abusing an aggregate funct

Hi all...

I ported a foxpro db to postgres - the foxpro strategy (if this is
not a non-sequitor) was to put everything in one big table...
with no unique constraints on any attr/no p_key.

I had perl iterate thru the dump file prepending an int value to each
tuple - which is now my p_key.  Works fine.

Due to the sheer girth of the table the following query, called from
a data entry script,  takes a bit of time to finish:

SELECT max(rec_num) FROM crtrd1;

I use this to setup `rec_num + 1' for my query number (p_key)...any
way I can speed this up a bit?  I've run vacuum analyze but the
table size is doing me in...

Stuck_In_Staten_Island,
Tom

(thanks ;-)

    ---------- Sisters of Charity Medical Center ----------
                   Department of Psychiatry
                            ----
    Thomas Good                          <tomg@q8.nrnet.org>
    Coordinator, North Richmond C.M.H.C. Information Systems
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    Staten Island, NY   10304            Fax:   718-354-5056