Re: fake condition causes far better plan

=?ISO-8859-2?Q?Sz=FBcs_G=E1bor?= <surrano(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> [ bad query plan ]

Most of the problem is here:

> -> Index Scan using muvelet_vonalkod_ny_idopont on
> muvelet_vonalkod_ny ny (cost=0.00..1351.88 rows=24649 width=4) (actual
> time=0.161..10.735 rows=3943 loops=1)
> Index Cond: (idopont >= (now() -
> ('00:00:00'::interval + ('1 days'::text)::interval)))

(BTW, you lied about the query, because this index condition doesn't
match anything in the given query text.)

Pre-8.0 releases aren't capable of making useful statistical estimates
for conditions involving nonconstant subexpressions, so you get a
badly-mistaken row count estimate that leads to a poor choice of plan.

If you can't update to 8.0, the best answer is to do the date arithmetic
on the client side. Another way is to create an allegedly-immutable
function along the lines of "ago(interval) returns timestamptz" to hide
the now() call --- this is dangerous but sometimes it's the easiest answer.
See the archives.

regards, tom lane