Re: Planner wrongly shuns multi-column index for select .. order by col1, col2 limit 1

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: "John Surcombe" <John(dot)Surcombe(at)digimap(dot)gg>
Cc: pgsql-performance(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Planner wrongly shuns multi-column index for select .. order by col1, col2 limit 1
Date: 2011-03-13 16:24:41
Message-ID: 26708.1300033481@sss.pgh.pa.us
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"John Surcombe" <John(dot)Surcombe(at)digimap(dot)gg> writes:
> When we 'EXPLAIN' this query, PostgreSQL says it is using the index
> idx_receiveddatetime. The way the application is designed means that in
> virtually all cases the query will have to scan a very long way into
> idx_receiveddatetime to find the first record where userid = 311369000.
> If however we delete the idx_receiveddatetime index, the query uses the
> idx_userid_receiveddatetime index, and the query only takes a few
> milliseconds.

That's just bizarre ... it knows the index is applicable, and the cost
estimates clearly favor the better index, so why did it pick the worse
one?

I tried to duplicate this locally, without success, so there's some
contributing factor you've neglected to mention. Can you put together a
self-contained test case that acts like this?

regards, tom lane

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