postgresql/doc/src/sgml/ref/analyze.sgml

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<!--
doc/src/sgml/ref/analyze.sgml
PostgreSQL documentation
-->
<refentry id="sql-analyze">
<indexterm zone="sql-analyze">
<primary>ANALYZE</primary>
</indexterm>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>ANALYZE</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>ANALYZE</refname>
<refpurpose>collect statistics about a database</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
ANALYZE [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> [, ...] ) ] [ <replaceable class="parameter">table_and_columns</replaceable> [, ...] ]
ANALYZE [ VERBOSE ] [ <replaceable class="parameter">table_and_columns</replaceable> [, ...] ]
<phrase>where <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> can be one of:</phrase>
VERBOSE [ <replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> ]
SKIP_LOCKED [ <replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> ]
<phrase>and <replaceable class="parameter">table_and_columns</replaceable> is:</phrase>
<replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ ( <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [, ...] ) ]
</synopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para>
<command>ANALYZE</command> collects statistics about the contents
of tables in the database, and stores the results in the <link
linkend="catalog-pg-statistic"><structname>pg_statistic</structname></link>
system catalog. Subsequently, the query planner uses these
statistics to help determine the most efficient execution plans for
queries.
</para>
<para>
Without a <replaceable class="parameter">table_and_columns</replaceable>
list, <command>ANALYZE</command> processes every table and materialized view
in the current database that the current user has permission to analyze.
With a list, <command>ANALYZE</command> processes only those table(s).
It is further possible to give a list of column names for a table,
in which case only the statistics for those columns are collected.
</para>
<para>
When the option list is surrounded by parentheses, the options can be
written in any order. The parenthesized syntax was added in
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> 11; the unparenthesized syntax
is deprecated.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Parameters</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>VERBOSE</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Enables display of progress messages.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SKIP_LOCKED</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies that <command>ANALYZE</command> should not wait for any
conflicting locks to be released when beginning work on a relation:
if a relation cannot be locked immediately without waiting, the relation
is skipped. Note that even with this option, <command>ANALYZE</command>
may still block when opening the relation's indexes or when acquiring
sample rows from partitions, table inheritance children, and some
types of foreign tables. Also, while <command>ANALYZE</command>
ordinarily processes all partitions of specified partitioned tables,
this option will cause <command>ANALYZE</command> to skip all
partitions if there is a conflicting lock on the partitioned table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies whether the selected option should be turned on or off.
You can write <literal>TRUE</literal>, <literal>ON</literal>, or
<literal>1</literal> to enable the option, and <literal>FALSE</literal>,
<literal>OFF</literal>, or <literal>0</literal> to disable it. The
<replaceable class="parameter">boolean</replaceable> value can also
be omitted, in which case <literal>TRUE</literal> is assumed.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name (possibly schema-qualified) of a specific table to
analyze. If omitted, all regular tables, partitioned tables, and
materialized views in the current database are analyzed (but not
foreign tables). If the specified table is a partitioned table, both the
inheritance statistics of the partitioned table as a whole and
statistics of the individual partitions are updated.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name of a specific column to analyze. Defaults to all columns.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Outputs</title>
<para>
When <literal>VERBOSE</literal> is specified, <command>ANALYZE</command> emits
progress messages to indicate which table is currently being
processed. Various statistics about the tables are printed as well.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Notes</title>
<para>
Foreign tables are analyzed only when explicitly selected. Not all
foreign data wrappers support <command>ANALYZE</command>. If the table's
wrapper does not support <command>ANALYZE</command>, the command prints a
warning and does nothing.
</para>
<para>
In the default <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> configuration,
the autovacuum daemon (see <xref linkend="autovacuum"/>)
takes care of automatic analyzing of tables when they are first loaded
with data, and as they change throughout regular operation.
When autovacuum is disabled,
it is a good idea to run <command>ANALYZE</command> periodically, or
just after making major changes in the contents of a table. Accurate
statistics will help the planner to choose the most appropriate query
plan, and thereby improve the speed of query processing. A common
strategy for read-mostly databases is to run <xref linkend="sql-vacuum"/>
and <command>ANALYZE</command> once a day during a low-usage time of day.
