MADLib + PostgreSQL Query Plan - postgresql

While executing the postgresql explan analyze for a ML query in MADLib, i'm getting output like below.
query & query plan
[Query]
EXPLAIN (VERBOSE, ANALYZE)
SELECT COUNT(linregr.linregr_predict) FROM(
SELECT madlib.linregr_predict(ARRAY[c1,c2,c3,c4,c5,c6,c7,c8,c9,c10,c11,c12,c13,c14,c15,c16,c17,c18,c19,c20,c21,c22,c23,c24,c25,c26,c27,c28], ARRAY[f1,f2,f3,f4,f5,f6,f7,f8,f9,f10,f11,f12,f13,f14,f15,f16,f17,f18,f19,f20,f21,f22,f23,f24,f25,f26,f27,f28])
FROM higgs_50_linregr_model_coef, higgs_1k_test
WHERE higgs_1k_test.f1 >0.7) AS linregr;
[Query Plan]
Aggregate (cost=19158.81..19158.82 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=4.607..4.610 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..1497.81 rows=117740 width=224) (actual time=0.056..1.827 rows=204 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on higgs_50_linregr_model_coef (cost=0.00..15.80 rows=580 width=112) (actual time=0.017..0.019 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Materialize (cost=0.00..10.77 rows=203 width=112) (actual time=0.028..1.388 rows=204 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on higgs_1k_test (cost=0.00..9.75 rows=203 width=112) (actual time=0.018..0.531 rows=204 loops=1)
Filter: (f1 > '0.7'::double precision)
Rows Removed by Filter: 96
Planning Time: 0.624 ms
Execution Time: 4.826 ms
It seems that the ML operation of query is not included in the overall query plan.
I have a wonder that it is right and if so, how postgresql uses the madlib query while executing?

Related

Partition and Indexes

I have a table partitioned for every quarter. Table name is data. In table there is couple of columns but also date. date is a field which has index on it created:
create index on data (date);
Now I am trying to querying the table:
justpremium=> EXPLAIN analyze SELECT sum(col_1) FROM data WHERE "date" BETWEEN '2018-12-01' AND '2018-12-31';
QUERY PLAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finalize Aggregate (cost=355709.66..355709.67 rows=1 width=32) (actual time=577.072..577.072 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Gather (cost=355709.44..355709.65 rows=2 width=32) (actual time=577.005..578.418 rows=3 loops=1)
Workers Planned: 2
Workers Launched: 2
-> Partial Aggregate (cost=354709.44..354709.45 rows=1 width=32) (actual time=573.255..573.256 rows=1 loops=3)
-> Append (cost=0.42..352031.07 rows=1071346 width=8) (actual time=15.286..524.604 rows=837204 loops=3)
-> Parallel Index Scan using data_date_idx on data (cost=0.42..8.44 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=0.004..0.004 rows=0 loops=3)
Index Cond: ((date >= '2018-12-01'::date) AND (date <= '2018-12-31'::date))
-> Parallel Seq Scan on data_y2018q4 (cost=0.00..352022.64 rows=1071345 width=8) (actual time=15.282..465.859 rows=837204 loops=3)
Filter: ((date >= '2018-12-01'::date) AND (date <= '2018-12-31'::date))
Rows Removed by Filter: 1479844
Planning time: 1.437 ms
Execution time: 578.465 ms
(13 rows)
We may see that there is Parallel Seq Scan on data_y2018q4. In fact it is normal to me. I have one quarter partition. I am querying third part of the whole partition, so I have seq scan, great.
