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Asked: 2026-05-26T22:08:02+00:00

I’m using PostgreSQL 8.1.4. I’ve 3 tables: one being the core (table1), others are

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I’m using PostgreSQL 8.1.4. I’ve 3 tables: one being the core (table1), others are dependents (table2,table3). I inserted 70000 records in table1 and appropriate related records in other 2 tables. As I’d used CASCADE, I could able to delete the related records using DELETE FROM table1; It works fine when the records are minimal in my current PostgreSQL version. When I’ve a huge volume of records, it tries to delete all but there is no sign of deletion progress for many hours! Whereas, bulk import, does in few minutes. I wish to do bulk-delete in reasonable minutes. I tried TRUNCATE also. Like, TRUNCATE table3, table2,table1; No change in performance though. It just takes more time, and no sign of completion! From the net, I got few options, like, deleting all constraints and then recreating the same would be fine. But, no query seems to be successfully run over ‘table1’ when it’s loaded more data!
Please recommend me the best solutions to delete all the records in minutes.

CREATE TABLE table1(
        t1_id   SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
        disp_name       TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
        last_updated TIMESTAMP NOT NULL DEFAULT current_timestamp,
        UNIQUE(disp_name)
    ) WITHOUT OIDS;

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX disp_name_index on table1(upper(disp_name));

CREATE TABLE table2 (
        t2_id           SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
        t1_id   INTEGER REFERENCES table1 ON DELETE CASCADE,
        type    TEXT
    ) WITHOUT OIDS;

CREATE TABLE table3 (
        t3_id           SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
        t1_id   INTEGER REFERENCES table1 ON DELETE CASCADE,
        config_key      TEXT,
        config_value    TEXT
    ) WITHOUT OIDS;

Regards,
Siva.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can create an index on the columns on the child tables which reference the parent table:

    on table2 create an index on the t1_id column

    on table3 create an index on the t1_id column

    that should speed things up slightly.

    And/or, don’t bother with the on delete cascade, make a delete stored procedure which deletes first from the child tables and then from the parent table, it may be faster than letting postgresql do it for you.

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