fix: set distinct_count to Absent when merging statistics (#17385)

When merging statistics, the distinct count cannot be accurately
determined from the merged data, so it should be set to Absent
rather than attempting to combine the values.

Added test to verify distinct_count becomes Absent after merge.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.ai/code)

Co-authored-by: Claude <[email protected]>

Author: adriangb

datafusion/common/src/stats.rs

@@ -538,6 +538,7 @@ impl Statistics {
             col_stats.max_value = col_stats.max_value.max(&item_col_stats.max_value);
             col_stats.min_value = col_stats.min_value.min(&item_col_stats.min_value);
             col_stats.sum_value = col_stats.sum_value.add(&item_col_stats.sum_value);
+            col_stats.distinct_count = Precision::Absent;
         }
 
         Ok(Statistics {
@@ -1152,4 +1153,50 @@ mod tests {
         let e = Statistics::try_merge_iter(&items, &schema).unwrap_err();
         assert_contains!(e.to_string(), "Error during planning: Cannot merge statistics with different number of columns: 0 vs 1");
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_try_merge_distinct_count_absent() {
+        // Create statistics with known distinct counts
+        let stats1 = Statistics::default()
+            .with_num_rows(Precision::Exact(10))
+            .with_total_byte_size(Precision::Exact(100))
+            .add_column_statistics(
+                ColumnStatistics::new_unknown()
+                    .with_null_count(Precision::Exact(0))
+                    .with_min_value(Precision::Exact(ScalarValue::Int32(Some(1))))
+                    .with_max_value(Precision::Exact(ScalarValue::Int32(Some(10))))
+                    .with_distinct_count(Precision::Exact(5)),
+            );
+
+        let stats2 = Statistics::default()
+            .with_num_rows(Precision::Exact(15))
+            .with_total_byte_size(Precision::Exact(150))
+            .add_column_statistics(
+                ColumnStatistics::new_unknown()
+                    .with_null_count(Precision::Exact(0))
+                    .with_min_value(Precision::Exact(ScalarValue::Int32(Some(5))))
+                    .with_max_value(Precision::Exact(ScalarValue::Int32(Some(20))))
+                    .with_distinct_count(Precision::Exact(7)),
+            );
+
+        // Merge statistics
+        let merged_stats = stats1.try_merge(&stats2).unwrap();
+
+        // Verify the results
+        assert_eq!(merged_stats.num_rows, Precision::Exact(25));
+        assert_eq!(merged_stats.total_byte_size, Precision::Exact(250));
+
+        let col_stats = &merged_stats.column_statistics[0];
+        assert_eq!(col_stats.null_count, Precision::Exact(0));
+        assert_eq!(
+            col_stats.min_value,
+            Precision::Exact(ScalarValue::Int32(Some(1)))
+        );
+        assert_eq!(
+            col_stats.max_value,
+            Precision::Exact(ScalarValue::Int32(Some(20)))
+        );
+        // Distinct count should be Absent after merge
+        assert_eq!(col_stats.distinct_count, Precision::Absent);
+    }
 }