But now let's query directly partition table:
justpremium=> EXPLAIN analyze SELECT sum(col_1) FROM data_y2018q4 WHERE "date" BETWEEN '2018-12-01' AND '2018-12-31';
QUERY PLAN
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finalize Aggregate (cost=286475.38..286475.39 rows=1 width=32) (actual time=277.830..277.830 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Gather (cost=286475.16..286475.37 rows=2 width=32) (actual time=277.760..279.194 rows=3 loops=1)
Workers Planned: 2
Workers Launched: 2
-> Partial Aggregate (cost=285475.16..285475.17 rows=1 width=32) (actual time=275.950..275.950 rows=1 loops=3)
-> Parallel Index Scan using data_y2018q4_date_idx on data_y2018q4 (cost=0.43..282796.80 rows=1071345 width=8) (actual time=0.022..227.687 rows=837204 loops=3)
Index Cond: ((date >= '2018-12-01'::date) AND (date <= '2018-12-31'::date))
Planning time: 0.187 ms
Execution time: 279.233 ms
(9 rows)
Now I have Index Scan using data_y2018q4_date_idx and also time of whole query is two times quicker: 279.233 ms compared to 578.465 ms. What is the explanation of this? How force planner to use the index scan when querying data table. How to achieve two times better timing?

PostgreSQL stable functions in query

I'm have some data model which consists of couple tables and I need to filter them.
It is two functions funcFast and funcList. funcFast can return fast result is table need to be filtered by funcList or not. funcList return list of allowed ids. I marked functions as STABLE but they run not as fast as I expect:)
I create couple of example functions:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION funcFastPlPgSql(res boolean)
returns boolean as $$
begin return res; end
$$ language plpgsql stable;
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION funcList(cnt int)
returns setof integer as $$
select generate_series(1, cnt)
$$ language sql stable;
And tests.
Case 1. Filter only by fast function work OK:
explain analyze
with obs as (select generate_series(1, 1000000) as id)
select count(*) from obs
where funcFastPlPgSql(true)
Query plan is:
Aggregate (cost=27.76..27.77 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=573.258..573.259 rows=1 loops=1)
CTE obs
-> Result (cost=0.00..5.01 rows=1000 width=4) (actual time=0.006..114.327 rows=1000000 loops=1)
-> Result (cost=0.25..20.25 rows=1000 width=0) (actual time=0.038..489.942 rows=1000000 loops=1)
One-Time Filter: funcfastplpgsql(true)
-> CTE Scan on obs (cost=0.25..20.25 rows=1000 width=0) (actual time=0.012..392.504 rows=1000000 loops=1)
Planning time: 0.184 ms
Execution time: 576.177 ms
Case 2. Filter only by slow function work OK too:
explain analyze
with obs as (select generate_series(1, 1000000) as id)
select count(*) from obs
where id in (select funcList(1000))
Query plan is:
Aggregate (cost=62.26..62.27 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=469.344..469.344 rows=1 loops=1)
CTE obs
-> Result (cost=0.00..5.01 rows=1000 width=4) (actual time=0.006..106.144 rows=1000000 loops=1)
-> Hash Join (cost=22.25..56.00 rows=500 width=0) (actual time=1.566..469.202 rows=1000 loops=1)
Hash Cond: (obs.id = (funclist(1000)))
-> CTE Scan on obs (cost=0.00..20.00 rows=1000 width=4) (actual time=0.009..359.580 rows=1000000 loops=1)
-> Hash (cost=19.75..19.75 rows=200 width=4) (actual time=1.548..1.548 rows=1000 loops=1)
Buckets: 1024 Batches: 1 Memory Usage: 44kB
-> HashAggregate (cost=17.75..19.75 rows=200 width=4) (actual time=1.101..1.312 rows=1000 loops=1)
Group Key: funclist(1000)
-> Result (cost=0.00..5.25 rows=1000 width=4) (actual time=0.058..0.706 rows=1000 loops=1)
Planning time: 0.141 ms
Execution time: 472.183 ms
Case 3. But then two function combined I expect what the best case should be close to [case 1] and worst case should be close to [case 2], but:
explain analyze
with obs as (select generate_series(1, 1000000) as id)
select count(*) from obs
where funcFastPlPgSql(true) or id in (select funcList(1000))
Query plan is:
Aggregate (cost=286.93..286.94 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=1575.775..1575.775 rows=1 loops=1)
CTE obs
-> Result (cost=0.00..5.01 rows=1000 width=4) (actual time=0.008..131.372 rows=1000000 loops=1)
-> CTE Scan on obs (cost=7.75..280.25 rows=667 width=0) (actual time=0.035..1468.007 rows=1000000 loops=1)
Filter: (funcfastplpgsql(true) OR (hashed SubPlan 2))
SubPlan 2
-> Result (cost=0.00..5.25 rows=1000 width=4) (never executed)
Planning time: 0.100 ms
Execution time: 1578.624 ms
What I am missing here? Why query with two together functions runs much longer and how to fix it?

