Re: postgres 7.1.3: why does the query plan ignore indexes?

Should we consider adding some warning when someone creates an index on
an int2 column?

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Tom Lane wrote:
> Marco Vezzoli <marco.vezzoli@st.com> writes:
> > ewsweb_test=> \d measures_product
> > Index "measures_product"
> >  Attribute  |   Type   
> > ------------+----------
> >  product_id | smallint
>                 ^^^^^^^^
> 
> > ewsweb_test=> explain select zero_yield, gross from measures where
> > product_id=29 and date between '2003-03-12' and '2003-08-14';
>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
> "29" is taken as an integer (int4).  To get an indexscan on an int2
> column, you need to explicitly cast it to int2:
>     product_id = 29::smallint
> or you can put it in quotes and let the parser figure out the right
> type:
>     product_id = '29'
> 
> Yes, we'd like to make this better, but there are surprisingly many
> pitfalls in tinkering with the assignment of datatypes to constants...
> 
>             regards, tom lane
> 
> PS: you could also consider whether it's really saving you any space to
> store product_id as a smallint instead of int.  Because of alignment
> considerations, it very possibly isn't.
> 
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your
>       joining column's datatypes do not match
> 

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