PostgreSQL optimization including indexes, query plans, partitioning, JSONB operations, and connection pooling
-- B-tree index for equality and range queries (default)
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_customer_id ON orders (customer_id);
-- Composite index (column order matters: equality columns first, range last)
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_status_created ON orders (status, created_at DESC);
-- Partial index (smaller, faster for filtered queries)
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_pending ON orders (created_at)
WHERE status = 'pending';
-- Covering index (avoids table lookup entirely)
CREATE INDEX idx_users_email_name ON users (email) INCLUDE (name, avatar_url);
-- GIN index for JSONB containment queries
CREATE INDEX idx_products_metadata ON products USING GIN (metadata);
-- GiST index for full-text search
CREATE INDEX idx_articles_search ON articles USING GiST (
to_tsvector('english', title || ' ' || body)
);
-- Concurrent index creation (no table lock)
CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY idx_large_table_col ON large_table (col);
EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS, FORMAT TEXT)
SELECT o.id, o.total, u.name
FROM orders o
JOIN users u ON o.user_id = u.id
WHERE o.status = 'shipped'
AND o.created_at > NOW() - INTERVAL '30 days'
ORDER BY o.created_at DESC
LIMIT 20;
Key things to look for in the plan:
Seq Scan on large tables indicates a missing indexNested Loop with high row estimates suggests missing join indexSort without Index Scan means the sort is happening in memory/diskBuffers: shared hit vs shared read shows cache efficiencyCREATE TABLE events (
id BIGINT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY,
event_type TEXT NOT NULL,
payload JSONB NOT NULL,
created_at TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
) PARTITION BY RANGE (created_at);
CREATE TABLE events_2024_q1 PARTITION OF events
FOR VALUES FROM ('2024-01-01') TO ('2024-04-01');
CREATE TABLE events_2024_q2 PARTITION OF events
FOR VALUES FROM ('2024-04-01') TO ('2024-07-01');
-- Index on each partition (inherited automatically in PG 11+)
CREATE INDEX ON events (created_at, event_type);
Partition tables with more than 10M rows when queries consistently filter on the partition key.
-- Query nested JSONB fields
SELECT * FROM products
WHERE metadata @> '{"category": "electronics"}'
AND (metadata ->> 'price')::numeric < 500;
-- Update nested JSONB
UPDATE products
SET metadata = jsonb_set(metadata, '{stock}', to_jsonb(stock - 1))
WHERE id = 'abc';
-- Aggregate JSONB arrays
SELECT id, jsonb_array_elements_text(metadata -> 'tags') AS tag
FROM products
WHERE metadata ? 'tags';
# pgbouncer.ini
[databases]
app = host=localhost port=5432 dbname=app
[pgbouncer]
pool_mode = transaction
max_client_conn = 1000
default_pool_size = 25
min_pool_size = 5
reserve_pool_size = 5
server_idle_timeout = 300
Use transaction-level pooling for web applications. Session-level pooling for apps that use prepared statements or temp tables.
-- Check for slow queries
SELECT query, calls, mean_exec_time, total_exec_time
FROM pg_stat_statements
ORDER BY total_exec_time DESC
LIMIT 10;
-- Find unused indexes
SELECT indexrelname, idx_scan, pg_size_pretty(pg_relation_size(indexrelid))
FROM pg_stat_user_indexes
WHERE idx_scan = 0
ORDER BY pg_relation_size(indexrelid) DESC;
SELECT * when only a few columns are neededEXPLAIN ANALYZE to verify index usageVACUUM FULL during peak hours (locks the entire table)pg_stat_statements)EXPLAIN ANALYZE run on all critical queriespg_stat_statements enabled for query performance monitoring