Parallel append on foreign tables in PostgreSQL 11

Is it possible to achieve parallel append on foreign tables in PostgreSQL 11 (just like on local tables)?
Local tables:
# select version();
version
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PostgreSQL 11beta3 on x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by gcc (Debian 4.9.2-10+deb8u1) 4.9.2, 64-bit
(1 row)
# create table local_table_1 as select generate_series(1, 1000000);
SELECT 1000000
# create table local_table_2 as select generate_series(1, 1000000);
SELECT 1000000
# create table local_table (like local_table_1);
CREATE TABLE
# alter table local_table_1 inherit local_table;
ALTER TABLE
# alter table local_table_2 inherit local_table;
ALTER TABLE
# explain analyze select count(*) from local_table;
QUERY PLAN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finalize Aggregate (cost=25369.62..25369.63 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=209.538..209.538 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Gather (cost=25369.41..25369.62 rows=2 width=8) (actual time=209.446..211.924 rows=3 loops=1)
Workers Planned: 2
Workers Launched: 2
-> Partial Aggregate (cost=24369.41..24369.42 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=191.494..191.494 rows=1 loops=3)
-> Parallel Append (cost=0.00..22152.35 rows=886824 width=0) (actual time=0.121..144.302 rows=666667 loops=3)
-> Parallel Seq Scan on local_table_2 (cost=0.00..9126.56 rows=470156 width=0) (actual time=0.064..47.920 rows=333333 loops=3)
-> Parallel Seq Scan on local_table_1 (cost=0.00..8591.67 rows=416667 width=0) (actual time=0.130..67.098 rows=500000 loops=2)
-> Parallel Seq Scan on local_table (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=0.002..0.002 rows=0 loops=1)
Planning Time: 0.516 ms
Execution Time: 212.026 ms
(11 rows)
Foreign tables:
# explain analyze select count(*) from foreign_table;
QUERY PLAN
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aggregate (cost=4308.62..4308.63 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=93729.176..93729.176 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Append (cost=0.00..4044.11 rows=105804 width=0) (actual time=6868.904..93430.855 rows=5520175 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on foreign_table (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=0.013..0.013 rows=0 loops=1)
-> Foreign Scan on foreign_table foreign_table_1 (cost=1.00..113.39 rows=3413 width=0) (actual time=6868.889..6879.804 rows=195460 loops=1)
-> 29 more foreign tables
-> Foreign Scan on foreign_table foreign_table_31 (cost=1.00..113.39 rows=3413 width=0) (actual time=3139.317..3150.340 rows=199581 loops=1)
Planning Time: 3.205 ms
Execution Time: 110707.099 ms
(36 rows)
Is there any parameters that could hint postgres to use parallel append on foreign tables?

Postgres Slow group by query with max

I am using postgres 9.1 and I have a table with about 3.5M rows of eventtype (varchar) and eventtime (timestamp) - and some other fields. There are only about 20 different eventtype's and the event time spans about 4 years.
I want to get the last timestamp of each event type. If I run a query like:
select eventtype, max(eventtime)
from allevents
group by eventtype
it takes around 20 seconds. Selecting distinct eventtype's is equally slow. The query plan shows a full sequential scan of the table - not surprising it is slow.
Explain analyse for the above query gives:
HashAggregate (cost=84591.47..84591.68 rows=21 width=21) (actual time=20918.131..20918.141 rows=21 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on allevents (cost=0.00..66117.98 rows=3694698 width=21) (actual time=0.021..4831.793 rows=3694392 loops=1)
Total runtime: 20918.204 ms
If I add a where clause to select a specific eventtype, it takes anywhere from 40ms to 150ms which is at least decent.
