Re: Why does a simple query not use an obvious index?

From: Greg Stark <gsstark(at)mit(dot)edu>
To: "Scott Marlowe" <smarlowe(at)qwest(dot)net>
Cc: "Jack Kerkhof" <jack(dot)kerkhof(at)guest-tek(dot)com>, pgsql-performance(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Why does a simple query not use an obvious index?
Date: 2004-08-29 21:12:05
Message-ID: 87fz65k5sq.fsf@stark.xeocode.com
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"Scott Marlowe" <smarlowe(at)qwest(dot)net> writes:

> Also, count(*) is likely to always generate a seq scan due to the way
> aggregates are implemented currently in pgsql. you might want to try:

Huh? I'm curious to know what you're talking about here.

> select somefield from sometable where timestampfield > now()-'60
> seconds'::interval
>
> and count the number of returned rows. If there's a lot, it won't be
> any faster, if there's a few, it should be a win.

Why would this ever be faster? And how could postgres ever calculate that
without doing a sequential scan when count(*) would force it to do a
sequential scan?

--
greg

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