"Merlin Moncure" wrote: > > SELECT * FROM TABLE ORDER BY pk LIMIT 10 OFFSET N; > > using offset to walk a table is extremely poor form because of: > * poor performance > * single user mentality > * flat file mentality > > databases are lousy at this becuase they inheritly do not support > abolute addressing of data -- nore should they, beause this is not > what sql is all about. in short, 'offset' is a hack, albeit a useful > one in some cases, but dont gripe when it doesn't deliver the goods. > > for server side browsing use cursors or a hybrid pl/pgqsl loop. for > client side, browse fetching relative to the last key: > > select * from foo where p > p1 order by p limit k; > > in 8.2, we get proper comparisons so you can do this with multiple part keys: > > select * from foo where (a1,b1,b1) > (a,b,c) order by a,b,c limit k; > I have 8.2 Beta 1 (Win32) on my home pc and offset was faster than fetching relative to the last key as measured by explain analyze. This was on a table with about 1,000 rows. regards, karen
