unexpected stable function behavior

Hello, list

Our company is creating a ticketing system. Of course the performance
issues are very important to us (as to all of you I guess). To increase
speed of some queries stable functions are used, but somehow they don't
act exactly as I expect, so would you please explain what am I doing (or
expecting) wrong...

First of all I have the stable function witch runs fast and I have no
problems with it at all.
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION web_select_extra_price(prm_price_id integer,
prm_event_id integer, prm_cashier_id integer)
RETURNS numeric AS
'
........ some code here
'
LANGUAGE plpgsql STABLE
COST 100;

Now the test:

1) query without using the function
explain analyze
SELECT thtp_tick_id, price_id,
price_price,
price_color
FROM ticket_price
JOIN ticket_has_ticket_price ON (price_id = thtp_price_id)
WHERE price_event_id = 7820 and (current_timestamp >= price_date AND
current_timestamp <= price_date_till)
ORDER BY price_id;

Result:
"Sort (cost=132.47..133.77 rows=518 width=25) (actual time=5.125..5.842
rows=4335 loops=1)"
" Sort Key: ticket_price.price_id"
" Sort Method: quicksort Memory: 433kB"
" -> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..109.12 rows=518 width=25) (actual
time=0.037..3.148 rows=4335 loops=1)"
" -> Index Scan using index_price_event_id on ticket_price
(cost=0.00..8.52 rows=2 width=21) (actual time=0.014..0.026 rows=7 loops=1)"
" Index Cond: (price_event_id = 7820)"
" Filter: ((now() >= price_date) AND (now() <=
price_date_till))"
" -> Index Scan using idx_thtp_price_id on
ticket_has_ticket_price (cost=0.00..47.06 rows=259 width=8) (actual
time=0.013..0.211 rows=619 loops=7)"
" Index Cond: (ticket_has_ticket_price.thtp_price_id =
ticket_price.price_id)"
"Total runtime: 6.425 ms"

2) Query using the function
explain analyze
SELECT thtp_tick_id, price_id,
price_price, web_select_extra_price(price_id, price_event_id, 1),
price_color
FROM ticket_price
JOIN ticket_has_ticket_price ON (price_id = thtp_price_id)
WHERE price_event_id = 7820 and (current_timestamp >= price_date AND
current_timestamp <= price_date_till)
ORDER BY price_id;

Result:
"Sort (cost=261.97..263.27 rows=518 width=29) (actual
time=704.224..704.927 rows=4335 loops=1)"
" Sort Key: ticket_price.price_id"
" Sort Method: quicksort Memory: 433kB"
" -> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..238.62 rows=518 width=29) (actual
time=0.272..699.073 rows=4335 loops=1)"
" -> Index Scan using index_price_event_id on ticket_price
(cost=0.00..8.52 rows=2 width=25) (actual time=0.011..0.052 rows=7 loops=1)"
" Index Cond: (price_event_id = 7820)"
" Filter: ((now() >= price_date) AND (now() <=
price_date_till))"
" -> Index Scan using idx_thtp_price_id on
ticket_has_ticket_price (cost=0.00..47.06 rows=259 width=8) (actual
time=0.017..0.582 rows=619 loops=7)"
" Index Cond: (ticket_has_ticket_price.thtp_price_id =
ticket_price.price_id)"
"Total runtime: 705.531 ms"

Now what you can think is that executing web_select_extra_price takes
the difference, but
3) As STABLE function should be executed once for every different set of
parameters I do
SELECT web_select_extra_price(price_id, 7820, 1) FROM (

SELECT distinct price_id
FROM ticket_price
JOIN ticket_has_ticket_price ON (price_id = thtp_price_id)
WHERE price_event_id = 7820 and (current_timestamp >= price_date AND
current_timestamp <= price_date_till)
) as qq;

Result:
"Subquery Scan on qq (cost=110.34..110.88 rows=2 width=4) (actual
time=7.265..8.907 rows=7 loops=1)"
" -> HashAggregate (cost=110.34..110.36 rows=2 width=4) (actual
time=6.866..6.873 rows=7 loops=1)"
" -> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..109.05 rows=517 width=4) (actual
time=0.037..4.643 rows=4335 loops=1)"
" -> Index Scan using index_price_event_id on
ticket_price (cost=0.00..8.52 rows=2 width=4) (actual time=0.014..0.038
rows=7 loops=1)"
" Index Cond: (price_event_id = 7820)"
" Filter: ((now() >= price_date) AND (now() <=
price_date_till))"
" -> Index Scan using idx_thtp_price_id on
ticket_has_ticket_price (cost=0.00..47.04 rows=258 width=4) (actual
time=0.019..0.336 rows=619 loops=7)"
" Index Cond: (ticket_has_ticket_price.thtp_price_id
= ticket_price.price_id)"
"Total runtime: 8.966 ms"

You can see the query has only 7 distinct parameter sets to pass to the
function but...
4) Explain analyze
SELECT web_select_extra_price(price_id, 7820, 1)
FROM ticket_price
JOIN ticket_has_ticket_price ON (price_id = thtp_price_id)
WHERE price_event_id = 7820 and (current_timestamp >= price_date AND
current_timestamp <= price_date_till)

Result:
"Nested Loop (cost=0.00..238.30 rows=517 width=4) (actual
time=0.365..808.537 rows=4335 loops=1)"
" -> Index Scan using index_price_event_id on ticket_price
(cost=0.00..8.52 rows=2 width=4) (actual time=0.014..0.040 rows=7 loops=1)"
" Index Cond: (price_event_id = 7820)"
" Filter: ((now() >= price_date) AND (now() <= price_date_till))"
" -> Index Scan using idx_thtp_price_id on ticket_has_ticket_price
(cost=0.00..47.04 rows=258 width=4) (actual time=0.016..0.655 rows=619
loops=7)"
" Index Cond: (ticket_has_ticket_price.thtp_price_id =
ticket_price.price_id)"
"Total runtime: 810.143 ms"

So I am totally confused... It seems that selecting 4335 rows is a joke
for Postgresql, but the great job is done then adding one of 7 possible
values to the result set... Please help me understand what I am missing
here?...

Finally the system:
Server
PG: Version string PostgreSQL 9.0.3 on i486-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by
GCC gcc-4.4.real (Debian 4.4.5-10) 4.4.5, 32-bit

Client
Win XP SP3 with pgAdmin 1.12.2.

--
Julius Tuskenis
Programavimo skyriaus vadovas
UAB nSoft
mob. +37068233050