>From what I've read on the net, these should be very similar, and should generate equivalent plans, in such cases: SELECT DISTINCT x FROM mytable SELECT x FROM mytable GROUP BY x However, in my case (postgresql-server-8.1.18-2.el5_4.1), they generated different results with quite different execution times (73ms vs 40ms for DISTINCT and GROUP BY respectively): tts_server_db=# EXPLAIN ANALYZE select userdata from tagrecord where clientRmaInId = 'CPC-RMA-00110' group by userdata; QUERY PLAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HashAggregate (cost=775.68..775.69 rows=1 width=146) (actual time=40.058..40.058 rows=0 loops=1) -> Bitmap Heap Scan on tagrecord (cost=4.00..774.96 rows=286 width=146) (actual time=40.055..40.055 rows=0 loops=1) Recheck Cond: ((clientrmainid)::text = 'CPC-RMA-00110'::text) -> Bitmap Index Scan on idx_tagdata_clientrmainid (cost=0.00..4.00 rows=286 width=0) (actual time=40.050..40.050 rows=0 loops=1) Index Cond: ((clientrmainid)::text = 'CPC-RMA-00110'::text) Total runtime: 40.121 ms tts_server_db=# EXPLAIN ANALYZE select distinct userdata from tagrecord where clientRmaInId = 'CPC-RMA-00109'; QUERY PLAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unique (cost=786.63..788.06 rows=1 width=146) (actual time=73.018..73.018 rows=0 loops=1) -> Sort (cost=786.63..787.34 rows=286 width=146) (actual time=73.016..73.016 rows=0 loops=1) Sort Key: userdata -> Bitmap Heap Scan on tagrecord (cost=4.00..774.96 rows=286 width=146) (actual time=72.940..72.940 rows=0 loops=1) Recheck Cond: ((clientrmainid)::text = 'CPC-RMA-00109'::text) -> Bitmap Index Scan on idx_tagdata_clientrmainid (cost=0.00..4.00 rows=286 width=0) (actual time=72.936..72.936 rows=0 loops=1) Index Cond: ((clientrmainid)::text = 'CPC-RMA-00109'::text) Total runtime: 73.144 ms What gives? -- Dimi Paun <dimi@xxxxxxxxxxx> Lattica, Inc. -- Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance