=?UTF-8?Q?Nicklas_Av=c3=a9n?= <nicklas.aven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: > I also, in the first query, changed the where clause to filter on > machine_key in table contractor _access. Just to illustrate the problem > better. > Both queries filter on the same table which is joined the same way. But > in the second example the where clause is not pushed to the subquery The filters are totally different though. In one case you provide where ci.machine_key = '887655635442600' and there is also a join condition l.machine_key=ci.machine_key >From these two things the planner can deduce l.machine_key='887655635442600' which is a restriction condition that it knows how to push down into the "l" subquery. Furthermore, it can also deduce that it can restrict all of the left-joined tables to consider only that value of their join keys. In query #2 you have no constant value for machine_key so none of that happens. IIRC, the propagated value doesn't have to be a constant, exactly, just a fixed expression. So you might consider something like <query 1 as written, up to the WHERE> where ci.machine_key = (select machine_key from contractor_access where t4e_contractor_id = 'nicklas.aven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'); when you need to drive the lookup from something other than raw machine_key. This'll fail, as-is, if there's more than one contractor_access row with t4e_contractor_id = 'nicklas.aven@xxxxxxxxxxxxx', but you can probably adapt the idea to make it work. regards, tom lane