Hello, here is a small test case to reproduce an issue from our production system: - one table with 2 columns (sid, ua) containing a lot of nulls - two indexes with the same condition: i_sid : on (sid) WHERE sid IS NOT NULL i_ua : on (ua,sid) WHERE sid IS NOT NULL and a query with the clause "WHERE sid IS NOT NULL and ua IS NULL" It is quite evident that the second index is better as it allows to resolve the 2 conditions of the queries, but this seems to be an issue for the planner that prefers the first index beat regards, Marc Mamin create table ptest (sid int, ua int); insert into ptest select null,null from generate_series (1,100000); insert into ptest select s%100,s%50 from generate_series (1,10000) s; insert into ptest select s%100,null from generate_series (1,1000) s; create index i_sid on ptest(sid) WHERE sid IS NOT NULL; create index i_ua on ptest(ua,sid) WHERE sid IS NOT NULL; -- BEFORE ANALYZE: ------------------ explain analyze select count(*) from ptest WHERE sid IS NOT NULL and ua IS NULL http://explain.depesz.com/s/1n3 Aggregate (cost=402.71..402.72 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=0.297..0.297 rows=1 loops=1) -> Bitmap Heap Scan on ptest (cost=11.91..401.33 rows=552 width=0) (actual time=0.146..0.235 rows=1000 loops=1) Recheck Cond: ((ua IS NULL) AND (sid IS NOT NULL)) -> Bitmap Index Scan on i_ua (cost=0.00..11.77 rows=552 width=0) (actual time=0.140..0.140 rows=1000 loops=1) Index Cond: ((ua IS NULL) AND (sid IS NOT NULL)) Total runtime: 0.331 ms -- ANALYZED: ------------ analyze ptest explain analyze select count(*) from ptest WHERE sid IS NOT NULL and ua IS NULL http://explain.depesz.com/s/s6c Aggregate (cost=711.59..711.60 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=1.842..1.842 rows=1 loops=1) -> Bitmap Heap Scan on ptest (cost=184.00..686.67 rows=9970 width=0) (actual time=1.677..1.780 rows=1000 loops=1) Recheck Cond: (sid IS NOT NULL) Filter: (ua IS NULL) -> Bitmap Index Scan on i_sid (cost=0.00..181.50 rows=10967 width=0) (actual time=0.826..0.826 rows=11000 loops=1) Index Cond: (sid IS NOT NULL) Total runtime: 1.873 ms I have also tried it with the best possible statistics, but the planner still choose the single column index: ALTER TABLE ptest ALTER sid SET STATISTICS 10000; ALTER TABLE ptest ALTER ua SET STATISTICS 10000; analyze ptest; explain analyze select count(*) from ptest WHERE sid IS NOT NULL and ua IS NULL http://explain.depesz.com/s/Vjy9 -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general