Ashok Agrawal <Ashok.Agrawal@xxxxxxx> writes: > I noticed outer join is very very slow in postgresql as compared > to Oracle. I think the three things the people best able to help you are going to ask for are 1) what version of PostgreSQL, 2) what are the tables, and how many rows in each, and 3) output from 'explain analyze' rather than just 'explain'. That said, I'm willing to take an amateurish stab at it even without that. In fact, I don't think the outer joins are the issue at all. I see that you're forcing a right join from ecms_certificate_types to ecms_cert_headers. This seems to be causing postgresql to think it must (unnecessarily) consider three quarters of a billion rows, which, if I'm reading right, seems to be producing the majority of the estimated cost: > Hash Join (cost=1666049.74..18486619.37 rows=157735046 width=874) > Hash Cond: ("outer".certificate_type_id = "inner".certificate_type_id) > -> Merge Right Join (cost=1666048.13..11324159.05 rows=643816513 width=826) In fact, looking at the fact that you're doing a COALESCE on a column from b, it seems to me that doing a right join from ecms_cert_headers to ecms_certificate_types is just wrong. It seems to me that that should be a left join as well. With that in mind, I would rewrite the whole FROM clause as: FROM ecms_cert_headers a LEFT OUTER JOIN ecms_certificate_types b ON (a.certificate_type_id = b.certificate_type_id) LEFT OUTER JOIN taxpack_user c ON (a.created_by = c.emp_no) LEFT OUTER JOIN taxpack_user d ON (a.updated_by = d.emp_no) LEFT OUTER JOIN taxpack_user e ON (a.approved_by = e.emp_no) WHERE a.dln_code = '17319' It seems to me that this more reflects the intent of the data that is being retrieved. I would also expect it to be a boatload faster. Assuming I've understood the intent correctly, I would guess that the difference is the result of the Oracle planner being able to eliminate the right join or something. Mike ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org