Re: constant time count(*) ? - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Tino Wildenhain
Subject Re: constant time count(*) ?
Date
Msg-id 3F8D98FD.5010500@wildenhain.de
Whole thread Raw
In response to constant time count(*) ?  (Mark Harrison <mh@pixar.com>)
List pgsql-general
Hi Mark,

Mark Harrison wrote:
> We're looking into moving some data from mysql to postgresql, and
> notice that count(*) does not seem to be a constant-time function
> as it seems to be in mysql.
>
> planb=# explain select count(*) from assets;
>                            QUERY PLAN
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>  Aggregate  (cost=22.50..22.50 rows=1 width=0)
>    ->  Seq Scan on assets  (cost=0.00..20.00 rows=1000 width=0)
> (2 rows)
>
> Is there a way to optimize count(*) such that it does not have
> to do a sequential scan?  We use this on some big tables and it
> is slowing down processing quite a lot.

How do you need an unqualified
select count(*) on a table so often
it is making a problem?

Regards
Tino


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