You might want to try with UNION and then sort the result of this query. The index history_lookup_lookupid_creator_index wont be used when you are having an "OR" in your WHERE statement. select history.id, history.created, creator, contact, history.type, lookup, lookupid, value from history where (lookup = 'phone' and lookupid = '672') union select history.id, history.created, creator, contact, history.type, lookup, lookupid, value from history where creator = '790' Leif Gunnar Erlandsen ________________________________________ Fra: pgsql-general-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [pgsql-general-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] på vegne av Antonio Goméz Soto [antonio.gomez.soto@xxxxxxxxx] Sendt: 22. mai 2013 10:50 Til: pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Emne: Slow query and using wrong index, how to fix? Probably naive question.. Hi, I am using postgresql 8.1 (CentOS5). I have the following table: system # \d history Table "public.history" Column | Type | Modifiers ----------+--------------------------+------------------------------------------------------ id | integer | not null default nextval('history_id_seq'::regclass) created | timestamp with time zone | creator | integer | not null default 1 contact | integer | not null default 1 type | character varying | not null default ''::character varying lookup | text | lookupid | integer | not null default 1 value | text | Indexes: "history_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id) "history_created_index" btree (created) "history_creator_index" btree (creator) "history_lookup_lookupid_creator_index" btree (lookup, lookupid, creator) "history_lookup_lookupid_index" btree (lookup, lookupid) Foreign-key constraints: "history_contact_constraint" FOREIGN KEY (contact) REFERENCES contact(id) "history_creator_constraint" FOREIGN KEY (creator) REFERENCES contact(id) system # explain select history.id, history.created, creator, contact, history.type, lookup, lookupid, value from history where (lookup = 'phone' and lookupid = '672') or creator = '790' order by history.creator desc limit 1000; QUERY PLAN ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Limit (cost=0.00..132041.59 rows=1000 width=58) -> Index Scan Backward using history_creator_index on history (cost=0.00..11746815.97 rows=88963 width=58) Filter: (((lookup = 'phone'::text) AND (lookupid = 672)) OR (creator = 790)) (3 rows) This table contains 2 million rows, the query takes 800 seconds on SSD HD. I think - probably naive - the query should use the history_lookup_lookupid_creator_index. Why doesn't it, and how can I speed up the query? Thanks, Antonio. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general