Re: Slow count(*) again...

  On 10/11/2010 3:54 PM, Neil Whelchel wrote:
> 1. A faster count(*), or something like my proposed estimate(*).
> 2. A way to get the total rows matched when using LIMIT and OFFSET before
> LIMIT and OFFSET are applied.

The biggest single problem with "select count(*)" is that it is
seriously overused. People use that idiom to establish existence, which
usually leads to a performance disaster in the application using it,
unless the table has no more than few hundred records. SQL language, of
which PostgreSQL offers an excellent implementation,  offers [NOT]
EXISTS clause since its inception in the Jurassic era. The problem is
with the sequential scan, not with counting. I'd even go as far as to
suggest that 99% instances of the "select count(*)" idiom are probably
bad use of the SQL language.

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Mladen Gogala
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