Andrea Arcangeli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> If you don't know the data, I think it's a bug that LIKE is assumed to
> have a selectivity above 50%.

Extrapolating from the observation that the heuristics don't work well
on your data to the conclusion that they don't work for anybody is not
good logic.  Replacing that code with a flat 50% is not going to happen
(or if it does, I'll be sure to send the mob of unhappy users waving
torches and pitchforks to your door not mine ;-)).

I did just think of something we could improve though.  The pattern
selectivity code doesn't make any use of the statistics about "most
common values".  For a constant pattern, we could actually apply the
pattern test with each common value and derive answers that are exact
for the portion of the population represented by the most-common-values
list.  If the MCV list covers a large fraction of the population then
this would be a big leg up in accuracy.  Dunno if that applies to your
particular case or not, but it seems worth doing ...

                        regards, tom lane

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
       choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
       match

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