Hi Hubert, On Sat, 2006-03-04 at 14:49 +0100, hubert depesz lubaczewski wrote: > > Sort (cost=54710.68..54954.39 rows=97484 width=111) (actual > > time=7398.971..7680.405 rows=96041 loops=1) > > Sort Key: btrim(upper(customers.lastname)), btrim(upper(addresses.city)) > > -> Hash Join (cost=14341.12..46632.73 rows=97484 width=111) (actual time=1068.862..5472.788 rows=96041 loops=1) > > Hash Cond: ("outer".contactaddress = "inner".objectid) > > -> Seq Scan on customers (cost=0.00..24094.01 rows=227197 width=116) (actual time=0.018..1902.646 rows=223990 loops=1) > > Filter: (btrim(upper(lastname)) >= 'JANSEN'::text) > > -> Hash (cost=13944.94..13944.94 rows=158473 width=75) (actual time=1068.467..1068.467 rows=158003 loops=1) > > -> Bitmap Heap Scan on addresses (cost=1189.66..13944.94 rows=158473 width=75) (actual time=71.259..530.986 rows=158003 loops=1) > > Recheck Cond: (btrim(upper(city)) >= 'NIJMEGEN'::text) > > -> Bitmap Index Scan on prototype_addresses_trim_upper_city (cost=0.00..1189.66 rows=158473 width=0) (actual time=68.290..68.290 rows=158003 loops=1) > > Index Cond: (btrim(upper(city)) >=> 'NIJMEGEN'::text) > > Total runtime: 7941.095 ms > > explain clearly shows, that index is used for addresses scan, but it Yes, but I do not understand why I have both a "Bitmap Index Scan" and a "Bitmap Heap Scan" on (btrim(upper(city)) >=> 'NIJMEGEN'::text)? > is not so for users. > explain estimates that 227197 customers match the lastname criteria - > which looks awfuly high. > how many record do you have in the customers table? 368915 of which 222465 actually meet the condition. >From what I understand from the mailing list, PostgreSQL prefers a table scan whenever it expects that the number of records in the resultset will be ~ > 10 % of the total number of records in the table. Which explains the table scan for customers, but than again, it does not explain why it uses the index on addresses: it has 369337 addresses of which 158003 meet the condition > i would try to create index test on customers(contactAddress, > trim(uppercase(lastname))); > or with other ordring of fields. > > try this - create the index, make analyze of customers table, and > recheck explain. > then try the second index in the same manner. Makes no difference. -- Groeten, Joost Kraaijeveld Askesis B.V. Molukkenstraat 14 6524NB Nijmegen tel: 024-3888063 / 06-51855277 fax: 024-3608416 e-mail: J.Kraaijeveld@xxxxxxxxxx web: www.askesis.nl