Christopher Browne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Another factor worth considering: If a few values are very common in > the field you are selecting on, then the query optimizer can get > convinced (wrongly) that a Seq Scan is the best choice. Using ALTER > TABLE T ALTER COLUMN C SET STATISTICS [some value] to increase the > number of "bins" can be helpful in such cases. (My pet theory is that > the present default value of 10 is a little low, and that a lot of > optimizer errors might be resolved by bumping it up a bit...)
I also suspect that 10 is a lowball figure, but no one has done any work to establish what might be a more reasonable default. Larger values have real costs in both pg_statistic space and planner runtime, so I don't want to push it up without some kind of evidence. BTW, if you think a higher default might be appropriate, you can set it in postgresql.conf instead of running around and manually ALTERing all your tables. regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly