(edit: see end for a simpler example)
I'm searching in a table named "cases" (135k rows, 29 columns). Some of the rows in this table have a type of parent-child relationship (of different types), which means that for these records a mix of parent/child fields must be used for filtering and display.
I have identified four different parent-child relationships and created views for them:
- caselist_no_specials: not a child record, use record data as is; 116106 rows total.
- caselist_disputes_with_ipr: child record; 138 rows total.
- caselist_mark_children: child record; 18132 rows total.
- caselist_design_children: child record; 671 rows total.
The results from these views do not overlap and together cover 100% of the table.
When I select a union of all of them, and separately filter each view, the query takes about 9 ms. Selecting a union of all views and filtering the result of that takes about 500 ms.
I have also tested this without views, inlining the queries they contain, which did not produce a measurable improvement.
This is the fast query (explain):
SELECT c.*
FROM caselist_no_specials c
JOIN case_clients cacl ON cacl.case_id = c.main_id
WHERE cacl.client_id = 12046
UNION ALL
SELECT c.*
FROM caselist_disputes_with_ipr c
JOIN case_clients cacl ON cacl.case_id = c.main_id
WHERE cacl.client_id = 12046
UNION ALL
SELECT c.*
FROM caselist_mark_children c
JOIN case_clients cacl ON cacl.case_id = c.main_id
WHERE cacl.client_id = 12046
UNION ALL
SELECT c.*
FROM caselist_design_children c
JOIN case_clients cacl ON cacl.case_id = c.main_id
WHERE cacl.client_id = 12046
ORDER BY sort_nr,
id;
As you can see, the join and filter is duplicated for each view. Trying to avoid the duplication yielded this query, which takes a lot longer (explain):
SELECT x.*
FROM (
SELECT * FROM caselist_no_specials
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM caselist_disputes_with_ipr
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM caselist_mark_children
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM caselist_design_children
) x
JOIN case_clients cacl ON cacl.case_id = x.main_id
WHERE cacl.client_id = 12046
ORDER BY x.sort_nr,
x.id;
Is it possible to somehow let PostgreSQL know that the filter/join on the outer query can be applied to the inner subquery?
Or is there any other way to avoid filtering each view separately? The user-facing form for this query has over 20 filter fields, and there can be JOINs with up to 14 additional tables.
PostgreSQL is version 9.4.7 running on Linux.
EDIT: I've created a much simplified example, simply partitioning the original table using 3 views, but not involving other tables (and the query plans for both variants). In retrospect, this is what I should have used as an example in the first place.