On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 5:36 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > mark <markkicks@xxxxxxxxx> writes: >> EXPLAIN ANALYZE select * from pokes where uid = 578439028 order by id >> DESC limit 6; >> QUERY PLAN >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Limit (cost=0.00..9329.02 rows=6 width=135) (actual >> time=13612.247..13612.247 rows=0 loops=1) >> -> Index Scan Backward using pokes_pkey on pokes >> (cost=0.00..5182270.69 rows=3333 width=135) (actual >> time=13612.245..13612.245 rows=0 loops=1) >> Filter: (uid = 578439028) >> Total runtime: 13612.369 ms >> (4 rows) > > The problem is the vast disconnect between the estimated and actual > rowcounts for the indexscan (3333 vs 0). The planner thinks there > are three thousand rows matching uid = 578439028, and that encourages > it to try a plan that's only going to be fast if at least six such > rows show up fairly soon while scanning the index in reverse id order. > What you really want it to do here is scan on the uid index and then > sort the result by id ... but that will be slow in exactly the case > where this plan is fast, ie, when there are a lot of matching uids. > > Bottom line: the planner cannot make the right choice between these > alternatives unless it's got decent statistics about the frequency > of uid values. "I analyzed the table about a week ago" is not good > enough maintenance policy --- you need current stats, and you might need > to bump up the statistics target to get enough data about less-common > values of uid. how do i do this? bump up the statistics target? > (Since it's 8.3, the autovac daemon might have been analyzing for you, > if you didn't turn off autovacuum. In that case increasing the > statistics target is the first thing to try.) i did not turn it off.. and my OS is fedora 9 i ran vacuum verbose analyze pokes, and then ran the same query, and there is no improvement.. EXPLAIN ANALYZE select * from pokes where uid = 578439028 order by id limit 6; QUERY PLAN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Limit (cost=0.00..8446.80 rows=6 width=130) (actual time=12262.779..12262.779 rows=0 loops=1) -> Index Scan using pokes_pkey on pokes (cost=0.00..5149730.49 rows=3658 width=130) (actual time=12262.777..12262.777 rows=0 loops=1) Filter: (uid = 578439028) Total runtime: 12262.817 ms VACUUM VERBOSE ANALYZE pokes ; INFO: vacuuming "public.pokes" INFO: index "pokes_pkey" now contains 22341026 row versions in 61258 pages DETAIL: 0 index row versions were removed. 0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable. CPU 0.24s/0.06u sec elapsed 1.61 sec. INFO: index "idx_action_idx" now contains 22341026 row versions in 61548 pages DETAIL: 0 index row versions were removed. 0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable. CPU 0.38s/0.09u sec elapsed 7.21 sec. INFO: index "idx_friend_id" now contains 22341026 row versions in 60547 pages DETAIL: 0 index row versions were removed. 0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable. CPU 0.44s/0.11u sec elapsed 9.13 sec. INFO: index "idx_pokes_uid" now contains 22341026 row versions in 62499 pages DETAIL: 0 index row versions were removed. 0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable. CPU 0.41s/0.09u sec elapsed 7.44 sec. INFO: "pokes": found 0 removable, 22341026 nonremovable row versions in 388144 pages DETAIL: 0 dead row versions cannot be removed yet. There were 0 unused item pointers. 1923 pages contain useful free space. 0 pages are entirely empty. CPU 3.02s/2.38u sec elapsed 29.21 sec. INFO: vacuuming "pg_toast.pg_toast_43415" INFO: index "pg_toast_43415_index" now contains 12 row versions in 2 pages DETAIL: 0 index row versions were removed. 0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable. CPU 0.00s/0.00u sec elapsed 0.00 sec. INFO: "pg_toast_43415": found 0 removable, 12 nonremovable row versions in 2 pages DETAIL: 0 dead row versions cannot be removed yet. There were 0 unused item pointers. 2 pages contain useful free space. 0 pages are entirely empty. CPU 0.00s/0.00u sec elapsed 0.00 sec. INFO: analyzing "public.pokes" INFO: "pokes": scanned 3000 of 388144 pages, containing 172933 live rows and 0 dead rows; 3000 rows in sample, 22374302 estimated total