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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>51.5. Planner/Optimizer</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="rule-system.html" title="51.4. The PostgreSQL Rule System" /><link rel="next" href="executor.html" title="51.6. Executor" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">51.5. Planner/Optimizer</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="rule-system.html" title="51.4. The PostgreSQL Rule System">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="overview.html" title="Chapter 51. Overview of PostgreSQL Internals">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 51. Overview of PostgreSQL Internals</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 14.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="executor.html" title="51.6. Executor">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="sect1" id="PLANNER-OPTIMIZER"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">51.5. Planner/Optimizer</h2></div></div></div><div class="toc"><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="planner-optimizer.html#id-1.10.3.8.5">51.5.1. Generating Possible Plans</a></span></dt></dl></div><p>
+ The task of the <em class="firstterm">planner/optimizer</em> is to
+ create an optimal execution plan. A given SQL query (and hence, a
+ query tree) can be actually executed in a wide variety of
+ different ways, each of which will produce the same set of
+ results. If it is computationally feasible, the query optimizer
+ will examine each of these possible execution plans, ultimately
+ selecting the execution plan that is expected to run the fastest.
+ </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>
+ In some situations, examining each possible way in which a query
+ can be executed would take an excessive amount of time and memory.
+ In particular, this occurs when executing queries
+ involving large numbers of join operations. In order to determine
+ a reasonable (not necessarily optimal) query plan in a reasonable amount
+ of time, <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> uses a <em class="firstterm">Genetic
+ Query Optimizer</em> (see <a class="xref" href="geqo.html" title="Chapter 60. Genetic Query Optimizer">Chapter 60</a>) when the number of joins
+ exceeds a threshold (see <a class="xref" href="runtime-config-query.html#GUC-GEQO-THRESHOLD">geqo_threshold</a>).
+ </p></div><p>
+ The planner's search procedure actually works with data structures
+ called <em class="firstterm">paths</em>, which are simply cut-down representations of
+ plans containing only as much information as the planner needs to make
+ its decisions. After the cheapest path is determined, a full-fledged
+ <em class="firstterm">plan tree</em> is built to pass to the executor. This represents
+ the desired execution plan in sufficient detail for the executor to run it.
+ In the rest of this section we'll ignore the distinction between paths
+ and plans.
+ </p><div class="sect2" id="id-1.10.3.8.5"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title">51.5.1. Generating Possible Plans</h3></div></div></div><p>
+ The planner/optimizer starts by generating plans for scanning each
+ individual relation (table) used in the query. The possible plans
+ are determined by the available indexes on each relation.
+ There is always the possibility of performing a
+ sequential scan on a relation, so a sequential scan plan is always
+ created. Assume an index is defined on a
+ relation (for example a B-tree index) and a query contains the
+ restriction
+ <code class="literal">relation.attribute OPR constant</code>. If
+ <code class="literal">relation.attribute</code> happens to match the key of the B-tree
+ index and <code class="literal">OPR</code> is one of the operators listed in
+ the index's <em class="firstterm">operator class</em>, another plan is created using
+ the B-tree index to scan the relation. If there are further indexes
+ present and the restrictions in the query happen to match a key of an
+ index, further plans will be considered. Index scan plans are also
+ generated for indexes that have a sort ordering that can match the
+ query's <code class="literal">ORDER BY</code> clause (if any), or a sort ordering that
+ might be useful for merge joining (see below).
+ </p><p>
+ If the query requires joining two or more relations,
+ plans for joining relations are considered
+ after all feasible plans have been found for scanning single relations.
+ The three available join strategies are:
+
+ </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="firstterm">nested loop join</em>: The right relation is scanned
+ once for every row found in the left relation. This strategy
+ is easy to implement but can be very time consuming. (However,
+ if the right relation can be scanned with an index scan, this can
+ be a good strategy. It is possible to use values from the current
+ row of the left relation as keys for the index scan of the right.)
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="firstterm">merge join</em>: Each relation is sorted on the join
+ attributes before the join starts. Then the two relations are
+ scanned in parallel, and matching rows are combined to form
+ join rows. This kind of join is
+ attractive because each relation has to be scanned only once.
+ The required sorting might be achieved either by an explicit sort
+ step, or by scanning the relation in the proper order using an
+ index on the join key.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="firstterm">hash join</em>: the right relation is first scanned
+ and loaded into a hash table, using its join attributes as hash keys.
+ Next the left relation is scanned and the
+ appropriate values of every row found are used as hash keys to
+ locate the matching rows in the table.
+ </p></li></ul></div><p>
+ </p><p>
+ When the query involves more than two relations, the final result
+ must be built up by a tree of join steps, each with two inputs.
+ The planner examines different possible join sequences to find the
+ cheapest one.
+ </p><p>
+ If the query uses fewer than <a class="xref" href="runtime-config-query.html#GUC-GEQO-THRESHOLD">geqo_threshold</a>
+ relations, a near-exhaustive search is conducted to find the best
+ join sequence. The planner preferentially considers joins between any
+ two relations for which there exists a corresponding join clause in the
+ <code class="literal">WHERE</code> qualification (i.e., for
+ which a restriction like <code class="literal">where rel1.attr1=rel2.attr2</code>
+ exists). Join pairs with no join clause are considered only when there
+ is no other choice, that is, a particular relation has no available
+ join clauses to any other relation. All possible plans are generated for
+ every join pair considered by the planner, and the one that is
+ (estimated to be) the cheapest is chosen.
+ </p><p>
+ When <code class="varname">geqo_threshold</code> is exceeded, the join
+ sequences considered are determined by heuristics, as described
+ in <a class="xref" href="geqo.html" title="Chapter 60. Genetic Query Optimizer">Chapter 60</a>. Otherwise the process is the same.
+ </p><p>
+ The finished plan tree consists of sequential or index scans of
+ the base relations, plus nested-loop, merge, or hash join nodes as
+ needed, plus any auxiliary steps needed, such as sort nodes or
+ aggregate-function calculation nodes. Most of these plan node
+ types have the additional ability to do <em class="firstterm">selection</em>
+ (discarding rows that do not meet a specified Boolean condition)
+ and <em class="firstterm">projection</em> (computation of a derived column set
+ based on given column values, that is, evaluation of scalar
+ expressions where needed). One of the responsibilities of the
+ planner is to attach selection conditions from the
+ <code class="literal">WHERE</code> clause and computation of required
+ output expressions to the most appropriate nodes of the plan
+ tree.
+ </p></div></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navfooter"><hr></hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="rule-system.html" title="51.4. The PostgreSQL Rule System">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="overview.html" title="Chapter 51. Overview of PostgreSQL Internals">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="executor.html" title="51.6. Executor">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">51.4. The <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> Rule System </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 14.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 51.6. Executor</td></tr></table></div></body></html> \ No newline at end of file