Re: Indexing question

I think I understand what you mean :)

Let's see if that's true :

The entire table WAS like this: (just one example table, I have many more)

create table orderadvice (
orad_id serial primary key,
orad_name varchar(25) unique not null,
orad_description varchar(50) default null,
orad_value integer not null default 0,
orad_value_quan integer references quantity (quan_id) not null default 0,
orad_deleted boolean not null default false,
orad_deleteddate date default null,
orad_deletedby integer references systemuser (user_id) default null )
without oids;

Indexes were like this:

create index orad_deleted_index on orderadvice (orad_deleted);
(orad_id and orad_name indexed implicitly in the create table statement)

A view on this table:

create view orderadvice_edit as select
orad_id,orad_name,orad_description,orad_value,orad_value_quan from
orderadvice where not orad_deleted;

Most queries on this view would be like 'select * from orderadvice_edit
where orad_id=100' or 'select * from orderadvice_edit order by orad_name'.

How about the following script. Would it be better, given the type of
queries that would take place on this table?

create table orderadvice (
orad_id serial primary key,
orad_name varchar(25) not null,
orad_description varchar(50) default null,
orad_value integer not null default 0,
orad_value_quan integer references quantity (quan_id) not null default 0,
orad_deleteddate date default null,
orad_deletedby integer references systemuser (user_id) default null )
without oids;

create index orad_id_index on orderadvice (orad_id) where orad_deleteddate
is null;
create index orad_name_index on orderadvice (orad_name) where
orad_deleteddate is null;

create view orderadvice_edit as select
orad_id,orad_name,orad_description,orad_value,orad_value_quan from
orderadvice where orad_deleteddate is null;

Would queries like 'select * from orderadvice_edit where orad_id=100' or
'select * from orderadvice_edit order by orad_name' both use one of these
two partial indexes, given enough records are present in the table?

There would be a double index on the primary key this way, right?

Thanks for your advice so far,
Alexander Priem.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tomasz Myrta" <jasiek(at)klaster(dot)net>
To: "Alexander Priem" <ap(at)cict(dot)nl>
Cc: <pgsql-performance(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2003 9:59 AM
Subject: Re: [PERFORM] Indexing question

> > So if I understand correctly I could ditch the 'deleted' field entirely
and
> > use just the 'deleteddate' field. This 'deleteddate' field would be NULL
by
> > default. It would contain a date value if the record is considered
> > 'deleted'.
> >
> > The index would be 'create index a on tablename(deleteddate) where
> > deleteddate is null'.
> >
> > I could then access 'current' records with a view like 'create view
x_view
> > as select * from tablename where deleteddate is null'.
> >
> > Is that correct? This would be the best performing solution for this
kind of
> > thing, I think (theoretically at least)?
> >
> > Kind regards,
> > Alexander Priem.
>
> Near, but not exactly. You don't need field deleted - it's true.
>
> Your example:
> create index a on tablename(deleteddate) where deleteddate is null
> we can translate to:
> create index a on tablename(NULL) where deleteddate is null
> which doesn't make too much sense.
>
> Check your queries. You probably have something like this:
> select * from tablename where not deleted and xxx
>
> Create your index to match xxx clause - if xxx is "some_id=13", then
> create your index as:
> create index on tablename(some_id) where deleteddate is null;
>
> Regards,
> Tomasz Myrta
>