How do I speed up counting rows in a PostgreSQL table?

Question

We need to count the number of rows in a PostgreSQL table. In our case, no conditions need to be met, and it would be perfectly acceptable to get a row estimate if that sig

Answer 1

You can ask for the exact value of the count in the table by simply using trigger AFTER INSERT OR DELETE Something like this

CREATE TABLE  tcounter(id serial primary key,table_schema text, table_name text, count serial);

insert into tcounter(table_schema, table_name,count) select 'my_schema', 'my_table', count(*) from my_schema.my_table;

and use trigger

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION ex_count()
RETURNS trigger AS
$BODY$
BEGIN
    IF (TG_OP='INSERT') THEN
      UPDATE tcounter set count = count + 1 where table_schema = TG_TABLE_SCHEMA::TEXT and table_name = TG_TABLE_NAME::TEXT;
    ELSIF  (TG_OP='DELETE') THEN
      UPDATE tcounter set count = count - 1 where table_schema = TG_TABLE_SCHEMA::TEXT and table_name = TG_TABLE_NAME::TEXT;
    END IF;
RETURN NEW;
END$BODY$
LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE
COST 100;

CREATE TRIGGER tg_counter  AFTER INSERT OR DELETE
  ON my_schema.my_table  FOR EACH ROW  EXECUTE PROCEDURE ex_count();

And ask for count

select * from tcounter where table_schema =  'my_schema' and table_name = 'my_table'

it means you select count(*) once for initialize first record