On 17 July 2012 16:54, David E. Wheeler <da...@justatheory.com> wrote: > On Jul 17, 2012, at 5:32 PM, Simon Riggs wrote: > >> CREATE INDEX ON foo (a, b, c, d); >> >> allows >> >> SELECT c, d FROM foo WHERE a = ? AND b = ? >> >> to use an index only scan. >> >> The phrase "unindexed" seems misleading since the data is clearly in >> the index from the description on the URL you gave. And since the >> index is non-unique, I don't see any gap between Postgres and >> SQLliite4. > > Yeah, but that index is unnecessarily big if one will never use c or d in the > search. The nice thing about covering indexes as described for SQLite 4 and > implemented in MSSQL is that you can specify additional columns that just > come along for the ride, but are not part of the indexed data: > > CREATE INDEX cover1 ON table1(a,b) COVERING(c,d); > > Yes, you can do that by also indexing c and d as of 9.2, but it might be nice > to be able to include them in the index as additional row data without > actually indexing them.
Can you explain what you mean by "without actually indexing them"? ISTM that it is a non-feature if the index is already non-unique, and the difference is simply down to the amount of snake oil applied to the descriptive text on the release notes. -- Simon Riggs http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/ PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
