Tom Lane <t...@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > "Kevin Grittner" <kevin.gritt...@wicourts.gov> writes: >> So what *is* the difference between EXTENDED and MAIN? > > EXTENDED columns get pushed out first. So if you have some EXTENDED > columns and some MAIN columns, it'll give preference to keeping the > MAIN columns in-line. In the OP's case there's only one wide column > so this is of no help. Got it. The documentation seems less than clear on this. Perhaps the description of MAIN on this page: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/storage-toast.html should be changed. How does this sound?: MAIN allows compression but discourages out-of-line storage. (Out-of-line storage will be performed only if the row is still too big after compression and out-of-line storage of EXTENDED and EXTERNAL columns.) If there is consensus, I'll put that into patch form. It seems to me that MAIN might be a more useful option if it was more aggressive about avoiding out-of-line storage; perhaps only if the row doesn't fit by itself on a single page? Does anyone else think so? -Kevin
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