F.44. pgstattuple

The pgstattuple module provides various functions to obtain tuple-level statistics.

Because these functions return detailed page-level information, access is restricted by default. By default, only the role pg_stat_scan_tables has EXECUTE privilege. Superusers of course bypass this restriction. After the extension has been installed, users may issue GRANT commands to change the privileges on the functions to allow others to execute them. However, it might be preferable to add those users to the pg_stat_scan_tables role instead.

F.44.1. Functions

pgstattuple(regclass) returns record

pgstattuple returns a relation's physical length, percentage of dead tuples, and other info. This may help users to determine whether vacuum is necessary or not. The argument is the target relation's name (optionally schema-qualified) or OID. For example:

test=> SELECT * FROM pgstattuple('pg_catalog.pg_proc');
-[ RECORD 1 ]------+-------
table_len          | 458752
tuple_count        | 1470
tuple_len          | 438896
tuple_percent      | 95.67
dead_tuple_count   | 11
dead_tuple_len     | 3157
dead_tuple_percent | 0.69
free_space         | 8932
free_percent       | 1.95

The output columns are described in Table F.102.

Table F.102. pgstattuple Output Columns

ColumnTypeDescription
table_lenbigintPhysical relation length in bytes
tuple_countbigintNumber of live tuples
tuple_lenbigintTotal length of live tuples in bytes
tuple_percentfloat8Percentage of live tuples
dead_tuple_countbigintNumber of dead tuples
dead_tuple_lenbigintTotal length of dead tuples in bytes
dead_tuple_percentfloat8Percentage of dead tuples
free_spacebigintTotal free space in bytes
free_percentfloat8Percentage of free space

Note

The table_len will always be greater than the sum of the tuple_len, dead_tuple_len and free_space. The difference is accounted for by fixed page overhead, the per-page table of pointers to tuples, and padding to ensure that tuples are correctly aligned.

pgstattuple acquires only a read lock on the relation. So the results do not reflect an instantaneous snapshot; concurrent updates will affect them.

pgstattuple judges a tuple is dead if HeapTupleSatisfiesDirty returns false.

pgstattuple(text) returns record

This is the same as pgstattuple(regclass), except that the target relation is specified as TEXT. This function is kept because of backward-compatibility so far, and will be deprecated in some future release.

pgstatindex(regclass) returns record

pgstatindex returns a record showing information about a B-tree index. For example:

test=> SELECT * FROM pgstatindex('pg_cast_oid_index');
-[ RECORD 1 ]------+------
version            | 2
tree_level         | 0
index_size         | 16384
root_block_no      | 1
internal_pages     | 0
leaf_pages         | 1
empty_pages        | 0
deleted_pages      | 0
avg_leaf_density   | 54.27
leaf_fragmentation | 0

The output columns are:

ColumnTypeDescription
versionintegerB-tree version number
tree_levelintegerTree level of the root page
index_sizebigintTotal index size in bytes
root_block_nobigintLocation of root page (zero if none)
internal_pagesbigintNumber of internal (upper-level) pages
leaf_pagesbigintNumber of leaf pages
empty_pagesbigintNumber of empty pages
deleted_pagesbigintNumber of deleted pages
avg_leaf_densityfloat8Average density of leaf pages
leaf_fragmentationfloat8Leaf page fragmentation

The reported index_size will normally correspond to one more page than is accounted for by internal_pages + leaf_pages + empty_pages + deleted_pages, because it also includes the index's metapage.

As with pgstattuple, the results are accumulated page-by-page, and should not be expected to represent an instantaneous snapshot of the whole index.

pgstatindex(text) returns record

This is the same as pgstatindex(regclass), except that the target index is specified as TEXT. This function is kept because of backward-compatibility so far, and will be deprecated in some future release.

pgstatginindex(regclass) returns record

pgstatginindex returns a record showing information about a GIN index. For example:

test=> SELECT * FROM pgstatginindex('test_gin_index');
-[ RECORD 1 ]--+--
version        | 1
pending_pages  | 0
pending_tuples | 0

The output columns are:

ColumnTypeDescription
versionintegerGIN version number
pending_pagesintegerNumber of pages in the pending list
pending_tuplesbigintNumber of tuples in the pending list

pgstathashindex(regclass) returns record

pgstathashindex returns a record showing information about a HASH index. For example:

test=> select * from pgstathashindex('con_hash_index');
-[ RECORD 1 ]--+-----------------
version        | 4
bucket_pages   | 33081
overflow_pages | 0
bitmap_pages   | 1
unused_pages   | 32455
live_items     | 10204006
dead_items     | 0
free_percent   | 61.8005949100872

The output columns are:

ColumnTypeDescription
versionintegerHASH version number
bucket_pagesbigintNumber of bucket pages
overflow_pagesbigintNumber of overflow pages
bitmap_pagesbigintNumber of bitmap pages
unused_pagesbigintNumber of unused pages
live_itemsbigintNumber of live tuples
dead_tuplesbigintNumber of dead tuples
free_percentfloatPercentage of free space

pg_relpages(regclass) returns bigint

pg_relpages returns the number of pages in the relation.

pg_relpages(text) returns bigint

This is the same as pg_relpages(regclass), except that the target relation is specified as TEXT. This function is kept because of backward-compatibility so far, and will be deprecated in some future release.

pgstattuple_approx(regclass) returns record

pgstattuple_approx is a faster alternative to pgstattuple that returns approximate results. The argument is the target relation's name or OID. For example:

test=> SELECT * FROM pgstattuple_approx('pg_catalog.pg_proc'::regclass);
-[ RECORD 1 ]--------+-------
table_len            | 573440
scanned_percent      | 2
approx_tuple_count   | 2740
approx_tuple_len     | 561210
approx_tuple_percent | 97.87
dead_tuple_count     | 0
dead_tuple_len       | 0
dead_tuple_percent   | 0
approx_free_space    | 11996
approx_free_percent  | 2.09

The output columns are described in Table F.103.

Whereas pgstattuple always performs a full-table scan and returns an exact count of live and dead tuples (and their sizes) and free space, pgstattuple_approx tries to avoid the full-table scan and returns exact dead tuple statistics along with an approximation of the number and size of live tuples and free space.

It does this by skipping pages that have only visible tuples according to the visibility map (if a page has the corresponding VM bit set, then it is assumed to contain no dead tuples). For such pages, it derives the free space value from the free space map, and assumes that the rest of the space on the page is taken up by live tuples.

For pages that cannot be skipped, it scans each tuple, recording its presence and size in the appropriate counters, and adding up the free space on the page. At the end, it estimates the total number of live tuples based on the number of pages and tuples scanned (in the same way that VACUUM estimates pg_class.reltuples).

Table F.103. pgstattuple_approx Output Columns

ColumnTypeDescription
table_lenbigintPhysical relation length in bytes (exact)
scanned_percentfloat8Percentage of table scanned
approx_tuple_countbigintNumber of live tuples (estimated)
approx_tuple_lenbigintTotal length of live tuples in bytes (estimated)
approx_tuple_percentfloat8Percentage of live tuples
dead_tuple_countbigintNumber of dead tuples (exact)
dead_tuple_lenbigintTotal length of dead tuples in bytes (exact)
dead_tuple_percentfloat8Percentage of dead tuples
approx_free_spacebigintTotal free space in bytes (estimated)
approx_free_percentfloat8Percentage of free space

In the above output, the free space figures may not match the pgstattuple output exactly, because the free space map gives us an exact figure, but is not guaranteed to be accurate to the byte.

F.44.2. Authors

Tatsuo Ishii, Satoshi Nagayasu and Abhijit Menon-Sen