I have a function that returns a set of a custom type... trax=# \d client_search Composite type "public.client_search" Column | Type ----------------+------------------------ clientno | bigint client | character varying(100) contactno | bigint city | character varying(50) state | character varying(50) contact_info | text contact_title | character varying(100) contact_phone | character varying(20) contact_cell | character varying(20) clientnamesort | text lastnamesort | text ...and need to left join this with a table that can tell me if each record exists in that table depending on certain values. When I get to tens of thousands of records returned by the function, while my runtime of the function itself is little changed, I am struggling to lower the runtime as it gets very high when there are more and more matches in the join. I have gone through to make sure all my comparisons in the join are of same type, here is the table I am joining... trax=# \d tblsearch_selections Table "public.tblsearch_selections" Column | Type | Modifiers ---------------------+-----------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ search_selection_id | bigint | not null default nextval('tblsearch_selections_search_selection_id_seq'::regclass) search_id | integer | user_id | character varying(12) | selection_value | text | selected_value | bigint | selection_type | character varying(10) | default 'client'::character varying Indexes: "tblsearch_selections_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (search_selection_id) "search_selection_unique_idx" UNIQUE, btree (search_id, user_id, selection_value, selection_type) Foreign-key constraints: "tblsearch_selections_search_fk" FOREIGN KEY (search_id) REFERENCES tblclientsearch(search_id) ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE "tblsearch_selections_user_fk" FOREIGN KEY (user_id) REFERENCES tbluser(flduserid) ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE Here is the analysis of the query with over 12000 join matches... trax=# explain analyze select * from client_search_id_func(62) left join tblsearch_selections ON search_id = 62 and user_id = 'RF' and ((selected_value = clientno and selection_type = 'client') or (selected_value = contactno and selection_type = 'contact')); --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nested Loop Left Join (cost=301.98..9434.48 rows=1000 width=426) (actual time=288.130..234578.634 rows=18202 loops=1) Join Filter: (((tblsearch_selections.selected_value = client_search_id_func.clientno) AND ((tblsearch_selections.selection_type)::text = 'client'::text)) OR ((tblsearch_selections.selected_value = client_search_id_func.contactno) AND ((tblsearch_selections.selection_type)::text = 'contact'::text))) -> Function Scan on client_search_id_func (cost=0.00..12.50 rows=1000 width=382) (actual time=253.805..265.752 rows=18202 loops=1) -> Materialize (cost=301.98..305.02 rows=304 width=44) (actual time=0.001..4.931 rows=12747 loops=18202) -> Seq Scan on tblsearch_selections (cost=0.00..301.68 rows=304 width=44) (actual time=0.040..12.749 rows=12747 loops=1) Filter: ((search_id = 62) AND ((user_id)::text = 'RF'::text)) Total runtime: 234673.875 ms (7 rows) Perhaps I need to use subselects or some other approach? trax=# explain analyze select *, (select search_selection_id from tblsearch_selections where search_id = 62 and user_id = 'RF' and ((selected_value = clientno and selection_type = 'client') or (selected_value = contactno and selection_type = 'contact'))) from client_search_id_func(62); ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Function Scan on client_search_id_func (cost=0.00..315837.50 rows=1000 width=382) (actual time=259.520..148524.590 rows=18202 loops=1) SubPlan -> Seq Scan on tblsearch_selections (cost=0.00..315.82 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=3.555..8.131 rows=1 loops=18202) Filter: ((search_id = 62) AND ((user_id)::text = 'RF'::text) AND (((selected_value = $0) AND ((selection_type)::text = 'client'::text)) OR ((selected_value = $1) AND ((selection_type)::text = 'contact'::text)))) Total runtime: 148540.593 ms And with no matches, the winner so far is the left join... trax=# delete from tblsearch_selections where search_id = 62; DELETE 12747 trax=# explain analyze select * from client_search_id_func(62) left join tblsearch_selections ON search_id = 62 and user_id = 'RF' and ((selected_value = clientno and selection_type = 'client') or (selected_value = contactno and selection_type = 'contact')); --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nested Loop Left Join (cost=513.90..384586.40 rows=1000 width=426) (actual time=253.248..308.741 rows=18202 loops=1) Join Filter: (((tblsearch_selections.selected_value = client_search_id_func.clientno) AND ((tblsearch_selections.selection_type)::text = 'client'::text)) OR ((tblsearch_selections.selected_value = client_search_id_func.contactno) AND ((tblsearch_selections.selection_type)::text = 'contact'::text))) -> Function Scan on client_search_id_func (cost=0.00..12.50 rows=1000 width=382) (actual time=251.167..258.764 rows=18202 loops=1) -> Materialize (cost=513.90..641.92 rows=12802 width=44) (actual time=0.001..0.001 rows=0 loops=18202) -> Seq Scan on tblsearch_selections (cost=0.00..501.10 rows=12802 width=44) (actual time=2.066..2.066 rows=0 loops=1) Filter: ((search_id = 62) AND ((user_id)::text = 'RF'::text)) Total runtime: 319.371 ms (7 rows) Thanks for any help! -- Robert ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster