> On Jun 5, 2018, at 2:02 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > armand pirvu <armand.pirvu@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> My question is: I suspect the limit simply limits the fethching to the first n-records retrieved and has no implications whatsoever on the planner, meaning the planner ignores it. Am I right or wrong ? > > You're quite wrong. The presence of a LIMIT causes the planner to prefer > "fast start" plans, since it will then optimize on the basis of picking > the lowest estimated cost to fetch the first N rows. As an example, > you're more likely to get an ordered indexscan than a seqscan-and-sort > for small N, though there are many cases where seqscan-and-sort wins > if the need is to fetch the whole table. > > regards, tom lane Thank you Tom So since select count(*) from sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test; count ------- 6860 and select count(*) from sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test where evt_id = 'ACSF17' and status=0 ; count ------- 4239 That means to me I fetch almost the whole table and then I fall in the case you described seqscan-and-sort wins over indexscan . My statement was made because in the case of an index it gets used as long as the data returned back falls below 10% (or so) from the total data in the table and in the case of the original query no matter how low I get the N still seq scan but I guess is again the above sescan-and-sort scenario (see below) create index fooidx on sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test (evt_id, status); vacuum analyze sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test; explain analyze select * from sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test where evt_id = 'ACSF17' and status=1; QUERY PLAN Index Scan using fooidx on sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test (cost=0.28..202.91 rows=500 width=519) (actual time=0.097..0.527 rows=500 loops=1) Index Cond: (((evt_id)::text = 'ACSF17'::text) AND (status = 1)) Planning time: 1.024 ms Execution time: 0.766 ms this gets 500 rows out of 6860 explain analyze select * from sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test where evt_id = 'ACSF17' and status=1 limit 10; QUERY PLAN Limit (cost=0.28..4.33 rows=10 width=519) (actual time=0.073..0.105 rows=10 loops=1) -> Index Scan using fooidx on sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test (cost=0.28..202.91 rows=500 width=519) (actual time=0.072..0.101 rows=10 loops=1) Index Cond: (((evt_id)::text = 'ACSF17'::text) AND (status = 1)) Planning time: 0.280 ms Execution time: 0.173 ms Back to the original explain analyze select * from sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test where evt_id = 'ACSF17' and status=0 limit 1 ; QUERY PLAN Limit (cost=0.00..0.13 rows=1 width=519) (actual time=0.021..0.021 rows=1 loops=1) -> Seq Scan on sp_i2birst_reg_staging_test (cost=0.00..548.40 rows=4239 width=519) (actual time=0.019..0.019 rows=1 loops=1) Filter: (((evt_id)::text = 'ACSF17'::text) AND (status = 0)) Rows Removed by Filter: 1 Planning time: 0.286 ms Execution time: 0.110 ms — Armand