Hey guys, thanks so much for all the help. I had never seen the HAVING clause anywhere. That solved so many problems.
As for speed, I do not have indexing (most of my sql experience so far has been on fairly 'small' tables, which I guess would be considered tiny for everyone else). test=# VACUUM nei_area_val; VACUUM test=# ANALYZE nei_area_val; ANALYZE and..I think one of those two helped out quite a bit. Here's an explain analyze for one of my more complicated queries: (nei_area_val = "huge", nei_area = "small") test=# EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT nei_area.fips, AsText(nei_area.the_geom) as fs_text_geom, nei_area.name, nei_area_val.strpollutantcode, SUM(nei_area_val.dblemissionnumericvalue_ton) FROM nei_area INNER JOIN nei_area_val ON nei_area.fips = nei_area_val.fips WHERE nei_area_val.strpollutantcode='CO' AND the_geom && SetSRID('BOX3D(-100.000000 40.000000,-90.000000 50.000000)'::box3d, 4269) and intersects(the_geom, SetSRID('BOX3D(-100.000000 40.000000,-90.000000 5 0.000000)'::box3d, 4269)) GROUP BY nei_area.fips, nei_area.the_geom, nei_area.name, nei_area_val.strpollutantcode HAVING SUM(nei_area_val.dblemissionnumericvalue_ton) > 500; QUERY PLAN ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GroupAggregate (cost=106998.22..107035.89 rows=39 width=3797) (actual time=4712.708..5743.313 rows=230 loops=1) Filter: (sum(dblemissionnumericvalue_ton) > 500::double precision) -> Sort (cost=106998.22..107003.49 rows=2108 width=3797) (actual time=4708.411..5330.771 rows=15679 loops=1) Sort Key: nei_area.fips, nei_area.the_geom, nei_area.name, nei_area_val.strpollutantcode -> Hash Join (cost=30627.47..103430.84 rows=2108 width=3797) (actual time=2555.057..3938.329 rows=15679 loops=1) Hash Cond: (nei_area_val.fips = nei_area.fips) -> Seq Scan on nei_area_val (cost=0.00..72346.21 rows=116288 width=25) (actual time=46.964..2446.264 rows=122885 loops=1) Filter: (strpollutantcode = 'CO'::text) -> Hash (cost=30626.84..30626.84 rows=50 width=3781) (actual time=1193.834..1193.834 rows=415 loops=1) -> Seq Scan on nei_area (cost=0.00..30626.84 rows=50 width=3781) (actual time=1038.950..1187.324 rows=415 loops=1) Filter: ((the_geom && '0103000020AD100000010000000500000000000000000059C0000000000000444000000000000059C0000000000000494000000000008056C0000000000000494000000000008056C0000000000000444000000000000059C00000000000004440'::geometry) AND intersects(the_geom, '0103000020AD100000010000000500000000000000000059C0000000000000444000000000000059C0000000000000494000000000008056C0000000000000494000000000008056C0000000000000444000000000000059C00000000000004440'::geometry)) Total runtime: 5762.061 ms (12 rows) 5.7 seconds! I can live with that! So, maybe it was just the vacuum I needed? Anyway, I don't have indexing, I'll read about it and try not to screw anything up when I add it, but seriously thanks so much all of you! -Ed