diff --git a/mlir/include/mlir/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.h b/mlir/include/mlir/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.h
--- a/mlir/include/mlir/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.h
+++ b/mlir/include/mlir/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.h
@@ -31,19 +31,31 @@
 /// stored directly. For binary operations, e0 and e1 denote the index of the
 /// children tensor expressions.
 struct TensorExp {
-  TensorExp(Kind k, unsigned x, unsigned y, Value v)
-      : kind(k), e0(x), e1(y), val(v) {
-    assert((kind == Kind::kTensor && e0 != -1u && e1 == -1u && !val) ||
-           (kind == Kind::kInvariant && e0 == -1u && e1 == -1u && val) ||
-           (kind >= Kind::kMulF && e0 != -1u && e1 != -1u && !val));
+  TensorExp(Kind k, unsigned x, unsigned y, Value v) : kind(k), val(v) {
+    assert((kind == Kind::kTensor && x != -1u && y == -1u && !val) ||
+           (kind == Kind::kInvariant && x == -1u && y == -1u && val) ||
+           (kind >= Kind::kMulF && x != -1u && y != -1u && !val));
+    if (kind == Kind::kTensor) {
+      tensor = x;
+    } else if (kind >= Kind::kMulF) {
+      e0 = x;
+      e1 = y;
+    }
   }
 
   /// Tensor expression kind.
   Kind kind;
 
-  /// Indices of children expression(s).
-  unsigned e0;
-  unsigned e1;
+  union {
+    /// Expressions representing tensors simply have a tensor number.
+    unsigned tensor;
+
+    /// Binary operations hold the indices of their child expressions.
+    struct {
+      unsigned e0;
+      unsigned e1;
+    };
+  };
 
   /// Direct link to IR for an invariant. During code generation,
   /// field is used to cache "hoisted" loop invariant tensor loads.
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Transforms/Sparsification.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Transforms/Sparsification.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Transforms/Sparsification.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Transforms/Sparsification.cpp
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@
 static unsigned isConjunction(Merger &merger, unsigned tensor, unsigned exp) {
   switch (merger.exp(exp).kind) {
   case Kind::kTensor:
-    return merger.exp(exp).e0 == tensor;
+    return merger.exp(exp).tensor == tensor;
   case Kind::kMulF:
   case Kind::kMulI:
     return isConjunction(merger, tensor, merger.exp(exp).e0) ||
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@
   }
   // Actual load.
   SmallVector<Value, 4> args;
-  OpOperand *t = op.getInputAndOutputOperands()[merger.exp(exp).e0];
+  OpOperand *t = op.getInputAndOutputOperands()[merger.exp(exp).tensor];
   unsigned tensor = t->getOperandNumber();
   auto map = op.getTiedIndexingMap(t);
   auto enc = getSparseTensorEncoding(t->get().getType());
@@ -653,7 +653,7 @@
   if (merger.exp(exp).kind == Kind::kTensor) {
     // Inspect tensor indices.
     bool atLevel = ldx == -1u;
-    OpOperand *t = op.getInputAndOutputOperands()[merger.exp(exp).e0];
+    OpOperand *t = op.getInputAndOutputOperands()[merger.exp(exp).tensor];
     auto map = op.getTiedIndexingMap(t);
     auto enc = getSparseTensorEncoding(t->get().getType());
     for (unsigned d = 0, rank = map.getNumResults(); d < rank; d++) {
diff --git a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.cpp b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.cpp
--- a/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.cpp
+++ b/mlir/lib/Dialect/SparseTensor/Utils/Merger.cpp
@@ -72,7 +72,8 @@
     if (p0 != p1) {
       // Is this a straightforward copy?
       unsigned e = latPoints[p1].exp;
-      if (tensorExps[e].kind == Kind::kTensor && tensorExps[e].e0 == outTensor)
+      if (tensorExps[e].kind == Kind::kTensor &&
+          tensorExps[e].tensor == outTensor)
         continue;
       // Conjunction already covered?
       for (unsigned p2 : latSets[s]) {
@@ -150,11 +151,11 @@
 void Merger::dumpExp(unsigned e) const {
   switch (tensorExps[e].kind) {
   case Kind::kTensor:
-    if (tensorExps[e].e0 == syntheticTensor)
+    if (tensorExps[e].tensor == syntheticTensor)
       llvm::dbgs() << "synthetic_";
-    else if (tensorExps[e].e0 == outTensor)
+    else if (tensorExps[e].tensor == outTensor)
       llvm::dbgs() << "output_";
-    llvm::dbgs() << "tensor_" << tensorExps[e].e0;
+    llvm::dbgs() << "tensor_" << tensorExps[e].tensor;
     break;
   case Kind::kInvariant:
     llvm::dbgs() << "invariant";