Hi, OK, first, I know the reason of this error "index row size 3040 exceeds btree maximum, 2712" and know that we cannot create index on certain columns with size larger than 1/3 buffer page size.
The question is, no matter if I deleted records that caused the problem or all records of the table, the error still occurred and would disappear after a while randomly, like 1 or 2 minutes or so. Therefore I suspect if this is a bug or any postgresql internal mechanism I was not aware would lead to this problem? See my test as below: pgdb=# drop table test; DROP TABLE pgdb=# create table test as select * from tbl_weekly; SELECT pgdb=# create index idx_test on test USING btree (term) WITH (fillfactor=100) WHERE catid = 1; ERROR: index row size 3040 exceeds btree maximum, 2712 HINT: Values larger than 1/3 of a buffer page cannot be indexed. Consider a function index of an MD5 hash of the value, or use full text indexing. --because this is a TOAST table, so the size should be determined by pg_column_size(), not octet_length() pgdb=# select length(term), pg_column_size(term),octet_length(term),catid from test where length(term)>=2000 order by 1; length | pg_column_size | octet_length | catid --------+----------------+--------------+------- 2088 | 1430 | 2088 | 80 2088 | 1430 | 2088 | 125 2088 | 1430 | 2088 | 1 2190 | 1450 | 2190 | 50 2190 | 1450 | 2190 | 1 2190 | 1450 | 2190 | 30 2205 | 1184 | 2205 | 80 2205 | 1184 | 2205 | 1 2205 | 1184 | 2205 | 100 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 100 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 80 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 320 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 1 5179 | 3028 | 5179 | 1 5179 | 3028 | 5179 | 125 5179 | 3028 | 5179 | 80 (16 rows) --so the fix is to delete records with pg_column_size>2700, in this case, to delete records with pg_column_size=3028 (length=5179) and catid=1. pgdb=# delete from test where length(term) =5179 and catid=1; DELETE 1 pgdb=# select length(term), pg_column_size(term),octet_length(term),catid from test where length(term)>=2000 order by 1; length | pg_column_size | octet_length | catid --------+----------------+--------------+------- 2088 | 1430 | 2088 | 80 2088 | 1430 | 2088 | 1 2088 | 1430 | 2088 | 125 2190 | 1450 | 2190 | 1 2190 | 1450 | 2190 | 30 2190 | 1450 | 2190 | 50 2205 | 1184 | 2205 | 80 2205 | 1184 | 2205 | 1 2205 | 1184 | 2205 | 100 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 80 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 320 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 100 2586 | 1894 | 2586 | 1 5179 | 3028 | 5179 | 125 5179 | 3028 | 5179 | 80 (15 rows) --even deleted the record that cause the problem, the index creation SQL fail again pgdb=# create index idx_test on test USING btree (term) WITH (fillfactor=100) WHERE catid = 1; ERROR: index row size 3040 exceeds btree maximum, 2712 HINT: Values larger than 1/3 of a buffer page cannot be indexed. Consider a function index of an MD5 hash of the value, or use full text indexing. pgdb=# vacuum full analyze test; VACUUM pgdb=# create index idx_test on test USING btree (term) WITH (fillfactor=100) WHERE catid = 1; ERROR: index row size 3040 exceeds btree maximum, 2712 HINT: Values larger than 1/3 of a buffer page cannot be indexed. Consider a function index of an MD5 hash of the value, or use full text indexing. -- After a while, run index creation sql again, it succeeded. pgdb=# create index idx_test on test USING btree (term) WITH (fillfactor=100) WHERE catid = 1; CREATE INDEX
