Hi! On Fri, Mar 29, 2024 at 9:41 PM Tom Lane <t...@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > You would need a lot stronger case than "I didn't bother checking > whether I really need this".
Thanks! I have tested it this way (based on your example): create table t (id int not null, revision int not null); create unique index on t (id, revision desc); explain select * from t where id=123 order by revision desc limit 1; QUERY PLAN ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Limit (cost=0.15..3.45 rows=1 width=8) -> Index Only Scan using t_id_revision_idx on t (cost=0.15..36.35 rows=11 width=8) Index Cond: (id = 123) (3 rows) It is very similar, with only the direction difference. Based on [1] I was under the impression that "Index Only Scan Backward" is much slower than "Index Only Scan", but based on your answer it seems I misunderstood and backwards scanning is comparable with forward scanning? Especially this section: "Consider a two-column index on (x, y): this can satisfy ORDER BY x, y if we scan forward, or ORDER BY x DESC, y DESC if we scan backward. But it might be that the application frequently needs to use ORDER BY x ASC, y DESC. There is no way to get that ordering from a plain index, but it is possible if the index is defined as (x ASC, y DESC) or (x DESC, y ASC)." I am curious, what is then an example where the quote from [1] applies? Really just if I would be doing ORDER BY id, revision DESC on the whole table? Because one future query I am working on is where I select all rows but for only the latest (highest) revision. Curious if that will have an effect there. Mitar [1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/16/indexes-ordering.html -- https://mitar.tnode.com/ https://twitter.com/mitar_m https://noc.social/@mitar