Multicolum index and primary key

From: Michele Bendazzoli <mickymouse(at)mickymouse(dot)it>
To: pgsql-sql(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Multicolum index and primary key
Date: 2003-11-17 17:00:32
Message-ID: 1069088432.8338.16.camel@mickymouse.sintel
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I wonder if is useless to set some indexes for columns contained in a
multifield primary key.

Suppose by example that one have a table1 with a primary key over three
field (a, b, c):

ALTER TABLE public.table1
ADD CONSTRAINT table1_pkey PRIMARY KEY(a, b, c);

are the indexes over (a) and (a, b) redundant (and so useless)?

I.e. with other words the question is, if I have a primary key set for
the a, b, c fields the queries

SELECT 1 from table1 where a='a value'

and

SELECT 1 from table1 where a='a value' AND b='another value'

use the implicit index created by the primary key or not?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

ciao, Michele

p.s. I know, I'll have to begin to use the explain command ...
I promise I'll do it ;-)

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