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-$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/perform.sgml,v 1.49 2004/12/23 23:07:38 tgl Exp $
+$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/perform.sgml,v 1.50 2005/02/03 07:12:37 neilc Exp $
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<chapter id="performance-tips">
</para>
<para>
- One component of the statistics is the total number of entries in each
- table and index, as well as the number of disk blocks occupied by each
- table and index. This information is kept in the table
- <structname>pg_class</structname> in the columns <structfield>reltuples</structfield>
- and <structfield>relpages</structfield>. We can look at it
- with queries similar to this one:
+ One component of the statistics is the total number of entries in
+ each table and index, as well as the number of disk blocks occupied
+ by each table and index. This information is kept in the table
+ <link linkend="catalog-pg-class"><structname>pg_class</structname></link>, in
+ the columns <structfield>reltuples</structfield> and
+ <structfield>relpages</structfield>. We can look at it with
+ queries similar to this one:
<screen>
SELECT relname, relkind, reltuples, relpages FROM pg_class WHERE relname LIKE 'tenk1%';
<para>
Most queries retrieve only a fraction of the rows in a table, due
- to having <literal>WHERE</> clauses that restrict the rows to be examined.
- The planner thus needs to make an estimate of the
- <firstterm>selectivity</> of <literal>WHERE</> clauses, that is, the fraction of
- rows that match each condition in the <literal>WHERE</> clause. The information
- used for this task is stored in the <structname>pg_statistic</structname>
- system catalog. Entries in <structname>pg_statistic</structname> are
- updated by <command>ANALYZE</> and <command>VACUUM ANALYZE</> commands
- and are always approximate even when freshly updated.
+ to having <literal>WHERE</> clauses that restrict the rows to be
+ examined. The planner thus needs to make an estimate of the
+ <firstterm>selectivity</> of <literal>WHERE</> clauses, that is,
+ the fraction of rows that match each condition in the
+ <literal>WHERE</> clause. The information used for this task is
+ stored in the <link linkend="catalog-pg-statistic"><structname>pg_statistic</structname></link>
+ system catalog. Entries in <structname>pg_statistic</structname>
+ are updated by the <command>ANALYZE</> and <command>VACUUM
+ ANALYZE</> commands and are always approximate even when freshly
+ updated.
</para>
<indexterm>