btw, I think it's worth to add link to src/backend/access/gist/README
file, which we updated recently.
Oleg
On Thu, 20 Oct 2005, Tom Lane wrote:
[ getting back to this documentation issue finally ]
Teodor Sigaev <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
I disagree with last affirmation: inner pages of index contains fair union of
keys and enough helpful to select. Mailware ( http://www.pgsql.ru/db/mw )
sucsessfully use combined GiST index (date, tsvector) for searching.
GiST's split algorithm is good for unique leading keys, not so bad for small
number of non-unique values and bad for all equals leading key. But "bad" means
that itsn't optimal as picksplit for other keys may be. If there is several keys
which can be moved on left or right page without changing union of first key for
each page then GiST try put its on page (left or right) with smallest penalty
calculated by other keys. This algorithm is very similar to defining page to put
tuple with normal processing (without page split).
With unique leading key GiST's split is fully similar to BTree - it looks only
at leading key, but gistchoose isn't. Gistchoose (gistutil.c:622) chooses child
with smallest penalty and it looks to other keys if several leading keys has the
same penalty. In a GiST tree different keys may have the same penalty value with
new key.
OK, how about this text then?
A multicolumn GiST index can only be used when there is a query condition
on its leading column. Conditions on additional columns restrict the
entries returned by the index, but the condition on the first column is the
most important one for determining how much of the index needs to be
scanned. A GiST index will be relatively ineffective if its first column
has only a few distinct values, even if there are many distinct values in
additional columns.
regards, tom lane
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Regards,
Oleg
_____________________________________________________________
Oleg Bartunov, sci.researcher, hostmaster of AstroNet,
Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow University (Russia)
Internet: oleg@sai.msu.su, http://www.sai.msu.su/~megera/
phone: +007(095)939-16-83, +007(095)939-23-83
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