Query plan when selecting specific eventtype:
GroupAggregate (cost=343.87..24942.71 rows=1 width=21) (actual time=98.397..98.397 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Bitmap Heap Scan on allevents (cost=343.87..24871.07 rows=14325 width=21) (actual time=6.820..89.610 rows=19736 loops=1)
Recheck Cond: ((eventtype)::text = 'TEST_EVENT'::text)
-> Bitmap Index Scan on allevents_idx2 (cost=0.00..340.28 rows=14325 width=0) (actual time=6.121..6.121 rows=19736 loops=1)
Index Cond: ((eventtype)::text = 'TEST_EVENT'::text)
Total runtime: 98.482 ms
Primary key is (eventtype, eventtime). I also have the following indexes:
allevents_idx (event time desc, eventtype)
allevents_idx2 (eventtype).
How can I speed up the query?
Results of query play for correlated subquery suggested by #denis below with 14 manually entered values gives:
Function Scan on unnest val (cost=0.00..185.40 rows=100 width=32) (actual time=0.121..8983.134 rows=14 loops=1)
SubPlan 2
-> Result (cost=1.83..1.84 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=641.644..641.645 rows=1 loops=14)
InitPlan 1 (returns $1)
-> Limit (cost=0.00..1.83 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=641.640..641.641 rows=1 loops=14)
-> Index Scan using allevents_idx on allevents (cost=0.00..322672.36 rows=175938 width=8) (actual time=641.638..641.638 rows=1 loops=14)
Index Cond: ((eventtime IS NOT NULL) AND ((eventtype)::text = val.val))
Total runtime: 8983.203 ms
Using the recursive query suggested by #jjanes, the query runs between 4 and 5 seconds with the following plan:
CTE Scan on t (cost=260.32..448.63 rows=101 width=32) (actual time=0.146..4325.598 rows=22 loops=1)
CTE t
-> Recursive Union (cost=2.52..260.32 rows=101 width=32) (actual time=0.075..1.449 rows=22 loops=1)
-> Result (cost=2.52..2.53 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=0.074..0.074 rows=1 loops=1)
InitPlan 1 (returns $1)
-> Limit (cost=0.00..2.52 rows=1 width=13) (actual time=0.070..0.071 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Index Scan using allevents_idx2 on allevents (cost=0.00..9315751.37 rows=3696851 width=13) (actual time=0.070..0.070 rows=1 loops=1)
Index Cond: ((eventtype)::text IS NOT NULL)
-> WorkTable Scan on t (cost=0.00..25.58 rows=10 width=32) (actual time=0.059..0.060 rows=1 loops=22)
Filter: (eventtype IS NOT NULL)
SubPlan 3
-> Result (cost=2.53..2.54 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=0.059..0.059 rows=1 loops=21)
InitPlan 2 (returns $3)
-> Limit (cost=0.00..2.53 rows=1 width=13) (actual time=0.057..0.057 rows=1 loops=21)
-> Index Scan using allevents_idx2 on allevents (cost=0.00..3114852.66 rows=1232284 width=13) (actual time=0.055..0.055 rows=1 loops=21)
Index Cond: (((eventtype)::text IS NOT NULL) AND ((eventtype)::text > t.eventtype))
SubPlan 6
-> Result (cost=1.83..1.84 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=196.549..196.549 rows=1 loops=22)
InitPlan 5 (returns $6)
-> Limit (cost=0.00..1.83 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=196.546..196.546 rows=1 loops=22)
-> Index Scan using allevents_idx on allevents (cost=0.00..322946.21 rows=176041 width=8) (actual time=196.544..196.544 rows=1 loops=22)
Index Cond: ((eventtime IS NOT NULL) AND ((eventtype)::text = t.eventtype))
Total runtime: 4325.694 ms
What you need is a "skip scan" or "loose index scan". PostgreSQL's planner does not yet implement those automatically, but you can trick it into using one by using a recursive query.
