Hey all !
I'm currently optimizing queries and indices on a relatively large dataset;
one of the frequent questions I seem to ask myself is why the planner chooses plan A over B.
Reading the docs, blogs, stack exchange posts, wiki, ... helps in trying to tinker with the query or indices in a way that either A will be discouraged, or B will be favoured, so I'd be more informed on why one was chosen over the other and which is empirically better for a given dataset.
A tool I seem to be missing, and I wondered if such exists, is to have the planner output alternative plans for a given query, i.e. to say, give me the x top plans sorted by cost - I believe this would help shed some light on the internal state machine and subsequent tinkering less trial-and-error-ish.
Is there any way to achieve the above ?
Thanks a ton,
Danny