Giorgio Valoti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Are there any way to pass some hints to the planner? For example,  
> could the IMMUTABLE/STABLE/VOLATILE modifiers be of some help?

Those don't really do anything for set-returning functions at the
moment.

As of 8.3 there is a ROWS attribute for SRFs that can help with one
of the worst problems, namely that the planner has no idea how many
rows a SRF might return.  It's simplistic (just an integer constant
estimate) but better than no control at all.

As of CVS HEAD (8.4 to be) there's a capability in the planner to
"inline" SRFs that are single SELECTs in SQL language, which should
pretty much eliminate the performance differential against a comparable
view.  Unfortunately 8.4 release is at least a year away, but just
so you know.  (I suppose if you were desperate enough to run a privately
modified copy, that patch should drop into 8.3 easily enough.)  IIRC
the restrictions for this to happen are
        * single SELECT
        * function declared to return set
        * function NOT declared strict or volatile
        * function NOT declared SECURITY DEFINER or given any
          local parameter settings
The latter restrictions are needed so that inlining doesn't change
the semantics.

                        regards, tom lane

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