Tom Lane writes: > "Dave Golombek" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Is there a way I can reformulate the query to help the planner use the > > indices? > > Use 8.2. Also put an index on the base table, not only the children --- > the forced seqscan on the base weighs down the cost estimate for the > plan you would like to have. (With sufficiently large child tables, > that might not matter, but it sure does for this toy example.)
Ah, I forgot to try the index on the base table using 8.2, which does indeed solve the problem. It unfortunately doesn't help with 8.1.4, which we have in the field; any thoughts on workarounds for older versions or should I just use a function until we can upgrade everywhere? We have 150 million rows spread across 16 child tables, which should help cost estimation. Thanks, Dave ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match