Re: [GENERAL] a JOIN to a VIEW seems slow - Mailing list pgsql-general

Hi all

 

This is a follow-up to a recent question I posted regarding a slow query. I thought that the slowness was caused by the number of JOINs in the query, but with your assistance I have found the true reason. I said in the previous thread that the question had become academic, but now that I understand things better, it is no longer academic as it casts doubt on my whole approach.

 

I have split my AR transaction table into three physical tables – ar_tran_inv, ar_tran_crn, ar_tran_rec. I will probably add others at some point, such as ar_tran_jnl.

 

I then create a VIEW to view all transactions combined. The view is created like this -

 

CREATE VIEW ar_trans AS

  SELECT ‘ar_inv’ AS tran_type, row_id AS tran_row_id, tran_number ... FROM ar_tran_inv WHERE posted = ‘1’

  UNION ALL

  SELECT ‘ar_crn’ AS tran_type, row_id AS tran_row_id, tran_number ... FROM ar_tran_crn WHERE posted = ‘1’

  UNION ALL

  SELECT ‘ar_rec’ AS tran_type, row_id AS tran_row_id, tran_number ... FROM ar_tran_rec WHERE posted = ‘1’

 

I have another table called ‘ar_trans_due’, to keep track of outstanding transactions. All of the three transaction types generate entries into this table. To identify the source of the transaction, I have created columns in ar_trans_due called ‘tran_type’ and ‘tran_row_id’. After inserting a row into ‘ar_tran_inv’, I invoke this -

 

  INSERT INTO ar_trans_due (tran_type, tran_row_id, ...) VALUES (‘ar_inv’, ar_tran_inv.row_id, ...), and similar for the other transaction types. It is handled by a Python program, and it all happens within a transaction.

 

When I view a row in ar_trans_due, I want to retrieve data from the source transaction, so I have this -

 

  SELECT * FROM ar_trans_due a

  LEFT JOIN ar_trans b ON b.tran_type = a.tran_type AND b.tran_row_id = a.tran_row_id

 

I understand that PostgreSQL must somehow follow a path from the view ‘ar_trans’ to the physical table ‘ar_tran_inv’, but I assumed it would execute the equivalent of SELECT * FROM ar_tran_inv WHERE row_id = a.tran_row_id AND posted = ‘1’.

 

If this was the case, it would be an indexed read, and very fast. Instead, according to EXPLAIN, it performs a sequential scan of the ‘ar_tran_inv’ table.

 

It also scans ‘ar_tran_crn’ and ‘ar_tran_rec’, but EXPLAIN shows that it uses a Bitmap Heap Scan on those. I assume that is because the tables are currently empty.

 

Is this analysis correct?