From: Ulrich Habel <espero7757@gmx.net>
Reply-To: espero7757@gmx.net
To: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: query planner: automatic rescribe of LIKE to BETWEEN ?
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 19:22:59 +0200
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Hello all,
had an idea of optimizing a query that may work generally.

In case a 'column' is indexed, following two alterations could be done
I think:

A)

  select ... where column ~ '^Foo'     -->  Seq Scan

into that:

  select ... where column BETWEEN 'Foo' AND 'FooZ'     -->  Index Scan

of course 'Z' should be the last possible character internally used of the 
DBMS.

That would work as long as there is no in-case-sensitive search being done.


another rescribtion:

B)

  select ... where  column ~ '^Foo$'     -->  Seq Scan

into that:

  select ... where  column =  'Foo'     -->  Bitmap Heap Scan

That speeds up things, too.


That would also apply to 'LIKE' and 'SIMILAR TO' operations, I think.

Is there any idea to make the "Query Planner" more intelligent to do these  
convertions automatically?

Anythings speeks against this hack?

Regards
  Uli Habel