Re: Optimize date query for large child tables: GiST or GIN?

Excerpts from David Jarvis's message of mar jun 01 14:01:22 -0400 2010:
> Sorry, Alvaro.
>
> I was contemplating using a GIN or GiST index as a way of optimizing the
> query.

My fault -- I didn't read the whole thread.

> Instead, I found that re-inserting the data in order of station ID (the
> primary look-up column) and then CLUSTER'ing on the station ID, taken date,
> and category index increased the speed by an order of magnitude.

Hmm, that's nice, though I cannot but wonder whether the exclusive lock
required by CLUSTER is going to be a problem in the long run.

> I might be able to drop the station/taken/category index in favour of the
> simple station index and CLUSTER on that, instead (saving plenty of disk
> space). Either way, it's fast right now so I'm not keen to try and make it
> much faster.

Hm, keep in mind that if the station clause alone is not selective
enough, scanning it may be too expensive.  The current three column
index is probably a lot faster to search (though of course it's causing
more work to be kept up to date on insertions).

--
Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com>
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