Following Francisco suggestion, I was able to do some tests earlier this morning when the partitioning process completed and all the resulting tables analyzed. Here is what I got on both the original table and its partitioned counterpart while running the same queries. I tested them only for a couple of values but in summary... Using a constant id: All the queries I tried took longer on the partitioned table! I got similar results for multiple records using IN (id value1, id value2 ...) Using a range of ids: Surprisingly again, all the queries I tried took longer on the partitioned table! Using a list of ids from a select clause: More surprisingly, the queries I tried took less time on the partitioned table at least when using the primary key. Using an indexed field took so long compared to the old table that I cancelled the execution for the new one! Guess what, I will get back to my old fat table unless someone tells me I missed something obvious! Daniel Note: Tables/indexes description, queries and execution plans are below. Tables/indexes description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The original table has 3870130000 records. Primary key/index on each partition queries are ALTER TABLE oldtable ADD CONSTRAINT oldtable_idversion_pk PRIMARY KEY (id, version); CREATE INDEX oldtable_groupid_idx ON oldtable USING btree (group_id); The partitioned table has 3870130000 records distributed over 87 partitions. Primary key/index on each partition queries are ALTER TABLE newtable_xx ADD CONSTRAINT newtablexx_idversion_pk PRIMARY KEY (id, version); CREATE INDEX newtablexx_groupid_idx ON newtable_xx USING btree (group_id); Where xx is the partition's number suffix constant id ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- select * from oldtable where id=123456789; "Index Scan using oldtable_idversion_pk on oldtable (cost=0.70..4437.15 rows=1682 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = 123456789::bigint)" --Total query runtime: 62 ms. 1 rows retrieved select * from newtable where id=123456789; "Append (cost=0.00..20.19 rows=5 width=66)" " -> Seq Scan on newtable (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=66)" " Filter: (id = 123456789::bigint)" " -> Index Scan using newtable72_idversion_pk on newtable_72 (cost=0.56..20.19 rows=4 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = 123456789::bigint)" --Total query runtime: 156 ms. 1 rows retrieved I got similar results for multiple records... select * from oldtable where id IN(10000000,1000000000,2000000000,3000000000); "Index Scan using oldtable_idversion_pk on oldtable (cost=0.71..17739.18 rows=6726 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = ANY ('{10000000,1000000000,2000000000,3000000000}'::bigint[]))" --Total query runtime: 187 ms. 4 rows retrieved select * from newtable where id IN(10000000,1000000000,2000000000,3000000000); "Append (cost=0.00..933.40 rows=223 width=66)" " -> Seq Scan on newtable (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=66)" " Filter: (id = ANY ('{10000000,1000000000,2000000000,3000000000}'::bigint[]))" " -> Index Scan using newtable01_idversion_pk on newtable_01 (cost=0.57..622.78 rows=156 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = ANY ('{10000000,1000000000,2000000000,3000000000}'::bigint[]))" ... " -> Index Scan using newtable85_idversion_pk on newtable_85 (cost=0.57..53.37 rows=9 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = ANY ('{10000000,1000000000,2000000000,3000000000}'::bigint[]))" --Total query runtime: 421 ms. 4 rows retrieved range of ids ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- select * from oldtable where id between 1522999949 and 1523000049; "Index Scan using oldtable_idversion_pk on oldtable (cost=0.70..383.51 rows=144 width=66)" " Index Cond: ((id >= 1522999949) AND (id <= 1523000049))" Total query runtime: 47 ms. 53 rows retrieved. select * from newtable where id between 1522999949 and 1523000049; "Append (cost=0.00..408.16 rows=104 width=66)" " -> Seq Scan on newtable (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=66)" " Filter: ((id >= 1522999949) AND (id <= 1523000049))" " -> Index Scan using newtable51_idversion_pk on newtable_51 (cost=0.56..183.52 rows=46 width=66)" " Index Cond: ((id >= 1522999949) AND (id <= 1523000049))" " -> Index Scan using newtable52_idversion_pk on newtable_52 (cost=0.56..224.64 rows=57 width=66)" " Index Cond: ((id >= 1522999949) AND (id <= 1523000049))" Total query runtime: 78 ms. 53 rows retrieved. list of ids from a select clause ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --Subset provides 4 ids similar but not identical to the previous query select * from oldtable where id IN (select * from subset); "Nested Loop (cost=37.45..886298.00 rows=2028512050 width=66)" " -> HashAggregate (cost=36.75..38.75 rows=200 width=8)" " -> Seq Scan on subset (cost=0.00..31.40 rows=2140 width=8)" " -> Index Scan using oldtable_idversion_pk on oldtable (cost=0.70..4414.37 rows=1693 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = subset.id)" Total query runtime: 171 ms. 4 rows retrieved. select * from newtable where id IN (select * from subset) "Nested Loop (cost=36.75..1407672.76 rows=1935067087 width=66)" " -> HashAggregate (cost=36.75..38.75 rows=200 width=8)" " -> Seq Scan on subset (cost=0.00..31.40 rows=2140 width=8)" " -> Append (cost=0.00..7020.68 rows=1749 width=66)" " -> Seq Scan on newtable (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=66)" " Filter: (subset.id = id)" " -> Index Scan using newtable01_idversion_pk on newtable_01 (cost=0.56..151.97 rows=39 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = subset.id)" ... " -> Index Scan using newtable86_idversion_pk on newtable_86 (cost=0.56..12.42 rows=2 width=66)" " Index Cond: (id = subset.id)" Total query runtime: 140 ms. 4 rows retrieved. Using an index, not the primary key ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --Subset provides 58 group_id pointing to 5978 records in the concerned tables select * from oldtable where group_id IN (select * from subset) "Nested Loop (cost=37.33..21575715.89 rows=2028512050 width=66)" " -> HashAggregate (cost=36.75..38.75 rows=200 width=8)" " -> Seq Scan on subset (cost=0.00..31.40 rows=2140 width=8)" " -> Index Scan using oldtable_groupid_idx on oldtable (cost=0.58..107364.99 rows=51340 width=66)" " Index Cond: (group_id = subset.id)" Total query runtime: 3986 ms. 5978 rows retrieved. select * from newtable where group_id IN (select * from subset) "Hash Join (cost=41.25..138092255.85 rows=1935067087 width=66)" " Hash Cond: (newtable.group_id = subset.id)" " -> Append (cost=0.00..84877869.72 rows=3870134173 width=66)" " -> Seq Scan on newtable (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=66)" " -> Seq Scan on newtable_01 (cost=0.00..946235.96 rows=46526896 width=66)" ... " -> Seq Scan on newtable_86 (cost=0.00..986527.64 rows=44269664 width=66)" " -> Hash (cost=38.75..38.75 rows=200 width=8)" " -> HashAggregate (cost=36.75..38.75 rows=200 width=8)" " -> Seq Scan on subset (cost=0.00..31.40 rows=2140 width=8)" Execution Cancelled after 766702 ms ! I tried the same with "SET enable_seqscan = OFF" and got an index scan of all tables; -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general