prepared query performs much worse than regular query - Mailing list pgsql-performance

Hi everyone,

I use DBD::Pg to interface with our 8.4.2 database, but for a particular query, performance is horrible.  I'm assuming
thatthe behavior of $dbh->prepare is as if I did PREPARE foo AS (query), so I did an explain analyze in the
commandline:
> db_alpha=# prepare foo6 as (SELECT me.id, me.assignment, me.title, me.x_firstname, me.x_lastname, me.owner, me.node,
me.grade,me.folder, me.word_count, me.char_length, me.char_count, me.page_count FROM submissions me WHERE ( ( owner =
$1AND me.assignment = $2 ) )); 
> PREPARE
> db_alpha=# explain analyze execute foo6('-1', '8996557');
>                                                                         QUERY PLAN
                                     
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Bitmap Heap Scan on submissions me  (cost=38.84..42.85 rows=1 width=70) (actual time=346567.665..346567.665 rows=0
loops=1)
>    Recheck Cond: ((assignment = $2) AND (owner = $1))
>    ->  BitmapAnd  (cost=38.84..38.84 rows=1 width=0) (actual time=346567.642..346567.642 rows=0 loops=1)
>          ->  Bitmap Index Scan on submissions_assignment_idx  (cost=0.00..19.27 rows=177 width=0) (actual
time=0.038..0.038rows=2 loops=1) 
>                Index Cond: (assignment = $2)
>          ->  Bitmap Index Scan on submissions_owner_idx  (cost=0.00..19.32 rows=184 width=0) (actual
time=346566.501..346566.501rows=28977245 loops=1) 
>                Index Cond: (owner = $1)
>  Total runtime: 346567.757 ms
> (8 rows)


Now, if I run it without preparing it--just run it directly in the commandline--I get this plan:
> db_alpha=# explain analyze SELECT me.id, me.assignment, me.title, me.x_firstname, me.x_lastname, me.owner, me.node,
me.grade,me.folder, me.word_count, me.char_length, me.char_count, me.page_count FROM submissions me WHERE ( ( owner =
-1AND me.assignment = 8996557 ) ) 
> db_alpha-# ;
>                                                                      QUERY PLAN
                               
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Index Scan using submissions_assignment_idx on submissions me  (cost=0.00..549.15 rows=36 width=70) (actual
time=0.021..0.021rows=0 loops=1) 
>    Index Cond: (assignment = 8996557)
>    Filter: (owner = (-1))
>  Total runtime: 0.042 ms
> (4 rows)

submissions has ~124 million rows, and owner -1 is a placeholder in my database, to fulfill a foreign key requirement.
Itried REINDEXing submissions_owner_idx and performing a VACUUM ANALYZE on the submissions table, but nothing seems to
makea difference for this query.  One other thing to note is that if I use any other value for the owner column, it
comesback really fast (< 0.04 ms). 

Any ideas why the query planner chooses a different query plan when using prepared statements?

--Richard