Why is outer Join way quicker?

Started by David Linkalmost 24 years ago5 messagesgeneral
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#1David Link
dlink@soundscan.com

Hi.

We have found that by using an Outer Join it speeds up this query
considerably.

Why is that?

According to the explain plan the hold up has to do with a single nexted
loop and a "Materilize"? This makes no sense to me. Can some one
explain.

Thanks. -David

The difference between these two queries is the first uses an outer join
between u and t, while the second (the slower) uses a straight forward
join).

-- Query 1:
SELECT u.upc, t.title, tot.ytd, tot.rtd
FROM upc u
LEFT OUTER JOIN title t
ON t.tcode = u.tcode
LEFT OUTER JOIN total tot
ON tot.tcode = t.tcode AND tot.week = 200210 AND
tot.region='TOTAL'
WHERE u.upc LIKE '%0085392227%'
ORDER BY title ASC
LIMIT 500 OFFSET 0;

-- Query 1: Actual Time: 1 second
0.03user 0.00system 0:00.96elapsed 3%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata
0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (576major+168minor)pagefaults 0swaps

-- Query 1: QUERY PLAN:
Limit (cost=2801.10..2801.10 rows=1 width=108)
-> Sort (cost=2801.10..2801.10 rows=1 width=108)
-> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..2801.09 rows=1 width=108)
-> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..2796.06 rows=1 width=48)
-> Seq Scan on upc u (cost=0.00..2791.43 rows=1 width=24)
-> Index Scan using title_pkey on title t (cost=0.00..4.63
rows=1 width=24)
-> Index Scan using total_week_tcode_ind on total tot
(cost=0.00..5.01 rows=1 width=60)

-- =======================================
-- Query 2
explain
SELECT u.upc, t.title, tot.ytd, tot.rtd
FROM upc u,
title t left outer join total tot
ON tot.tcode = t.tcode AND tot.week = 200210 AND
tot.region='TOTAL'
WHERE t.tcode = u.tcode and u.upc LIKE '%0085392227%'
ORDER BY title ASC LIMIT 500 OFFSET 0;

-- Query 2: Actual Time: 36 SECONDS!!!
0.01user 0.02system 0:35.33elapsed 0%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata
0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (576major+168minor)pagefaults 0swaps

Limit (cost=541352.96..541352.96 rows=1 width=108)
-> Sort (cost=541352.96..541352.96 rows=1 width=108)
-> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..541352.95 rows=1 width=108)
-> Seq Scan on upc u (cost=0.00..2791.43 rows=1 width=24)
-> Materialize (cost=537241.84..537241.84 rows=105575 width=84)
-> Nested Loop (cost=0.00..537241.84 rows=105575 width=84)
-> Seq Scan on title t (cost=0.00..6228.75 rows=105575
width=24)
-> Index Scan using total_week_tcode_ind on total tot
(cost=0.00..5.01 rows=1 width=60)

-- Output (from both Query 1 and Query 2):
upc | title | ytd | rtd
--------------+--------------------------------+--------+---------
008539222773 | CATS AND DOGS | 65240 | 1080103
008539222772 | CATS AND DOGS-2001-PS | 47683 | 480374
008539222793 | CATS & DOGS | |
008539222753 | MATRIX/MATRIX REVISITED 2-PACK | 299 | 1395
008539222783 | SWORDFISH | 27992 | 234049
008539222782 | SWORDFISH | 136727 | 987219
(6 rows)

#2Stephan Szabo
sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com
In reply to: David Link (#1)
Re: Why is outer Join way quicker?

On Tue, 23 Apr 2002, David Link wrote:

Hi.

We have found that by using an Outer Join it speeds up this query
considerably.

Why is that?

According to the explain plan the hold up has to do with a single nexted
loop and a "Materilize"? This makes no sense to me. Can some one
explain.

Thanks. -David

The difference between these two queries is the first uses an outer join
between u and t, while the second (the slower) uses a straight forward
join).