WITH RECURSIVE t AS (
SELECT min(eventtype) AS eventtype FROM allevents
UNION ALL
SELECT (SELECT min(eventtype) as eventtype FROM allevents WHERE eventtype > t.eventtype)
FROM t where t.eventtype is not null
)
select eventtype, (select max(eventtime) from allevents where eventtype=t.eventtype) from t;
There may be a way to collapse the max(eventtime) into the recursive query rather than doing it outside that query, but if so I have not hit upon it.
This needs an index on (eventtype, eventtime) in order to be efficient. You can have it be DESC on the eventtime, but that is not necessary. This is efficiently only if eventtype has only a few distinct values (21 of them, in your case).
Based on the question you already have the relevant index.
If upgrading to Postgres 9.3 or an index on (eventtype, eventtime desc) doesn't make a difference, this is a case where rewriting the query so it uses a correlated subquery works very well if you can enumerate all of the event types manually:
select val as eventtype,
(select max(eventtime)
from allevents
where allevents.eventtype = val
) as eventtime
from unnest('{type1,type2,…}'::text[]) as val;
Here's the plans I get when running similar queries:
denis=# select version();
version
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PostgreSQL 9.3.1 on x86_64-apple-darwin11.4.2, compiled by Apple LLVM version 4.2 (clang-425.0.28) (based on LLVM 3.2svn), 64-bit
(1 row)
Test data:
denis=# create table test (evttype int, evttime timestamp, primary key (evttype, evttime));
CREATE TABLE
denis=# insert into test (evttype, evttime) select i, now() + (i % 3) * interval '1 min' - j * interval '1 sec' from generate_series(1,10) i, generate_series(1,10000) j;
INSERT 0 100000
denis=# create index on test (evttime, evttype);
CREATE INDEX
denis=# vacuum analyze test;
VACUUM
First query:
denis=# explain analyze select evttype, max(evttime) from test group by evttype; QUERY PLAN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HashAggregate (cost=2041.00..2041.10 rows=10 width=12) (actual time=54.983..54.987 rows=10 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on test (cost=0.00..1541.00 rows=100000 width=12) (actual time=0.009..15.954 rows=100000 loops=1)
Total runtime: 55.045 ms
(3 rows)
Second query:
denis=# explain analyze select val as evttype, (select max(evttime) from test where test.evttype = val) as evttime from unnest('{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}'::int[]) val;
QUERY PLAN
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function Scan on unnest val (cost=0.00..48.39 rows=100 width=4) (actual time=0.086..0.292 rows=10 loops=1)
SubPlan 2
-> Result (cost=0.46..0.47 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=0.024..0.024 rows=1 loops=10)
InitPlan 1 (returns $1)
-> Limit (cost=0.42..0.46 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=0.021..0.021 rows=1 loops=10)
-> Index Only Scan Backward using test_pkey on test (cost=0.42..464.42 rows=10000 width=8) (actual time=0.019..0.019 rows=1 loops=10)
Index Cond: ((evttype = val.val) AND (evttime IS NOT NULL))
Heap Fetches: 0
Total runtime: 0.370 ms
(9 rows)
index on (eventtype, eventtime desc) should help. or reindex on primary key index. I would also recommend replace type of eventtype to enum (if number of types is fixed) or int/smallint. This will decrease size of data and indexes so queries will run faster.

Configuration parameter work_mem in PostgreSQL on Linux

I have to optimize queries by tuning basic PostgreSQL server configuration parameters. In documentation I've came across the work_mem parameter. Then I checked how changing this parameter would influence performance of my query (using sort). I measured query execution time with various work_mem settings and was very disappointed.
The table on which I perform my query contains 10,000,000 rows and there are 430 MB of data to sort. (Sort Method: external merge Disk: 430112kB).
With work_mem = 1MB, EXPLAIN output is:
Total runtime: 29950.571 ms (sort takes about 19300 ms).
