Scott Bailey wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> > Tim Keitt wrote:
> >> I am combining query results that I know are disjoint. I'm wondering
> >> how much overhead there is in calling union versus union all. (Just
> >> curious really; I can't see a reason not to use union all.)
> > 
> > UNION needs to uniquify the output, for which it plasters an additional
> > sort step, whereas UNION ALL does not need to uniquify its output and
> > thus it can avoid the sort step.  Using UNION ALL is recommended
> > wherever possible.
> > 
> 
> I think I read somewhere that as of 8.4 it no longer required the sort 
> step, due to the improvements in hashing. Here it is
> 
> http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/WhatsNew84#Performance

Oh, yea, hashing is used in some cases rather than sort.  I assume sort
is still used if the hash exceeds workmem size.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <br...@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

-- 
Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@postgresql.org)
To make changes to your subscription:
http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general

Reply via email to