Re: Index Onlys Scan for expressions

Hi Vladimir,

On 03.09.2016 19:31, Vladimir Sitnikov wrote:
> Ildar>The reason why this doesn't work is that '~~' operator (which is a
> Ildar>synonym for 'like') isn't supported by operator class for btree. Since
> Ildar>the only operators supported by btree are <, <=, =, >=, >, you can use
> Ildar>it with queries like:
>
> Ildar>And in 3rd query 'OFFSET' statement prevents rewriter from
> Ildar>transforming the query, so it is possible to use index only scan on
> Ildar>subquery and then filter the result of subquery with '~~' operator.
>
> I'm afraid I do not follow you.
> Note: query 3 is 100% equivalent of query 2, however query 3 takes 55
> times less reads.
> It looks like either an optimizer bug, or some missing feature in the
> "index only scan" logic.
>
> Here's quote from "query 2" (note % are at both ends):  ... where
> type=42) as x where upper_vc like '%ABC%';
>
> Note: I do NOT use "indexed scan" for the like operator. I'm very well aware
> that LIKE patterns with leading % cannot be optimized to a btree range scan.
> What I want is "use the first indexed column as index scan, then use the
> second column
> for filtering".
>
> As shown in "query 2" vs "query 3", PostgreSQL cannot come up with such
> a plan on its own
> for some reason.
>
> This is not a theoretical issue, but it is something that I use a lot
> with Oracle DB (it just creates a good plan for "query 2").
>
> Vladimir

Thanks, I get it now. The reason why it acts like this is that I used 
match_clause_to_index() function to determine if IOS can be used with 
the specified clauses. This function among other things checks if 
operator matches the index opfamily. Apparently this isn't correct. I 
wrote another prototype to test your case and it seems to work. But it's 
not ready for public yet, I'll publish it in 1-2 days.

-- 
Ildar Musin
i.musin@postgrespro.ru