Sort (cost=4032588.78..4082588.66 rows=19999954 width=8)
(actual time=22577.149..26424.951 rows=20000000 loops=1)
Sort Key: "*SELECT* 1".n
Sort Method: external merge Disk: 430104kB
With work_mem = 5MB:
Total runtime: 36282.729 ms (sort: 25400 ms).
Sort (cost=3485713.78..3535713.66 rows=19999954 width=8)
(actual time=25062.383..33246.561 rows=20000000 loops=1)
Sort Key: "*SELECT* 1".n
Sort Method: external merge Disk: 430104kB
With work_mem = 64MB:
Total runtime: 42566.538 ms (sort: 31000 ms).
Sort (cost=3212276.28..3262276.16 rows=19999954 width=8)
(actual time=28599.611..39454.279 rows=20000000 loops=1)
Sort Key: "*SELECT* 1".n
Sort Method: external merge Disk: 430104kB
Can anyone explain why performance gets worse? Or suggest any other methods to makes queries execution faster by changing server parameters?
My query (I know it's not optimal, but I have to benchmark this kind of query):
SELECT n
FROM (
SELECT n + 1 AS n FROM table_name
EXCEPT
SELECT n FROM table_name) AS q1
ORDER BY n DESC;
Full execution plan:
Sort (cost=5805421.81..5830421.75 rows=9999977 width=8) (actual time=30405.682..30405.682 rows=1 loops=1)
Sort Key: q1.n
Sort Method: quicksort Memory: 25kB
-> Subquery Scan q1 (cost=4032588.78..4232588.32 rows=9999977 width=8) (actual time=30405.636..30405.637 rows=1 loops=1)
-> SetOp Except (cost=4032588.78..4132588.55 rows=9999977 width=8) (actual time=30405.634..30405.634 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Sort (cost=4032588.78..4082588.66 rows=19999954 width=8) (actual time=23046.478..27733.020 rows=20000000 loops=1)
Sort Key: "*SELECT* 1".n
Sort Method: external merge Disk: 430104kB
-> Append (cost=0.00..513495.02 rows=19999954 width=8) (actual time=0.040..8191.185 rows=20000000 loops=1)
-> Subquery Scan "*SELECT* 1" (cost=0.00..269247.48 rows=9999977 width=8) (actual time=0.039..3651.506 rows=10000000 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on table_name (cost=0.00..169247.71 rows=9999977 width=8) (actual time=0.038..2258.323 rows=10000000 loops=1)
-> Subquery Scan "*SELECT* 2" (cost=0.00..244247.54 rows=9999977 width=8) (actual time=0.008..2697.546 rows=10000000 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on table_name (cost=0.00..144247.77 rows=9999977 width=8) (actual time=0.006..1079.561 rows=10000000 loops=1)
Total runtime: 30496.100 ms
I posted your query plan on explain.depesz.com, have a look.
The query planner's estimates are terribly wrong in some places.
Have you run ANALYZE recently?
Read the chapters in the manual on Statistics Used by the Planner and Planner Cost Constants. Pay special attention to the chapters on random_page_cost and default_statistics_target.
You might try:
ALTER TABLE diplomas ALTER COLUMN number SET STATISTICS 1000;
ANALYZE diplomas;
Or go even a higher for a table with 10M rows. It depends on data distribution and actual queries. Experiment. Default is 100, maximum is 10000.
For a database of that size, only 1 or 5 MB of work_mem are generally not enough. Read the Postgres Wiki page on Tuning Postgres that #aleroot linked to.
As your query needs 430104kB of memory on disk according to EXPLAIN output, you have to set work_mem to something like 500MB or more to allow in-memory sorting. In-memory representation of data needs some more space than on-disk representation. You may be interested in what Tom Lane posted on that matter recently.
Increasing work_mem by just a little, like you tried, won't help much or can even slow down. Setting it to high globally can even hurt, especially with concurrent access. Multiple sessions might starve one another for resources. Allocating more for one purpose takes away memory from another if the resource is limited. The best setup depends on the complete situation.
