ANALYZE(7)

📦 version 15.19, in opensuse-leap 16.0

✨ ANALYZE(7) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the entire manual page for ANALYZE in PostgreSQL 15.19, and let me tell you, this one is a whole vibe. it collects statistics about the contents of tables in the database, and stores the results in the pg_statistic system catalog. then the query planner uses these statistics to help determine the most efficient execution plans for queries. it's giving "the planner's bestie" energy, honestly. 🫶

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

ANALYZE [ ( option [, ...] ) ] [ table_and_columns [, ...] ]
ANALYZE [ VERBOSE ] [ table_and_columns [, ...] ]

where option can be one of:

    VERBOSE [ boolean ]
    SKIP_LOCKED [ boolean ]

and table_and_columns is:

    table_name [ ( column_name [, ...] ) ]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

ANALYZE collects statistics about the contents of tables in the database, and stores the results in the pg_statistic system catalog. Then the query planner uses these statistics to help determine the most efficient execution plans for queries. basically it's out here doing the background research so your queries can be main character energy. 🔥

Without a table_and_columns list, ANALYZE processes every table and materialized view in the current database that the current user has permission to analyze. With a list, ANALYZE processes only those table(s). It is further possible to give a list of column names for a table, in which case only the statistics for those columns are collected. so you can go full-spreadsheet or three columns only, your call. 💅

When the option list is surrounded by parentheses, the options can be written in any order. The parenthesized syntax was added in PostgreSQL 11; the unparenthesized syntax is deprecated. so like... use the parentheses if you want to be on trend. the old way still works but it's giving legacy. 🙈

🎀 PARAMETERS 🎀

  • VERBOSE — enables display of progress messages. so you get little updates while it's working, like a story time.
  • SKIP_LOCKED — specifies that ANALYZE should not wait for any conflicting locks to be released when beginning work on a relation: if a relation cannot be locked immediately without waiting, the relation is skipped. note that even with this option, ANALYZE may still block when opening the relation's indexes or when acquiring sample rows from partitions, table inheritance children, and some types of foreign tables. also, while ANALYZE ordinarily processes all partitions of specified partitioned tables, this option will cause ANALYZE to skip all partitions if there is a conflicting lock on the partitioned table. ngl, it's the "i'm too busy for your drama" option, but it still has a few places where it might wait anyway. 💀
  • boolean — specifies whether the selected option should be turned on or off. You can write TRUE, ON, or 1 to enable the option, and FALSE, OFF, or 0 to disable it. The boolean value can also be omitted, in which case TRUE is assumed. so like, yes, no, or just vibes (default on). 😌
  • table_name — the name (possibly schema-qualified) of a specific table to analyze. If omitted, all regular tables, partitioned tables, and materialized views in the current database are analyzed (but not foreign tables). If the specified table is a partitioned table, both the inheritance statistics of the partitioned table as a whole and statistics of the individual partitions are updated. it's like a group chat invite: pick one or let it add everyone. 👑
  • column_name — the name of a specific column to analyze. Defaults to all columns. so you can analyze just the columns you care about, no pressure on the rest. 💖

🦋 OUTPUTS 🦋

When VERBOSE is specified, ANALYZE emits progress messages to indicate which table is currently being processed. Various statistics about the tables are printed as well. it's like a little running commentary. "now analyzing table... now analyzing table..." like a reality show recap. 😭

💜 NOTES 💜

To analyze a table, one must ordinarily be the table's owner or a superuser. However, database owners are allowed to analyze all tables in their databases, except shared catalogs. (The restriction for shared catalogs means that a true database-wide ANALYZE can only be performed by a superuser.) ANALYZE will skip over any tables that the calling user does not have permission to analyze. so like, respect the hierarchy, bestie. 🙏

Foreign tables are analyzed only when explicitly selected. Not all foreign data wrappers support ANALYZE. If the table's wrapper does not support ANALYZE, the command prints a warning and does nothing. so don't expect magic if the wrapper says no. 🫠

In the default PostgreSQL configuration, the autovacuum daemon (see Section 25.1.6) takes care of automatic analyzing of tables when they are first loaded with data, and as they change throughout regular operation. When autovacuum is disabled, it is a good idea to run ANALYZE periodically, or just after making major changes in the contents of a table. Accurate statistics will help the planner to choose the most appropriate query plan, and thereby improve the speed of query processing. A common strategy for read-mostly databases is to run VACUUM and ANALYZE once a day during a low-usage time of day. (This will not be sufficient if there is heavy update activity.) so like, autovacuum is your bestie by default, but if you turn it off you have to do the work yourself. and yes, once a day is cute but not for heavy-update chaos. 🔥

