Re: Multicolumn Primary Key

How many rows in the table? If it's a small table PostgreSQL won't
consider using the index.

Otherwise, have you VACUUM ANALYZEd recently?

On Tue, Aug 31, 2004 at 12:00:11PM -0500, Thomas F. O'Connell wrote:
> We've got a table that has a definition as follows:
>
> CREATE TABLE linking_table (
>     fk        int8 REFERENCES source_table( pk1 ),
>     value    int8,
>     PRIMARY KEY( fk1, value )
> );
>
> I would've thought that the multicolumn primary key would behave as a
> multicolumn index is supposed to behave per
>
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/static/indexes-multicolumn.html
>
> where the behavior of the index cascades from the left rightward across
> any columns specified in WHERE.
>
> But a query like
>
> SELECT COUNT( * ) FROM linking_table WHERE fk = '42';
>
> yields a sequential scan.
>
> If I add an index to fk, then the same query yields an index scan, as I
> would expect. Is this because, according to the docs, a primary key "is
> merely a combination of UNIQUE and NOT NULL"?
>
> If so, then why do primary keys afford index scans of single columns
> specified as primary keys?
>
> This is in postgres 7.4.5, btw.
>
> -tfo

--
Martijn van Oosterhout   <kleptog@svana.org>   http://svana.org/kleptog/
> Patent. n. Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. A patent is a
> tool for doing 5% of the work and then sitting around waiting for someone
> else to do the other 95% so you can sue them.