To avoid side effects, only set it high enough locally in your session, and temporarily for the query:
SET work_mem = '500MB';
Reset it to your default afterwards:
RESET work_mem;
Or use SET LOCAL to set it just for the current transaction to begin with.
SET search_path='tmp';
-- Generate some data ...
-- DROP table tmp.table_name ;
-- CREATE table tmp.table_name ( n INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY);
-- INSERT INTO tmp.table_name(n) SELECT generate_series(1,1000);
-- DELETE FROM tmp.table_name WHERE random() < 0.05 ;
The except query is equivalent to the following NOT EXISTS form, which generates a different query plan (but the same results) here ( 9.0.1beta something)
-- EXPLAIN ANALYZE
WITH q1 AS (
SELECT 1+tn.n AS n
FROM table_name tn
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
SELECT * FROM table_name nx
WHERE nx.n = tn.n+1
)
)
SELECT q1.n
FROM q1
ORDER BY q1.n DESC;
(a version with a recursive CTE might also be possible :-)
EDIT: the query plans. all for 100K records with 0.2 % deleted
Original query:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sort (cost=36461.76..36711.20 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=2682.600..2682.917 rows=222 loops=1)
Sort Key: q1.n
Sort Method: quicksort Memory: 22kB
-> Subquery Scan q1 (cost=24984.41..26979.97 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=2003.047..2682.036 rows=222 loops=1)
-> SetOp Except (cost=24984.41..25982.19 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=2003.042..2681.389 rows=222 loops=1)
-> Sort (cost=24984.41..25483.30 rows=199556 width=4) (actual time=2002.584..2368.963 rows=199556 loops=1)
Sort Key: "*SELECT* 1".n
Sort Method: external merge Disk: 3512kB
-> Append (cost=0.00..5026.57 rows=199556 width=4) (actual time=0.071..1452.838 rows=199556 loops=1)
-> Subquery Scan "*SELECT* 1" (cost=0.00..2638.01 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.067..470.652 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on table_name (cost=0.00..1640.22 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.063..178.365 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> Subquery Scan "*SELECT* 2" (cost=0.00..2388.56 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.014..429.224 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on table_name (cost=0.00..1390.78 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.011..143.320 rows=99778 loops=1)
Total runtime: 2684.840 ms
(14 rows)
NOT EXISTS-version with CTE:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sort (cost=6394.60..6394.60 rows=1 width=4) (actual time=699.190..699.498 rows=222 loops=1)
Sort Key: q1.n
Sort Method: quicksort Memory: 22kB
CTE q1
-> Hash Anti Join (cost=2980.01..6394.57 rows=1 width=4) (actual time=312.262..697.985 rows=222 loops=1)
Hash Cond: ((tn.n + 1) = nx.n)
-> Seq Scan on table_name tn (cost=0.00..1390.78 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.013..143.210 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> Hash (cost=1390.78..1390.78 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=309.923..309.923 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on table_name nx (cost=0.00..1390.78 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.007..144.102 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> CTE Scan on q1 (cost=0.00..0.02 rows=1 width=4) (actual time=312.270..698.742 rows=222 loops=1)
Total runtime: 700.040 ms
(11 rows)
NOT EXISTS-version without CTE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sort (cost=6394.58..6394.58 rows=1 width=4) (actual time=692.313..692.625 rows=222 loops=1)
Sort Key: ((1 + tn.n))
Sort Method: quicksort Memory: 22kB
-> Hash Anti Join (cost=2980.01..6394.57 rows=1 width=4) (actual time=308.046..691.849 rows=222 loops=1)
Hash Cond: ((tn.n + 1) = nx.n)
-> Seq Scan on table_name tn (cost=0.00..1390.78 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.014..142.781 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> Hash (cost=1390.78..1390.78 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=305.732..305.732 rows=99778 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on table_name nx (cost=0.00..1390.78 rows=99778 width=4) (actual time=0.007..143.783 rows=99778 loops=1)
Total runtime: 693.139 ms
(9 rows)
My conclusion is that the "NOT EXISTS" versions cause postgres to produce better plans.