Inexplicable query times for small PostgreSql database - postgresql

Question

I have a simple table that we use to record debug logs.
There are only 1000 rows in the table.
There are a handful of columns - id (primary), date (indexed), level, a few other small fields and message which could be a large string.
if I query:
select id from public.log
the query completes very quickly (less than 1 second)
if I query:
select id,date from public.log
or
select * from public.log
it takes 1 minute and 28 seconds to complete!
90 Seconds to read 1000 records from a database!
however if I query:
select *
from public.log
where id in (select id from public.log)
it completes in about 1 second.
And here is the CREATE - I just had pgAdmin generate them for me
-- Table: public.inettklog
-- DROP TABLE public.inettklog;
CREATE TABLE public.inettklog
(
id integer NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('inettklog_id_seq'::regclass),
date timestamp without time zone NOT NULL,
thread character varying(255) COLLATE pg_catalog."default" NOT NULL,
level character varying(20) COLLATE pg_catalog."default" NOT NULL,
logger character varying(255) COLLATE pg_catalog."default" NOT NULL,
customlevel integer,
source character varying(64) COLLATE pg_catalog."default",
logentry json,
CONSTRAINT inettklog_pkey PRIMARY KEY (id)
)
WITH (
OIDS = FALSE
)
TABLESPACE pg_default;
ALTER TABLE public.inettklog
OWNER to postgres;
-- Index: inettklog_ix_logdate
-- DROP INDEX public.inettklog_ix_logdate;
CREATE INDEX inettklog_ix_logdate
ON public.inettklog USING btree
(date)
TABLESPACE pg_default;

Answer 1

Your table is extremely bloated. Given your other question, this extreme bloat is not surprising.
You can fix this with a VACUUM FULL.
Going forward, you should avoid getting into this situation in the first place, by deleting records as they become obsolete rather than waiting until 99.998% of them are obsolete before acting.