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>Chapter 54. Index Access Method Interface Definition</TD
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><H1
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><A
NAME="INDEX-COST-ESTIMATION"
>54.6. Index Cost Estimation Functions</A
></H1
><P
> The <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>amcostestimate</CODE
> function is given information describing
a possible index scan, including lists of WHERE and ORDER BY clauses that
have been determined to be usable with the index. It must return estimates
of the cost of accessing the index and the selectivity of the WHERE
clauses (that is, the fraction of parent-table rows that will be
retrieved during the index scan). For simple cases, nearly all the
work of the cost estimator can be done by calling standard routines
in the optimizer; the point of having an <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>amcostestimate</CODE
> function is
to allow index access methods to provide index-type-specific knowledge,
in case it is possible to improve on the standard estimates.
</P
><P
> Each <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>amcostestimate</CODE
> function must have the signature:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>void
amcostestimate (PlannerInfo *root,
IndexPath *path,
double loop_count,
Cost *indexStartupCost,
Cost *indexTotalCost,
Selectivity *indexSelectivity,
double *indexCorrelation);</PRE
><P>
The first three parameters are inputs:
<P
></P
></P><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>root</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> The planner's information about the query being processed.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>path</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> The index access path being considered. All fields except cost and
selectivity values are valid.
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>loop_count</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> The number of repetitions of the index scan that should be factored
into the cost estimates. This will typically be greater than one when
considering a parameterized scan for use in the inside of a nestloop
join. Note that the cost estimates should still be for just one scan;
a larger <TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>loop_count</TT
> means that it may be appropriate
to allow for some caching effects across multiple scans.
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
><P>
</P
><P
> The last four parameters are pass-by-reference outputs:
<P
></P
></P><DIV
CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
><DL
><DT
><TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>*indexStartupCost</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Set to cost of index start-up processing
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>*indexTotalCost</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Set to total cost of index processing
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>*indexSelectivity</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Set to index selectivity
</P
></DD
><DT
><TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>*indexCorrelation</TT
></DT
><DD
><P
> Set to correlation coefficient between index scan order and
underlying table's order
</P
></DD
></DL
></DIV
><P>
</P
><P
> Note that cost estimate functions must be written in C, not in SQL or
any available procedural language, because they must access internal
data structures of the planner/optimizer.
</P
><P
> The index access costs should be computed using the parameters used by
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>src/backend/optimizer/path/costsize.c</TT
>: a sequential
disk block fetch has cost <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>seq_page_cost</TT
>, a nonsequential fetch
has cost <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>random_page_cost</TT
>, and the cost of processing one index
row should usually be taken as <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>cpu_index_tuple_cost</TT
>. In
addition, an appropriate multiple of <TT
CLASS="VARNAME"
>cpu_operator_cost</TT
> should
be charged for any comparison operators invoked during index processing
(especially evaluation of the indexquals themselves).
</P
><P
> The access costs should include all disk and CPU costs associated with
scanning the index itself, but <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>not</I
></SPAN
> the costs of retrieving or
processing the parent-table rows that are identified by the index.
</P
><P
> The <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"start-up cost"</SPAN
> is the part of the total scan cost that
must be expended before we can begin to fetch the first row. For most
indexes this can be taken as zero, but an index type with a high start-up
cost might want to set it nonzero.
</P
><P
> The <TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>indexSelectivity</TT
> should be set to the estimated fraction of the parent
table rows that will be retrieved during the index scan. In the case
of a lossy query, this will typically be higher than the fraction of
rows that actually pass the given qual conditions.
</P
><P
> The <TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>indexCorrelation</TT
> should be set to the correlation (ranging between
-1.0 and 1.0) between the index order and the table order. This is used
to adjust the estimate for the cost of fetching rows from the parent
table.
</P
><P
> When <TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>loop_count</TT
> is greater than one, the returned numbers
should be averages expected for any one scan of the index.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="PROCEDURE"
><P
><B
>Cost Estimation</B
></P
><P
> A typical cost estimator will proceed as follows:
</P
><OL
TYPE="1"
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Estimate and return the fraction of parent-table rows that will be visited
based on the given qual conditions. In the absence of any index-type-specific
knowledge, use the standard optimizer function <CODE
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>clauselist_selectivity()</CODE
>:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>*indexSelectivity = clauselist_selectivity(root, path->indexquals,
path->indexinfo->rel->relid,
JOIN_INNER, NULL);</PRE
><P>
</P
></LI
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Estimate the number of index rows that will be visited during the
scan. For many index types this is the same as <TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>indexSelectivity</TT
> times
the number of rows in the index, but it might be more. (Note that the
index's size in pages and rows is available from the
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>path->indexinfo</TT
> struct.)
</P
></LI
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Estimate the number of index pages that will be retrieved during the scan.
This might be just <TT
CLASS="PARAMETER"
>indexSelectivity</TT
> times the index's size in pages.
</P
></LI
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Compute the index access cost. A generic estimator might do this:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>/*
* Our generic assumption is that the index pages will be read
* sequentially, so they cost seq_page_cost each, not random_page_cost.
* Also, we charge for evaluation of the indexquals at each index row.
* All the costs are assumed to be paid incrementally during the scan.
*/
cost_qual_eval(&index_qual_cost, path->indexquals, root);
*indexStartupCost = index_qual_cost.startup;
*indexTotalCost = seq_page_cost * numIndexPages +
(cpu_index_tuple_cost + index_qual_cost.per_tuple) * numIndexTuples;</PRE
><P>
However, the above does not account for amortization of index reads
across repeated index scans.
</P
></LI
><LI
CLASS="STEP"
><P
> Estimate the index correlation. For a simple ordered index on a single
field, this can be retrieved from pg_statistic. If the correlation
is not known, the conservative estimate is zero (no correlation).
</P
></LI
></OL
></DIV
><P
> Examples of cost estimator functions can be found in
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>src/backend/utils/adt/selfuncs.c</TT
>.
</P
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