Index not used. WHY?

From: "Andrei Bintintan" <klodoma(at)ar-sd(dot)net>
To: <pgsql-admin(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Index not used. WHY?
Date: 2003-12-04 14:57:51
Message-ID: 014901c3ba76$ffd65650$0b00a8c0@andy
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Hi,

I have the following table:
CREATE TABLE public.rights (
id int4 DEFAULT nextval('"rights_id_seq"'::text) NOT NULL,
id_user int4 NOT NULL,
id_modull int4 NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT rights_pkey PRIMARY KEY (id)
)

and I created the following indexes:

CREATE INDEX right_id_modull_idx ON rights USING btree (id_modull);
CREATE INDEX right_id_user_idx ON rights USING btree (id_user);

Now the problem:

EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM rights r WHERE r.id_modull =15
returnes:
Seq Scan on rights r (cost=0.00..12.30 rows=42 width=12)
Filter: (id_modull = 15)

EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM rights r WHERE r.id_user =15
returnes:
Index Scan using right_id_user_idx on rights r (cost=0.00..8.35 rows=11 width=12)
Index Cond: (id_user = 15)

Question: Why the right_id_modull_idx is NOT USED at the 1st query and the second query the right_id_user_idx index is used.

I don't understand this.

Thanx in advance.
Andy.

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