(This will not be sufficient if there is heavy update activity.)
</para>
<para>
<command>ANALYZE</command>
requires only a read lock on the target table, so it can run in
parallel with other activity on the table.
</para>
<para>
The statistics collected by <command>ANALYZE</command> usually
include a list of some of the most common values in each column and
a histogram showing the approximate data distribution in each
column. One or both of these can be omitted if
<command>ANALYZE</command> deems them uninteresting (for example,
in a unique-key column, there are no common values) or if the
column data type does not support the appropriate operators. There
is more information about the statistics in <xref
linkend="maintenance"/>.
</para>
<para>
For large tables, <command>ANALYZE</command> takes a random sample
of the table contents, rather than examining every row. This
allows even very large tables to be analyzed in a small amount of
time. Note, however, that the statistics are only approximate, and
will change slightly each time <command>ANALYZE</command> is run,
even if the actual table contents did not change. This might result
in small changes in the planner's estimated costs shown by
<xref linkend="sql-explain"/>.
In rare situations, this non-determinism will cause the planner's
choices of query plans to change after <command>ANALYZE</command> is run.
To avoid this, raise the amount of statistics collected by
<command>ANALYZE</command>, as described below.
</para>
<para>
The extent of analysis can be controlled by adjusting the
<xref linkend="guc-default-statistics-target"/> configuration variable, or
on a column-by-column basis by setting the per-column statistics
target with <command>ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... SET
STATISTICS</command> (see <xref linkend="sql-altertable"/>).
The target value sets the
maximum number of entries in the most-common-value list and the
maximum number of bins in the histogram. The default target value
is 100, but this can be adjusted up or down to trade off accuracy of
planner estimates against the time taken for
<command>ANALYZE</command> and the amount of space occupied in
<literal>pg_statistic</literal>. In particular, setting the
statistics target to zero disables collection of statistics for
that column. It might be useful to do that for columns that are
never used as part of the <literal>WHERE</literal>, <literal>GROUP BY</literal>,
or <literal>ORDER BY</literal> clauses of queries, since the planner will
have no use for statistics on such columns.
</para>
<para>
The largest statistics target among the columns being analyzed determines
the number of table rows sampled to prepare the statistics. Increasing
the target causes a proportional increase in the time and space needed
to do <command>ANALYZE</command>.
</para>
<para>
One of the values estimated by <command>ANALYZE</command> is the number of
distinct values that appear in each column. Because only a subset of the
rows are examined, this estimate can sometimes be quite inaccurate, even
with the largest possible statistics target. If this inaccuracy leads to
bad query plans, a more accurate value can be determined manually and then
installed with
<command>ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... SET (n_distinct = ...)</command>
(see <xref linkend="sql-altertable"/>).
</para>
<para>
If the table being analyzed has one or more children,
<command>ANALYZE</command> will gather statistics twice: once on the
rows of the parent table only, and a second time on the rows of the
parent table with all of its children. This second set of statistics
is needed when planning queries that traverse the entire inheritance
tree. The autovacuum daemon, however, will only consider inserts or
updates on the parent table itself when deciding whether to trigger an
automatic analyze for that table. If that table is rarely inserted into
or updated, the inheritance statistics will not be up to date unless you
run <command>ANALYZE</command> manually.
</para>
<para>
If any of the child tables are foreign tables whose foreign data wrappers
do not support <command>ANALYZE</command>, those child tables are ignored while
gathering inheritance statistics.
</para>
<para>
If the table being analyzed is completely empty, <command>ANALYZE</command>
will not record new statistics for that table. Any existing statistics
will be retained.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Compatibility</title>
<para>
There is no <command>ANALYZE</command> statement in the SQL standard.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<simplelist type="inline">
<member><xref linkend="sql-vacuum"/></member>
<member><xref linkend="app-vacuumdb"/></member>
<member><xref linkend="runtime-config-resource-vacuum-cost"/></member>
<member><xref linkend="autovacuum"/></member>
</simplelist>
</refsect1>
</refentry>