Query plan issue when upgrading to postgres 8.14 (from postgres 8.12 or 7.4)

From: Ioana Danes <ioanasoftware(at)yahoo(dot)ca>
To: pgsql-performance(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Query plan issue when upgrading to postgres 8.14 (from postgres 8.12 or 7.4)
Date: 2006-07-06 21:34:46
Message-ID: 20060706213446.99717.qmail@web55908.mail.re3.yahoo.com
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I have a problem with a query that in postgres 7.4 and 8.12 has an acceptable response time but in postgres 8.14 is very slow.

This is the table I use:

create table TEST (
TESTID INT8 not null,
TESTTYPE INT4 null,
constraint PK_TESTID primary key (TESTID));
create index IX_TEST_TESTTYPE on TEST (TESTTYPE);

And this is the query with the problem:
explain select max(TESTID) from TEST where TESTTYPE = 1577;

The query plan in postgres 7.4 and 8.12 is using the index by TESTTYPE field, which is what I want in this case.
QUERY PLAN
Aggregate (cost=25.97..25.97 rows=1 width=8)
-> Index Scan using ix_test_testtype on test (cost=0.00..25.95 rows=9 width=8)
Index Cond: (testtype = 1577)
With postgres 8.14 the query plan uses the primary key PK_TESTID with filter by TESTTYPE, which it takes almost 10 minutes to execute:
QUERY PLAN
Limit (cost=0.00..41.46 rows=1 width=8)
-> Index Scan Backward using pk_testid on test (cost=…)
Filter: ((testid IS NOT NULL) and (testtype = 1577))

When replacing the index
create index IX_TEST_TESTTYPE on TEST (TESTTYPE);
with
create index IX_TEST_TESTTYPE on TEST (TESTTYPE, TESTID);
the query plan uses this index and the execution of this select is extremely fast.

>From what I can see, the query plan for 8.14 is using a index scan by the field used with max() function with a filter by the field in the where condition.
Should not the query plan use an index scan by the field in where condition (which in my case is a small range) and come up with the max value in that range?

Is this a bug, am I missing a configuration step or this is how it is supposed to work?

Thank you very much,
Ioana


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