Re: Scalar in a range (but textual not numeric)

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Richard Huxton <dev(at)archonet(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-sql(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Scalar in a range (but textual not numeric)
Date: 2004-02-25 21:32:08
Message-ID: 6803.1077744728@sss.pgh.pa.us
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Richard Huxton <dev(at)archonet(dot)com> writes:
> Large table representing non-overlapping blocks:
> blocks(id int4, min varchar, max varchar)

> SELECT * FROM blocks WHERE 'ABCDE' BETWEEN min AND max;

> The estimator gets the wrong plan because it doesn't realise there's
> (at most) only one block that can match.

Even if it did realize that, it couldn't do much, because this query
isn't indexable as it stands.

I wonder whether you could adapt the "line segment" datatype
(see contrib/seg/) into a sort of "text segment" thingy and use the
GiST indexing support on that. You'd have a query like
WHERE min_max_object overlaps-operator 'ABCDE'
and the overlaps operator would be a GiST-indexable one.

regards, tom lane

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