Re: Using indexes for ORDER BY and PARTITION BY clause in windowing functions - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Sameer Kumar
Subject Re: Using indexes for ORDER BY and PARTITION BY clause in windowing functions
Date
Msg-id CADp-Sm5npBTnnt20w84=00P2d8XsQQ0pogoPHAgq2okttm+vdw@mail.gmail.com
Whole thread
In response to Re: Using indexes for ORDER BY and PARTITION BY clause in windowing functions  (Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>)
Responses Re: Using indexes for ORDER BY and PARTITION BY clause in windowing functions
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On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 10:58 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
Sameer Kumar <sameer.kumar@ashnik.com> writes:
> I am not sure why but my PostgreSQL does not seem to be using indexes for
> ORDER BY clause or PARTITION BY CLAUSE which I use with windowing function.

When the entire contents of the table have to be read, a seqscan-and-sort
will frequently be estimated as cheaper than an indexscan.  If you think
this is not true on your hardware, you might need to adjust
random_page_cost.

                        regards, tom lane
My mistake. I had understood the issue wrongly. 

Actually when I use functions like max to find the maximum value grouped by another column I get a better performance when I try to do the same operation using max() over().

Take a look at below plan:

edb=# \x
Expanded display is on.
edb=# \dS= student_score;
         Table "enterprisedb.student_score"
    Column    |          Type           | Modifiers
--------------+-------------------------+-----------
 id           | integer                 | not null
 student_name | character varying(1000) |
 score        | integer                 |
 course       | character varying(100)  |
Indexes:
    "student_score_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (id)
    "idx_course" btree (course)
    "idx_score" btree (score)

edb=# select count(*) from student_score ;
-[ RECORD 1 ]-
count | 122880

edb=# explain analyze select max(score) from student_score group by course;
-[ RECORD 1 ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | HashAggregate  (cost=3198.20..3198.26 rows=6 width=9) (actual time=110.792..110.793 rows=6 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 2 ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |   ->  Seq Scan on student_score  (cost=0.00..2583.80 rows=122880 width=9) (actual time=0.011..23.055 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 3 ]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | Total runtime: 110.862 ms

edb=# explain analyze select max(score) over(partition by course) from student_score ;
-[ RECORD 1 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | WindowAgg  (cost=0.00..10324.65 rows=122880 width=9) (actual time=36.145..224.504 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 2 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |   ->  Index Scan using idx_course on student_score  (cost=0.00..8481.45 rows=122880 width=9) (actual time=0.037..85.283 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 3 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | Total runtime: 242.949 ms

AS you can see there is a difference of twice. On similar lines, when I have to find students who "topped" (had highest score) per course, I will fire something like below:



edb=# explain analyze select student_name from student_score where (course,score)in (select course,max(score) from student_score group by course);
-[ RECORD 1 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | Hash Semi Join  (cost=3198.41..6516.76 rows=7300 width=43) (actual time=113.727..181.045 rows=555 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 2 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |   Hash Cond: (((enterprisedb.student_score.course)::text = (enterprisedb.student_score.course)::text) AND (enterprisedb.student_score.score = (max(enterprisedb.student_score.score))))
-[ RECORD 3 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |   ->  Seq Scan on student_score  (cost=0.00..2583.80 rows=122880 width=52) (actual time=0.009..22.702 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 4 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |   ->  Hash  (cost=3198.32..3198.32 rows=6 width=9) (actual time=111.521..111.521 rows=6 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 5 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |         Buckets: 1024  Batches: 1  Memory Usage: 1kB
-[ RECORD 6 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |         ->  HashAggregate  (cost=3198.20..3198.26 rows=6 width=9) (actual time=111.506..111.507 rows=6 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 7 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |               ->  Seq Scan on student_score  (cost=0.00..2583.80 rows=122880 width=9) (actual time=0.002..23.303 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 8 ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | Total runtime: 181.284 ms



An alternative way of doing this could be:

edb=# explain analyze select student_name from (select student_name, dense_rank() over(partition by course order by score)rn from student_score) where rn=1 ;
-[ RECORD 1 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | Subquery Scan on __unnamed_subquery_0  (cost=12971.39..16964.99 rows=614 width=43) (actual time=2606.075..2953.937 rows=558 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 2 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |   Filter: (__unnamed_subquery_0.rn = 1)
-[ RECORD 3 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |   ->  WindowAgg  (cost=12971.39..15428.99 rows=122880 width=52) (actual time=2606.063..2928.061 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 4 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |         ->  Sort  (cost=12971.39..13278.59 rows=122880 width=52) (actual time=2606.020..2733.677 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 5 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |               Sort Key: student_score.course, student_score.score
-[ RECORD 6 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |               Sort Method: external merge  Disk: 7576kB
-[ RECORD 7 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN |               ->  Seq Scan on student_score  (cost=0.00..2583.80 rows=122880 width=52) (actual time=0.009..49.026 rows=122880 loops=1)
-[ RECORD 8 ]--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUERY PLAN | Total runtime: 2958.653 ms

The second format of query could be more useful in DW and Data mining operations where I might not be always looking highest scorer. I may have to look for 2nd highest scorer. I can make this 2nd query parameterized and filter on rn could be 2 or 3 based on my interest. 

Another thing, (I may be stupid and naive here) does PostgreSQL re-uses the hash which has been already created for sort. In this case the inner query must have created a hash for windoing aggregate. Can't we use that same one while applying the the filter "rn=1" ?

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