Start/End/Delta: one GROUP BY computes the counts and each bucket's four pick
times (MIN/MAX SourceTimeUtc, any quality and usable); each pick's columns are
then fetched by a seek on the clustered key (TagId, SourceTimeUtc). Replaces the
windowed ROW_NUMBER form (live-gate 8 F1), whose four window sorts spilled.
Output identical (EXCEPT both ways empty, 6M rows, forward + reverse incl. a
sub-microsecond reverse start). 6M rows / 30 days, avg of 3 x 2 rounds:
30d@1h 18.6-31.7 s -> 3.4 s (reverse 18.1-29.9 s -> 3.4-5.2 s)
7d@1d 5.2-6.1 s -> 0.8 s
1d@1min 0.31-0.40 s -> 0.16 s (1d@7min reverse 0.46 -> 0.12 s)
The seeks are separate reads within one statement: under READ COMMITTED a
HistoryUpdate delete between the aggregate and the seek nulls that pick; the
null-tolerant reader (2ceed561) makes that bucket's Start/End/Delta BadNoData,
transiently. Unit test pins it; documented in the query remarks + Historian.md.
QuestDB single-scan StartEnd unchanged.
Joseph Doherty
910befc84c