index_advisor: query optimization

Index advisor is a Postgres extension for recommending indexes to improve query performance.

For example:

select
    *
from
  index_advisor('select book.id from book where title = $1');
 startup_cost_before | startup_cost_after | total_cost_before | total_cost_after |                  index_statements                   | errors
---------------------+--------------------+-------------------+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+--------
 0.00                | 1.17               | 25.88             | 6.40             | {"CREATE INDEX ON public.book USING btree (title)"},| {}
(1 row)

Features:

Supports generic parameters e.g. $1, $2
Supports materialized views
Identifies tables/columns obfuscaed by views
Skips duplicate indexes

Installation#

index_advisor is a trusted language extension, which means it is directly installable by users from the database.dev SQL package repository.

To get started, enable the dbdev client by executing the setup SQL script.

Then, install index_advisor by running

select dbdev.install('olirice-index_advisor');
create extension if not exists hypopg;
create extension "olirice-index_advisor";

API#

Index advisor exposes a single function index_advisor(query text) that accepts a query and searches for a set of SQL DDL create index statements that improve the query's execution time.

The function's signature is:

index_advisor(query text)
returns
    table  (
        startup_cost_before jsonb,
        startup_cost_after jsonb,
        total_cost_before jsonb,
        total_cost_after jsonb,
        index_statements text[],
        errors text[]
    )

Usage#

As a minimal example, the index_advisor function can be given a single table query with a filter on an unindexed column.

create extension if not exists index_advisor cascade;
create table book(
  id int primary key,
  title text not null
);
select
  *
from
  index_advisor('select book.id from book where title = $1');
 startup_cost_before | startup_cost_after | total_cost_before | total_cost_after |                  index_statements                   | errors
---------------------+--------------------+-------------------+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------+--------
 0.00                | 1.17               | 25.88             | 6.40             | {"CREATE INDEX ON public.book USING btree (title)"},| {}
(1 row)

and will return a row recommending an index on the unindexed column.

More complex queries may generate additional suggested indexes:

create extension if not exists index_advisor cascade;
create table author(
    id serial primary key,
    name text not null
);
create table publisher(
    id serial primary key,
    name text not null,
    corporate_address text
);
create table book(
    id serial primary key,
    author_id int not null references author(id),
    publisher_id int not null references publisher(id),
    title text
);
create table review(
    id serial primary key,
    book_id int references book(id),
    body text not null
);
select
    *
from
    index_advisor('
        select
            book.id,
            book.title,
            publisher.name as publisher_name,
            author.name as author_name,
            review.body review_body
        from
            book
            join publisher
                on book.publisher_id = publisher.id
            join author
                on book.author_id = author.id
            join review
                on book.id = review.book_id
        where
            author.id = $1
            and publisher.id = $2
    ');
 startup_cost_before | startup_cost_after | total_cost_before | total_cost_after |                  index_statements                         | errors
---------------------+--------------------+-------------------+------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------+--------
 27.26               | 12.77              | 68.48             | 42.37            | {"CREATE INDEX ON public.book USING btree (author_id)",   | {}
                                                                                    "CREATE INDEX ON public.book USING btree (publisher_id)",
                                                                                    "CREATE INDEX ON public.review USING btree (book_id)"}
(3 rows)

Limitations#

index_advisor will only recommend single column, B-tree indexes. More complex indexes will be supported in future releases.
when a generic argument's type is not discernible from context, an error is returned in the errors field. To resolve those errors, add explicit type casting to the argument. e.g. $1::int.

Resources#

Official index_advisor GitHub Repository

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