Re: [GENERAL] pg temp tables

2007-03-07 Thread Anton Melser

On 06/03/07, Tom Lane [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Anton Melser [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
 Thanks for your reply. I am managing a db that has some export scripts
 that don't do a drop/create, but rather a delete from at the start of
 the proc (6 or 7 tables used for this, and only this). Now given that
 there is no vacuuming at all going on - this is clearly suboptimal but
 in the general case is this better/worse than using temporary tables?

Delete all rows, you mean?  Have you considered TRUNCATE?


Hi,
... I have considered lots of things - but I didn't write the scripts!
Now that you mention it, I do remember that truncate is much better
than
delete from mytable;
That is not what they wrote but hey. But even then, what are the
advantages/disadvantages of temp tables? Is there a document somewhere
I can consult which will give me the lowdown on permanent (but
temporary) versus temporary tables in pg?
Cheers
Anton

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Re: [GENERAL] pg temp tables

2007-03-05 Thread Robert Treat
On Saturday 03 March 2007 10:33, Anton Melser wrote:
 Hi,
 I have been going around telling everyone that there is no point using
 physical tables in postgres for temporary storage within a procedure.
 Why bother bothering the system with something which is only used in
 one procedure I said to myself... I have just learnt that with MS Sql
 Server, this is not the case, and that there are locks on some system
 table and temp tables eat up memory and lots of other unfortunate
 things. Can someone give me a 101 on temp table considerations? Or
 rather give me the good link?

The main issue against using temp tables involve bloat of some of the system 
catalogs, but it's no worse than doing create/drop cycles with standard 
tables, and better because they don't suffer as much i/o load. 

-- 
Robert Treat
Build A Brighter LAMP :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL

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Re: [GENERAL] pg temp tables

2007-03-05 Thread Anton Melser

On 06/03/07, Robert Treat [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

On Saturday 03 March 2007 10:33, Anton Melser wrote:
 Hi,
 I have been going around telling everyone that there is no point using
 physical tables in postgres for temporary storage within a procedure.
 Why bother bothering the system with something which is only used in
 one procedure I said to myself... I have just learnt that with MS Sql
 Server, this is not the case, and that there are locks on some system
 table and temp tables eat up memory and lots of other unfortunate
 things. Can someone give me a 101 on temp table considerations? Or
 rather give me the good link?

The main issue against using temp tables involve bloat of some of the system
catalogs, but it's no worse than doing create/drop cycles with standard
tables, and better because they don't suffer as much i/o load.


Thanks for your reply. I am managing a db that has some export scripts
that don't do a drop/create, but rather a delete from at the start of
the proc (6 or 7 tables used for this, and only this). Now given that
there is no vacuuming at all going on - this is clearly suboptimal but
in the general case is this better/worse than using temporary tables?
Thanks again,
Anton

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Re: [GENERAL] pg temp tables

2007-03-05 Thread Tom Lane
Anton Melser [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
 Thanks for your reply. I am managing a db that has some export scripts
 that don't do a drop/create, but rather a delete from at the start of
 the proc (6 or 7 tables used for this, and only this). Now given that
 there is no vacuuming at all going on - this is clearly suboptimal but
 in the general case is this better/worse than using temporary tables?

Delete all rows, you mean?  Have you considered TRUNCATE?

regards, tom lane

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[GENERAL] pg temp tables

2007-03-03 Thread Anton Melser

Hi,
I have been going around telling everyone that there is no point using
physical tables in postgres for temporary storage within a procedure.
Why bother bothering the system with something which is only used in
one procedure I said to myself... I have just learnt that with MS Sql
Server, this is not the case, and that there are locks on some system
table and temp tables eat up memory and lots of other unfortunate
things. Can someone give me a 101 on temp table considerations? Or
rather give me the good link?
Cheers
Anton

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