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Posted on February 8, 2023 (Updated on July 10, 2025)

Postgis spatial index not being used

Hiking & Activities

Why index is not being used in PostgreSQL?

The two main reasons. There are two main reasons that Postgres will not use an index. Either it can’t use the index, or it doesn’t think using the index will be faster. Working out which of these is the reason in your case is a great starting point.
 

How do I add a spatial index in PostGIS?

To build a spatial index on a table with a geometry column, use the “CREATE INDEX” function as follows: CREATE INDEX [indexname] ON [tablename] USING GIST ( [geometrycolumn] ); The “USING GIST” option tells the server to use a GiST (Generalized Search Tree) index.

How does Postgres decide which index to use?

How Postgres Chooses Which Index To Use For A Query

  1. Four levels of planning a query.
  2. Breaking down a query into tables being scanned (RelOptInfo and RestrictInfo structs)
  3. Choosing different paths and scan methods.

 

How does spatial index work?

The spatial index decomposes the space inside the bounding box. The level-1 grid of the grid hierarchy fills the bounding box. To place a geometric object in the grid hierarchy, the spatial index compares the coordinates of the object to the bounding-box coordinates.
 

Why is indexing not working?

Select Start > Settings. In Windows Settings, select Update & Security > Troubleshoot. Under Find and fix other problems, select Search and Indexing. Run the troubleshooter and select any problems that apply.
 

How do I force Postgres to index scan?

Forcing a specific index to the SQL query is not possible in the current release of PostgreSQL; however, you can somehow guide the planner to pick the index scan over the other bitmap and sequential scans by disabling the session level optimizer parameters.

How do I add a spatial index to a shapefile?

Navigate to the location of the shapefile. Right-click the shapefile and select Properties. Select the Index tab. Click the Add button in the Spatial Index section.
 

How do I add a spatial index to a layer?

To create a spatial index, choose the Create Spatial Index tool by navigating to Vector | Data Management Tools. Select the loaded canvas layers or check the Select files from disk option and navigate to a folder and select layers on disk. Click on OK to create the spatial indexes.

Why is spatial indexing necessary?

Indexes make using a spatial database for large data sets possible. Without indexing, any search for a feature would require a “sequential scan” of every record in the database. Indexing speeds up searching by organizing the data into a search tree which can be quickly traversed to find a particular record.

Why index is not being used in SQL?

Analysis: SQL Server might ignore the index if the range is too wide. For example, these two queries will probably hit the index on the LastUpdated column in a 300 million rows table because the range is very narrow.
 

Does Postgres automatically use index?

PostgreSQL automatically creates a unique index when a unique constraint or primary key is defined for a table. The index covers the columns that make up the primary key or unique constraint (a multicolumn index, if appropriate), and is the mechanism that enforces the constraint.

When should database indexes not be used?

When Should Indexes Be Avoided?

  1. Indexes should not be used on small tables.
  2. Indexes should not be used on columns that return a high percentage of data rows when used as a filter condition in a query’s WHERE clause.
  3. Tables that have frequent, large batch update jobs run can be indexed.


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