order by and limit with multi-column index, bug? - Mailing list pgsql-sql

as a workaround for min()/max() on indexed columns forcing an index-scan
I tried "order by" with "limit 1". Works fine for the first record
but fails for the last. I don't know why.

Here's the setup:

A table "journal" containing several million records with an index

"CREATE INDEX journal_kblattsoll ON journal(sollkontoid,waehrungid,periode,belegdatum,journalnr)"

with periode being an INT, belegdatum DATE, the rest is INT8.

As a replacement for

"select min(periode) from journal 
where sollkontoid=266122::int8 and waehrungid=17::int8"

which for some reason in the design of postgres scans the whole index, 
I tried:

"select   sollkontoid,waehrungid,periode,belegdatum,journalnr from journal where sollkontoid=266122::int8 and
waehrungid=17::int8order by sollkontoid,waehrungid,periode,belegdatum,journalnr asc limit 1;"
 

this yields:sollkontoid | waehrungid | periode | belegdatum | journalnr 
-------------+------------+---------+------------+-----------     266122 |         17 |       0 | 2002-01-01 |
411

which is correct and works in a fraction of a second as expected.

now, doing the same with "desc" instead of "asc" should return 
"periode = 12" (see below) for the last record, but it doesn't!

After a fairly long time I get:
sollkontoid | waehrungid | periode | belegdatum | journalnr 
-------------+------------+---------+------------+-----------     266122 |         17 |       0 | 2002-01-01 |
2783

ooops???! periode = 0???

Query plan:Limit  (cost=491999.72..491999.73 rows=1 width=32)  ->  Sort  (cost=491999.72..492309.30 rows=123828
width=32)       Sort Key: sollkontoid, waehrungid, periode, belegdatum, journalnr        ->  Index Scan using
journal_kblattsollon journal  
 
(cost=0.00..481525.10 rows=123828 width=32)              Index Cond: ((sollkontoid = 266122::bigint) AND (waehrungid =

17::bigint))


Surprisingly enough, reducing the fields in the order-by clause
returns the correct value for "periode":

select   sollkontoid,waehrungid,periode,belegdatum,journalnr from journal
where sollkontoid=266122::int8 and waehrungid=17::int8 
order by sollkontoid,waehrungid,periode desc limit 1;
sollkontoid | waehrungid | periode | belegdatum | journalnr 
-------------+------------+---------+------------+-----------     266122 |         17 |      12 | 2002-12-09 |
303609



min/max-checks:

select max(periode)from journal where sollkontoid=266122::int8 andwaehrungid=17::int8;

returns 12.
select max(belegdatum) from journal where sollkontoid=266122::int8 andwaehrungid=17::int8 and periode=12;

returns "2002-12-10"
select max(journalnr) from journal where sollkontoid=266122::int8 andwaehrungid=17::int8 and periode=12 and
belegdatum='2002-12-10';

returns 305098.

Consequently, the last record according to the order by clause should be:
sollkontoid | waehrungid | periode | belegdatum | journalnr 
-------------+------------+---------+------------+-----------     266122 |         17 |      12 | 2002-12-10 |
305098




questions:

- what's this???
- why does it take that long?
- is "ORDER BY ... DESC" broken? (even after dropping the index I get the same results)
- am I missing something (friday, 13th, ...) ?

thanx for any answer,
harald.

(postgres 7.3 on redhat 8.0)