One of the features that can be incredibly helpful for
optimizing your PostgreSQL database performance,
is the \timing option in psql.
Enabling
\timing
will cause
psql
to display the amount of time it took for a statement to execute in milliseconds.
By default, the \timing option is disabled in
psql.
However, you can enable
it at any time by entering \timing at the psql prompt.
Usage:
\timing [on|off] toggle timing of commands (currently off)
Example:
finance=# \timing
Timing is on.
finance=# SELECT COUNT(*) FROM account;
count
-------
10257
(1 row)
Time: 36,114 ms
finance=#
The
\timing
option can be useful for benchmarking different approaches to a
problem.
For example, you could write two different SQL statements that
accomplish the same task and measure the execution time of each to see which
one is faster.