Mastering PostgreSQL 9.6

Making EXPLAIN more verbose

In PostgreSQL, the output of an EXPLAIN clause can be beefed up a little to provide you with more information. To extract as much as possible out of a plan, consider turning the following options on:

test=# EXPLAIN (          analyze true,           verbose true,           costs true,           timing true,           buffers true)     SELECT * FROM a ORDER BY random();                            QUERY PLAN                                                      -----------------------------------------------------------------  Sort  (cost=834.39..859.39 rows=10000 width=12)           (actual time=6.089..7.199 rows=10000 loops=1)    Output: aid, (random())    Sort Key: (random())    Sort Method: quicksort  Memory: 853kB    Buffers: shared hit=45    ->  Seq Scan on public.a            (cost=0.00..170.00 rows=10000 width=12)   (actual time=0.012..2.625 rows=10000 loops=1) ...