Re: Indexing on JSONB field not working

On Fri, Dec 20, 2019 at 04:52:17PM -0500, Zhihong Zhang wrote:
>I have an index on JSONB fields like this,
>
>
>
>CREATE INDEX float_number_index_path2
>
>    ON public.assets USING btree
>
>    (((_doc #> '{floatValue}'::text[])::double precision) ASC NULLS LAST)
>
>    TABLESPACE pg_default;
>
>
>
>However query doesn't use it,
>
>
>
>explain select id, _doc->>'floatValue' from assets where (_doc #>
>'{floatValue}'::text[])::double precision < 3.0 limit 3;
>
>
>
>Limit  (cost=0.00..3.24 rows=3 width=53)
>
>  ->  Seq Scan on assets  (cost=0.00..936605.40 rows=867607 width=53)
>
>        Filter: (((_doc #> '{floatValue}'::text[]))::double precision <
>'3'::double precision)
>
>

The index scan is likely expected to be more expensive than the plain
sequential scan with the LIMIT interrupting it pretty much right away
(it's expected to scan only ~0.0003% of the table.

You can probably push the database to use the index by disabling
sequential scans, i.e.

   SET enable_seqscan = off;

and then doing the explain again.

The interesting question however is which of the plans is faster. It's
quite possible the database is making the right choice - index scans are
not necessarily faster.

>
>The version of the database,
>
>
>
>"PostgreSQL 11.4 on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (GCC) 4.8.2
>20140120 (Red Hat 4.8.2-16), 64-bit"
>
>
>
>However, the index works for text field in JSONB.
>

Well, the text field probably has different statistics, so the
sequential scan would have so scan much larger part of the table. Who
knows - you haven't shared the execution plans.

>
>
>Let me know if I can provide more information.
>

Show us explain analyze for both queries, with both index-scan and
seq-scan (you'll have to use enable_seqscan and enable_indexscan to
force the plan choice).


regards

-- 
Tomas Vondra                  http://www.2ndQuadrant.com
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services