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PolarDB:Use cases

Last Updated:Jul 07, 2026

This topic describes use cases for columnstore indexes.

Use case

Description

Statistical analysis of specific columns in a wide table

In a wide table scenario, use an In-Memory Column Index (IMCI) to improve the performance of queries that analyze only a subset of columns.

Using columnstore indexes with partitioned tables

IMCI supports partitioned tables to handle statistical and analytical workloads on large and growing datasets.

Use custom replication keys to accelerate data synchronization

By default, IMCI uses the primary key to synchronize data updates and deletes. This topic describes how to use custom replication keys to resolve the low synchronization efficiency caused by tables without a primary key or with an unordered primary key (such as UUID), which triggers massive random I/O and significantly improves data synchronization performance.

Using columnstore indexes to accelerate materialized view refreshes

When you process large volumes of data, such as billions of records, refreshing PostgreSQL materialized views can be extremely slow. This leads to low data freshness and negatively impacts the efficiency of BI analysis and report generation.

Using IMCI significantly reduces the time required to refresh materialized views. This improves data freshness and speeds up BI analysis and report generation.