I think index should help. Why don't you try it out and check the explain plan of it? If you are planning to break it down as below: 1. ALTER TABLE "foo" ADD COLUMN "bar" boolean; 2. UPDATE foo SET bar = False; -- Done in batches 3. ALTER TABLE "foo" ALTER COLUMN "bar" SET DEFAULT False; 4. ALTER TABLE "foo" ALTER COLUMN "bar" SET NOT NULL;
I would suggest on interchanging operation 2 and 3 in sequence
