
+        <returnvalue>[1, 2, 3]</returnvalue>
+       </para>
+       <para>
+        <literal>'{"a": "b"}'::jsonb || '42'::jsonb</literal>
+        <returnvalue>[{"a": "b"}, 42]</returnvalue>
+       </para>
+       <para>
+        To append an array to another array as a single entry, wrap it
+        in an additional layer of array, for example:
+       </para>
+       <para>
+        <literal>'[1, 2]'::jsonb || jsonb_build_array('[3, 4]'::jsonb)</literal>
+        <returnvalue>[1, 2, [3, 4]]</returnvalue>
        </para></entry>
       </row>
 

src/backend/utils/adt/jsonfuncs.c

@@ -4690,11 +4690,14 @@ IteratorConcat(JsonbIterator **it1, JsonbIterator **it2,
 	rk2 = JsonbIteratorNext(it2, &v2, false);
 
 	/*
-	 * Both elements are objects.
+	 * JsonbIteratorNext reports raw scalars as if they were single-element
+	 * arrays; hence we only need consider "object" and "array" cases here.
 	 */
 	if (rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT && rk2 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT)
 	{
 		/*
+		 * Both inputs are objects.
+		 *
 		 * Append all the tokens from v1 to res, except last WJB_END_OBJECT
 		 * (because res will not be finished yet).
 		 */
@@ -4703,18 +4706,18 @@ IteratorConcat(JsonbIterator **it1, JsonbIterator **it2,
 			pushJsonbValue(state, r1, &v1);
 
 		/*
-		 * Append all the tokens from v2 to res, include last WJB_END_OBJECT
-		 * (the concatenation will be completed).
+		 * Append all the tokens from v2 to res, including last WJB_END_OBJECT
+		 * (the concatenation will be completed).  Any duplicate keys will
+		 * automatically override the value from the first object.
 		 */
 		while ((r2 = JsonbIteratorNext(it2, &v2, true)) != WJB_DONE)
 			res = pushJsonbValue(state, r2, r2 != WJB_END_OBJECT ? &v2 : NULL);
 	}
-
-	/*
-	 * Both elements are arrays (either can be scalar).
-	 */
 	else if (rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY && rk2 == WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY)
 	{
+		/*
+		 * Both inputs are arrays.
+		 */
 		pushJsonbValue(state, rk1, NULL);
 
 		while ((r1 = JsonbIteratorNext(it1, &v1, true)) != WJB_END_ARRAY)
@@ -4731,46 +4734,40 @@ IteratorConcat(JsonbIterator **it1, JsonbIterator **it2,
 
 		res = pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_END_ARRAY, NULL /* signal to sort */ );
 	}
-	/* have we got array || object or object || array? */
-	else if (((rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY && !(*it1)->isScalar) && rk2 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT) ||
-			 (rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT && (rk2 == WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY && !(*it2)->isScalar)))
+	else if (rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT)
 	{
-		JsonbIterator **it_array = rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY ? it1 : it2;
-		JsonbIterator **it_object = rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT ? it1 : it2;
-		bool		prepend = (rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT);
+		/*
+		 * We have object || array.
+		 */
+		Assert(rk2 == WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY);
 
 		pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY, NULL);
 
-		if (prepend)
-		{
-			pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT, NULL);
-			while ((r1 = JsonbIteratorNext(it_object, &v1, true)) != WJB_DONE)
-				pushJsonbValue(state, r1, r1 != WJB_END_OBJECT ? &v1 : NULL);
-
-			while ((r2 = JsonbIteratorNext(it_array, &v2, true)) != WJB_DONE)
-				res = pushJsonbValue(state, r2, r2 != WJB_END_ARRAY ? &v2 : NULL);
-		}
-		else
-		{
-			while ((r1 = JsonbIteratorNext(it_array, &v1, true)) != WJB_END_ARRAY)
-				pushJsonbValue(state, r1, &v1);
-
-			pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT, NULL);
-			while ((r2 = JsonbIteratorNext(it_object, &v2, true)) != WJB_DONE)
-				pushJsonbValue(state, r2, r2 != WJB_END_OBJECT ? &v2 : NULL);
+		pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT, NULL);
+		while ((r1 = JsonbIteratorNext(it1, &v1, true)) != WJB_DONE)
+			pushJsonbValue(state, r1, r1 != WJB_END_OBJECT ? &v1 : NULL);
 
-			res = pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_END_ARRAY, NULL);
-		}
+		while ((r2 = JsonbIteratorNext(it2, &v2, true)) != WJB_DONE)
+			res = pushJsonbValue(state, r2, r2 != WJB_END_ARRAY ? &v2 : NULL);
 	}
 	else
 	{
 		/*
-		 * This must be scalar || object or object || scalar, as that's all
-		 * that's left. Both of these make no sense, so error out.
+		 * We have array || object.
 		 */
-		ereport(ERROR,
-				(errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_PARAMETER_VALUE),
-				 errmsg("invalid concatenation of jsonb objects")));
+		Assert(rk1 == WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY);
+		Assert(rk2 == WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT);
+
+		pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_BEGIN_ARRAY, NULL);
+
+		while ((r1 = JsonbIteratorNext(it1, &v1, true)) != WJB_END_ARRAY)
+			pushJsonbValue(state, r1, &v1);
+
+		pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_BEGIN_OBJECT, NULL);
+		while ((r2 = JsonbIteratorNext(it2, &v2, true)) != WJB_DONE)
+			pushJsonbValue(state, r2, r2 != WJB_END_OBJECT ? &v2 : NULL);
+
+		res = pushJsonbValue(state, WJB_END_ARRAY, NULL);
 	}
 
 	return res;

src/test/regress/expected/jsonb.out

@@ -4111,9 +4111,41 @@ select '{"a":"b"}'::jsonb || '[]'::jsonb;
 (1 row)
 
 select '"a"'::jsonb || '{"a":1}';
-ERROR:  invalid concatenation of jsonb objects
+    ?column?     
+-----------------
+ ["a", {"a": 1}]
+(1 row)
+
 select '{"a":1}' || '"a"'::jsonb;
-ERROR:  invalid concatenation of jsonb objects
+    ?column?     
+-----------------
+ [{"a": 1}, "a"]
+(1 row)
+
+select '[3]'::jsonb || '{}'::jsonb;
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ [3, {}]
+(1 row)
+
+select '3'::jsonb || '[]'::jsonb;
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ [3]
+(1 row)
+
+select '3'::jsonb || '4'::jsonb;
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ [3, 4]
+(1 row)
+
+select '3'::jsonb || '{}'::jsonb;
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ [3, {}]
+(1 row)
+
 select '["a", "b"]'::jsonb || '{"c":1}';
        ?column?       
 ----------------------

src/test/regress/sql/jsonb.sql

@@ -1056,6 +1056,11 @@ select '{"a":"b"}'::jsonb || '[]'::jsonb;
 select '"a"'::jsonb || '{"a":1}';
 select '{"a":1}' || '"a"'::jsonb;
 
+select '[3]'::jsonb || '{}'::jsonb;
+select '3'::jsonb || '[]'::jsonb;
+select '3'::jsonb || '4'::jsonb;
+select '3'::jsonb || '{}'::jsonb;
+
 select '["a", "b"]'::jsonb || '{"c":1}';
 select '{"c": 1}'::jsonb || '["a", "b"]';