Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.184]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 05EB62E01E8 for ; Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:55:10 -0400 (AST) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.71]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.184]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 13226-05 for ; Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:55:00 -0400 (AST) Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us (sss.pgh.pa.us [66.207.139.130]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0F0122E01CF for ; Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:55:04 -0400 (AST) Received: from sss2.sss.pgh.pa.us (tgl@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id m1ELt3xm019473; Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:55:03 -0500 (EST) To: Michael Lorenz cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org Subject: Re: Query slows after offset of 100K In-reply-to: References: <17159.1203016095@sss.pgh.pa.us> Comments: In-reply-to Michael Lorenz message dated "Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:49:22 +0000" Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:55:03 -0500 Message-ID: <19472.1203026103@sss.pgh.pa.us> From: Tom Lane X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Archive-Number: 200802/168 X-Sequence-Number: 28710 Michael Lorenz writes: > Fair enough, and I did think of this as well. However, I didn't think this was a viable option in my case, since we're currently allowing the user to randomly access the pages (so $lastkey wouldn't really have any meaning). The user can choose to sort on object ID, name or modification time, and then go straight to any page in the list. With 750K records, that's around 37K pages. Well, my first question is whether that user interface is actually useful to anyone. If you have a dictionary and you want to look up "foosball", do you start by guessing that it's on page 432? No, you look for the "F" tab. I'd suggest that what you want is to present links that let people go to specific spots in the key distribution, rather than expressing it in terms of so-many-pages. regards, tom lane