ANALYZE requires only a read lock on the target table, so it can run in parallel with other activity on the table. it's polite like that. 💅

The statistics collected by ANALYZE usually include a list of some of the most common values in each column and a histogram showing the approximate data distribution in each column. One or both of these can be omitted if ANALYZE deems them uninteresting (for example, in a unique-key column, there are no common values) or if the column data type does not support the appropriate operators. There is more information about the statistics in Chapter 25. so it's not being lazy; it's just not collecting data it thinks is irrelevant. iconic. 👑

For large tables, ANALYZE takes a random sample of the table contents, rather than examining every row. This allows even very large tables to be analyzed in a small amount of time. Note, however, that the statistics are only approximate, and will change slightly each time ANALYZE is run, even if the actual table contents did not change. This might result in small changes in the planner's estimated costs shown by EXPLAIN. In rare situations, this non-determinism will cause the planner's choices of query plans to change after ANALYZE is run. To avoid this, raise the amount of statistics collected by ANALYZE, as described below. so like, it's not gaslighting you, it's just sampling. but if you want less chaos, bump the stats target. 🌈

The extent of analysis can be controlled by adjusting the default_statistics_target configuration variable, or on a column-by-column basis by setting the per-column statistics target with ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... SET STATISTICS. The target value sets the maximum number of entries in the most-common-value list and the maximum number of bins in the histogram. The default target value is 100, but this can be adjusted up or down to trade off accuracy of planner estimates against the time taken for ANALYZE and the amount of space occupied in pg_statistic. In particular, setting the statistics target to zero disables collection of statistics for that column. It might be useful to do that for columns that are never used as part of the WHERE, GROUP BY, or ORDER BY clauses of queries, since the planner will have no use for statistics on such columns. so basically: more stats = more better plans but more time, zero stats = "don't even bother". and honestly, zero for the columns nobody queries is a slay. 🎀

The largest statistics target among the columns being analyzed determines the number of table rows sampled to prepare the statistics. Increasing the target causes a proportional increase in the time and space needed to do ANALYZE. so like, it scales. no free lunch, bestie. 💸

One of the values estimated by ANALYZE is the number of distinct values that appear in each column. Because only a subset of the rows are examined, this estimate can sometimes be quite inaccurate, even with the largest possible statistics target. If this inaccuracy leads to bad query plans, a more accurate value can be determined manually and then installed with ALTER TABLE ... ALTER COLUMN ... SET (n_distinct = ...). so like, if it's giving wrong, you can hard-set it. manual overdrive. 🔧

If the table being analyzed has inheritance children, ANALYZE gathers two sets of statistics: one on the rows of the parent table only, and a second including rows of both the parent table and all of its children. This second set of statistics is needed when planning queries that process the inheritance tree as a whole. The child tables themselves are not individually analyzed in this case. The autovacuum daemon, however, will only consider inserts or updates on the parent table itself when deciding whether to trigger an automatic analyze for that table. If that table is rarely inserted into or updated, the inheritance statistics will not be up to date unless you run ANALYZE manually. so like, autovacuum isn't watching the children, only the parent. if the parent is quiet, you gotta run it yourself. 😭

For partitioned tables, ANALYZE gathers statistics by sampling rows from all partitions; in addition, it will recurse into each partition and update its statistics. Each leaf partition is analyzed only once, even with multi-level partitioning. No statistics are collected for only the parent table (without data from its partitions), because with partitioning it's guaranteed to be empty. so like, no parent-only stats, it's guaranteed empty, periodt. 👑

The autovacuum daemon does not process partitioned tables, nor does it process inheritance parents if only the children are ever modified. It is usually necessary to periodically run a manual ANALYZE to keep the statistics of the table hierarchy up to date. so like, autovacuum is not coming to save you here. manual mode: on. 🫶

If any child tables or partitions are foreign tables whose foreign data wrappers do not support ANALYZE, those tables are ignored while gathering inheritance statistics. so like, skipped, not fixed. 💀

If the table being analyzed is completely empty, ANALYZE will not record new statistics for that table. Any existing statistics will be retained. so like, empty table = no new stats, old ones stay. 🙈

Each backend running ANALYZE will report its progress in the pg_stat_progress_analyze view. See Section 28.4.1 for details. so you can literally watch it work. reality TV for your database. 📺

💀 COMPATIBILITY 💀

There is no ANALYZE statement in the SQL standard. so like, it's a PostgreSQL thing, not a global thing. iykyk. 🌍

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

okay that's the whole page, bestie. you're now fully caught up on ANALYZE and honestly? iconic. go forth and collect those statistics. 💖✨

this has been the ANALYZE(7) page for PostgreSQL 15.19, dated 2026. slay. 🎀🦋

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