efficient deletes on subqueries

From: "postgresql" <postgres(at)lg(dot)ndirect(dot)co(dot)uk>
To: pgsql-sql(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: efficient deletes on subqueries
Date: 2001-10-30 15:33:05
Message-ID: 9rmh7p$1e89$1@news.tht.net
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I have a very large table with > 1 million entries and I wish to delete rows
which match any entries in a second table.
What is the most efficient way of doing this?

CREATE TABLE AA (keyA integer NOT NULL, info TEXT);
CREATE TABLE obsolete_AA_entries (keyA integer NOT NULL);

I want to remove all entries from AA where keyA matches that from
obsolete_AA_entries,
i.e. SELECT * FROM AA NATURAL JOIN obsolete_AA_entries;

Both of the tables are UNIQUE indiced on keyA.

DELETE FROM AA WHERE EXISTS(
SELECT * from obsolete_AA_entries o where AA.keyA = o.keyA);
seems to be faster than
DELETE FROM AA where (keyA) in (SELECT * from obsolete_AA_entries);

However, both are sequentially going through AA which is huge rather than
looking up values one by one from obsolete_AA_entries which is small.
How do I persuade the database to change its query strategy?
Thanks a lot
Llew

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