To: arnaulist@andromeiberica.com
cc: PostgreSQL Performance <pgsql-performance@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: index over timestamp not being used 
In-reply-to: <46A64475.3040201@andromeiberica.com> 
References: <46A64475.3040201@andromeiberica.com>
Comments: In-reply-to Arnau <arnaulist@andromeiberica.com>
	message dated "Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:27:01 +0200"
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:24:55 -0400
Message-ID: <14907.1185305095@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

Arnau <arnaulist@andromeiberica.com> writes:
> timestamp_in          | timestamp without time zone | default now()

> SELECT ...
> FROM
>   transactions t
>   LEFT OUTER JOIN statistics s ON t.transaction_id = s.transaction_id
> WHERE
>   t.timestamp_in >= to_timestamp('20070101', 'YYYYMMDD')
> GROUP BY date, t.type_id;

to_timestamp() produces timestamp *with* timezone, so your WHERE query
is effectively
    t.timestamp_in::timestamptz >= to_timestamp('20070101', 'YYYYMMDD')
which doesn't match the index.

The first question you should ask yourself is whether you picked the
right datatype for the column.  IMHO timestamp with tz is the more
appropriate choice in the majority of cases.

If you do want to stick with timestamp without tz, you'll need to cast
the result of to_timestamp to that.

Alternatively, do you really need to_timestamp at all?  The standard
timestamp input routine won't have any problem with that format:
    t.timestamp_in >= '20070101'

			regards, tom lane