RE: Data warehouse

>>  Herouth Maoz wrote:
>>  
>>  > Maybe I'm missing the point here, but it seems to me that if 
>>  > you simply use indices not as key definitions but as query 
>>  > accelerators (as in "index the living daylights out of"), then 
>>  > you may as well define a separate index on each and every 
>>  > field. Why do multiple-field indices in such a case?
>>  
>>  Why do multi-field indexes? Umm. How about to avoid doing a sequential
>>  scan? If your query depends on multiple fields then once you've found
>>  the set based on the first index you would have to sequential scan that
>>  subset based on the second condition, unless you have a multi-field
>>  index.
I suspect that Herouth was being a little facetious here.  The bottom line 
is that multi-column indices are necessary for indices other than the
primary 
key, and shouldn't be limited to seven fields.  However, in creating a
database
that can handle more than 7 fields in indices, there is some overhead built
in.
Thus, it should be something that the administrator can decide.  There are 
normally quite special reasons for wanting more than 7 fields in an index,
and 
if you make it a pain to add the functionality to a PGSQL server, then
people will
rather design their dbs properly.  However, in those cases where it is
absolutely
necessary, the functionality will at least be available.  

And I daresay that this option will be used when compiling a server to
handle 
warehouses.

MikeA