See:
http://www.postgresql.org/idocs/index.php?explicit-joins.html

You can probably use an inner join as well, you just need to use
the explicit join syntax.

#3David Link
dlink@soundscan.com
In reply to: Stephan Szabo (#2)
Re: Why is outer Join way quicker?

Stephan Szabo wrote:

On Tue, 23 Apr 2002, David Link wrote:

Hi.

We have found that by using an Outer Join it speeds up this query
considerably.

Why is that?

According to the explain plan the hold up has to do with a single nexted
loop and a "Materilize"? This makes no sense to me. Can some one
explain.

Thanks. -David

The difference between these two queries is the first uses an outer join
between u and t, while the second (the slower) uses a straight forward
join).

See:
http://www.postgresql.org/idocs/index.php?explicit-joins.html

You can probably use an inner join as well, you just need to use
the explicit join syntax.

OK. I read that and it helps explain this behavior (new to 7.1)
somewhat. Thank you.

However, it also says that the planner spends some time figuring out
which method of joining is best (a join (b join c)) vs. ((a join b) join
c), etc. It says the user should not have to worry about explicitly
mapping the join order when few tables are involved. In this case I am
using three tables, though fairly large. See explain plans.

You'll notice the explain plans show a difference of magnatude in cost.
If the planner is checking those kind of things, it should pick up on
this and choose the better join order.

Thanks. David

#4Stephan Szabo
sszabo@megazone23.bigpanda.com
In reply to: David Link (#3)
Re: Why is outer Join way quicker?

On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, David Link wrote:

Stephan Szabo wrote:

See:
http://www.postgresql.org/idocs/index.php?explicit-joins.html

You can probably use an inner join as well, you just need to use
the explicit join syntax.

OK. I read that and it helps explain this behavior (new to 7.1)
somewhat. Thank you.

However, it also says that the planner spends some time figuring out
which method of joining is best (a join (b join c)) vs. ((a join b) join
c), etc. It says the user should not have to worry about explicitly
mapping the join order when few tables are involved. In this case I am
using three tables, though fairly large. See explain plans.

You'll notice the explain plans show a difference of magnatude in cost.
If the planner is checking those kind of things, it should pick up on
this and choose the better join order.

You are explicitly mapping the join order in both queries. I'm not 100%
sure the page mentions, but I think it does... If you do
a,b OUTER JOIN c, postgres takes that as a request to explicitly join
b and c before any other joins with those tables, thus any plan that
joins a to b or c before the outer join is not considered. The thing for
explicitly mapping join order is because with a large number of tables
the decision making process can be complicated and take a fair amount of
time, so you can prune the number of possible join orders with explicitly
using the sql92 join syntax.

#5David Link
dlink@soundscan.com
In reply to: Stephan Szabo (#4)
Re: Why is outer Join way quicker?

Very Clear. It makes sense. Thanks Stephan.

Stephan Szabo wrote:

Show quoted text

On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, David Link wrote:

Stephan Szabo wrote:

See:
http://www.postgresql.org/idocs/index.php?explicit-joins.html

You can probably use an inner join as well, you just need to use
the explicit join syntax.

OK. I read that and it helps explain this behavior (new to 7.1)
somewhat. Thank you.

However, it also says that the planner spends some time figuring out
which method of joining is best (a join (b join c)) vs. ((a join b) join
c), etc. It says the user should not have to worry about explicitly
mapping the join order when few tables are involved. In this case I am
using three tables, though fairly large. See explain plans.

You'll notice the explain plans show a difference of magnatude in cost.
If the planner is checking those kind of things, it should pick up on
this and choose the better join order.

You are explicitly mapping the join order in both queries. I'm not 100%
sure the page mentions, but I think it does... If you do
a,b OUTER JOIN c, postgres takes that as a request to explicitly join
b and c before any other joins with those tables, thus any plan that
joins a to b or c before the outer join is not considered. The thing for
explicitly mapping join order is because with a large number of tables
the decision making process can be complicated and take a fair amount of
time, so you can prune the number of possible join orders with explicitly
using the sql92 join syntax.