Scott Lamb wrote: > On Nov 14, 2005, at 2:07 PM, Steve Wampler wrote: > >> # SELECT at.id FROM "tmp_table2" at, "tmp_tabl2e" a >> # WHERE at.id=a.id and a.name='obsid' and a.value='oid080505'; > > > Isn't this equivalent? > > select id from tmp_table2 where name = 'obsid' and value = 'oid080505'; Probably, the user based the above on a query designed to find all rows with the same id as those rows that have a.name='obsid' and a.value='oid080505'. However, I think the above would work to locate all the ids, which is all we need for the delete (see below) >> # DELETE FROM "tmp_table2" WHERE id IN >> # (SELECT at.id FROM "tmp_table2" at, "tmp_table2" a >> # WHERE at.id=a.id and a.name='obsid' and a.value='oid080505'); > > > and this? > > delete from tmp_table2 where name = 'obsid' and value = 'oid080505'; > > Why are you doing a self-join using id, which I assume is a primary key? Because I think we need to. The above would only delete rows that have name = 'obsid' and value = 'oid080505'. We need to delete all rows that have the same ids as those rows. However, from what you note, I bet we could do: DELETE FROM "tmp_table2" WHERE id IN (SELECT id FROM "temp_table2" WHERE name = 'obsid' and value= 'oid080505'); However, even that seems to have a much higher cost than I'd expect: lab.devel.configdb=# explain delete from "tmp_table2" where id in (select id from tmp_table2 where name='obsid' and value = 'oid080505'); NOTICE: QUERY PLAN: Seq Scan on tmp_table2 (cost=0.00..65705177237.26 rows=769844 width=6) SubPlan -> Materialize (cost=42674.32..42674.32 rows=38 width=50) -> Seq Scan on tmp_table2 (cost=0.00..42674.32 rows=38 width=50) EXPLAIN And, sure enough, is taking an extrordinarily long time to run (more than 10 minutes so far, compared to < 10seconds for the select). Is this really typical of deletes? It appears (to me) to be the Seq Scan on tmp_table2 that is the killer here. If we put an index on, would it help? (The user claims she tried that and it's EXPLAIN cost went even higher, but I haven't checked that...) Thanks! -- Steve Wampler -- swampler@xxxxxxxx The gods that smiled on your birth are now laughing out loud. ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings