Re: Dropping column silently kills multi-coumn index (was - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Bruce Momjian
Subject Re: Dropping column silently kills multi-coumn index (was
Date
Msg-id 200302151821.h1FILW128263@candle.pha.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Dropping column silently kills multi-coumn index (was  (Justin Clift <justin@postgresql.org>)
List pgsql-general
Justin Clift wrote:
> Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > The issue here is whether dropping a column should automatically drop a
> > multi-column index of which that column is a member.
> >
> > The example shown below is particularly good because the dropped field
> > is second in the index, meaning that the index is useful for lookups on
> > field1 alone, so dropping field2 removes a useful index on field1.  I
> > don't think it is defensible to allow DROP COLUMN to remove the index.
> > Instead, I think we have to refuse the DROP COLUMN and require the user
> > to drop the index and recreate it just on field1 if desired. I don't
> > think CASCASE enters into this because of the effect on field1.
> >
> > Comments?
>
> Would it be possible/practical to have PostgreSQL recreate the
> multi-column index, but without the dropped column?


Yes, we could, but creating an index takes time, so is probably
something we would want the admin to do manually.

--
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

pgsql-general by date:

Previous
From: Greg Stark
Date:
Subject: Re: Why must SELECT DISTINCT, ORDER BY expressions must appear in target list?
Next
From: Bruce Momjian
Date:
Subject: Re: Dropping column silently kills multi-coumn index (was