On 1/8/08, Erik Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hmm so rather than NOT IN ( .. LIMIT 50) would you suggest IN ( ... > > OFFSET 50) like in Erik's example? Or something else entirely? > > Well, that would give you some gain. Think about it like this: once > a given user's history records are at 50 and you insert a row, if you > use the NOT IN clause your comparing each of 51 rows to each of the > 50 you want to keep to find the one that can go while with the IN > version your comparing each of the 51 rows to the 1 that can go. Now > how much of a gain that will be I can't say, YMMV. I don't remember > you saying anything about it so I'll also go ahead and point out that > you most likely will want an index on user_id if you don't already.
Thanks for the explanation Erik. I did already have the index, but I've reimplemented using IN/OFFSET instead of NOT IN/LIMIT and it does indeed seem to be faster. > > Do you think a regular batch process to delete rows might be more > > appropriate than a trigger in this scenario? > > That depends on your usage pattern. Assuming you aren't running user > history report queries constantly that's probably what I'd do. Also, > if you're sure you won't need anything but the last 50 records per > user, I'd definitely agree with cleaning out data that's not needed. OK cool, thanks for your advice Erik. Cheers, Jamie ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq