Re: 7.3.1 New install, large queries are slow

"Roman Fail" <rfail@posportal.com> writes:
>                                             ->  Merge Join  (cost=1543595.18..1545448.76 rows=1 width=172) (actual
time=1195311.88..1195477.32rows=5 loops=1) 
>                                                   Merge Cond: ("outer".batchid = "inner".batchid)
>                                                   ->  Sort  (cost=476.17..476.18 rows=4 width=102) (actual
time=30.57..30.59rows=17 loops=1) 
>                                                         Sort Key: b.batchid
>                                                         ->  Nested Loop  (cost=0.00..476.14 rows=4 width=102) (actual
time=25.21..30.47rows=17 loops=1) 
>                                                               ->  Index Scan using merchants_ix_merchid_idx on
merchantsm  (cost=0.00..5.65 rows=1 width=78) (actual time=23.81..23.82 rows=1 loops=1) 
>                                                                     Index Cond: (merchid = '701252267'::character
varying)
>                                                               ->  Index Scan using batchheader_ix_merchantid_idx on
batchheaderb  (cost=0.00..470.30 rows=15 width=24) (actual time=1.38..6.55 rows=17 loops=1) 
>                                                                     Index Cond: ("outer".merchantid = b.merchantid)
>                                                                     Filter: (batchdate > '2002-12-15
00:00:00'::timestampwithout time zone) 
>                                                   ->  Sort  (cost=1543119.01..1544045.79 rows=370710 width=70)
(actualtime=1194260.51..1194892.79 rows=368681 loops=1) 
>                                                         Sort Key: d.batchid
>                                                         ->  Index Scan using batchdetail_ix_tranamount_idx on
batchdetaild  (cost=0.00..1489103.46 rows=370710 width=70) (actual time=5.26..1186051.44 rows=370307 loops=1) 
>                                                               Index Cond: ((tranamount >= 500.0) AND (tranamount <=
700.0))

The expensive part of this is clearly the sort and merge of the rows
extracted from batchdetail.  The index on tranamount is not helping
you at all, because the condition (between 500 and 700) isn't very
selective --- it picks up 370000 rows --- and since those rows are
totally randomly scattered in the table, you do a ton of random
seeking.  It's actually faster to scan the table linearly --- that's why
enable_indexscan=off was faster.

However, I'm wondering why the thing picked this plan, when it knew it
would get only a few rows out of the m/b join (estimate 4, actual 17,
not too bad).  I would have expected it to use an inner indexscan on
d.batchid.  Either you've not got an index on d.batchid, or there's a
datatype mismatch that prevents the index from being used.  What are the
datatypes of d.batchid and b.batchid, exactly?  If they're not the same,
either make them the same or add an explicit coercion to the query, like
    WHERE d.batchid = b.batchid::typeof_d_batchid

            regards, tom lane