Bad prepare performance

Hello,

I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, I couldn't find a discussion about
this problem.

I've done the same query on a 8.2.5 database. The first one is prepared first
and the other is executed directly.

I understand why the there is such a great difference between the two ways of
executing the query (postgres has no way of knowing that $1 will be quite big
and that the result is not too big).

I could just avoid using prepare statements, but this is done automatically with
Perl's DBD::Pg. I know how to avoid using prepare statements (avoid having
placeholders in the statement), but that is not the prettiest of work arounds.
Is there any planner hints I can use or anything happened or happening with 8.3
or later that I can use?

Thank you in advance and the following is the EXPLAIN ANALYZE for the queries.

Best regards

Martin Kjeldsen

-----

PREPARE test_x (INT) AS SELECT * FROM v_rt_trap_detailed WHERE guid > $1 ORDER BY created LIMIT 3000;

EXPLAIN ANALYZE EXECUTE test_x (116505531);
QUERY PLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Limit (cost=1143870.95..1143878.45 rows=3000 width=267) (actual time=83033.101..83033.111 rows=4 loops=1)
-> Sort (cost=1143870.95..1148074.36 rows=1681367 width=267) (actual time=83033.099..83033.103 rows=4 loops=1)
Sort Key: rt_trap.created
-> Merge Left Join (cost=0.00..829618.73 rows=1681367 width=267) (actual time=83032.946..83033.051 rows=4 loops=1)
Merge Cond: (rt_trap.guid = tp.trap_guid)
-> Index Scan using idx_rt_trap_guid on rt_trap (cost=0.00..81738.88 rows=1681367 width=192) (actual time=0.012..0.020 rows=4 loops=1)
Index Cond: (guid > $1)
Filter: (deleted IS NULL)
-> Index Scan using idx_rt_trap_param_trap_guid on rt_trap_param tp (cost=0.00..706147.04 rows=4992440 width=79) (actual time=6.523..78594.750 rows=5044927 loops=1)
Filter: (param_oid = 'snmpTrapOID.0'::text)
Total runtime: 83033.411 ms
(11 rows)

dmon2=# EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM v_rt_trap_detailed WHERE guid > 116505531 ORDER BY created LIMIT 3000;
QUERY PLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Limit (cost=9866.45..9867.71 rows=504 width=267) (actual time=0.590..0.616 rows=12 loops=1)
-> Sort (cost=9866.45..9867.71 rows=504 width=267) (actual time=0.587..0.596 rows=12 loops=1)
Sort Key: rt_trap.created
-> Nested Loop Left Join (cost=0.00..9843.83 rows=504 width=267) (actual time=0.157..0.531 rows=12 loops=1)
-> Index Scan using idx_rt_trap_guid on rt_trap (cost=0.00..26.78 rows=504 width=192) (actual time=0.022..0.034 rows=12 loops=1)
Index Cond: (guid > 116505531)
Filter: (deleted IS NULL)
-> Index Scan using idx_rt_trap_param_trap_guid on rt_trap_param tp (cost=0.00..18.36 rows=89 width=79) (actual time=0.006..0.009 rows=1 loops=12)
Index Cond: (rt_trap.guid = tp.trap_guid)
Filter: (param_oid = 'snmpTrapOID.0'::text)
Total runtime: 0.733 ms
(11 rows)