What does the PostgreSQL materialized view O(delta) patch do?

It changes REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW to process only changes (inserts/updates/deletes) since last refresh, via a delta log table — slashing time from full table scans.

Will this patch get merged into official PostgreSQL?

Maybe. It's early, but use WAL cleanly. Expect bikeshedding; could land in PG18 if momentum builds.

How do I try the O(delta) materialized view patch now?

Grab the Gist, patch your Postgres source, compile. Test on non-prod. Watch delta table size.

☁️ Cloud & Databases

Postgres Hacker Drops Bomb: Materialized View Refreshes Now O(delta), Not O(total)

Postgres materialized views have always been a full-rebuild slog. One coder's patch flips that to O(delta) — and it might just stick.

theAIcatchup Apr 10, 2026 4 min read

⚡ Key Takeaways

Patch makes Postgres MV refreshes O(delta) using WAL-based change logs, potentially transforming analytics workloads. 𝕏
Production caveats: alpha stage, needs pruning and concurrency fixes, but benchmarks impress. 𝕏
Could challenge paid warehouses if merged, echoing past open source leaps like MySQL JSON. 𝕏

Published by

theAIcatchup

Community-driven. Code-first.

#O(delta) refresh #PostgreSQL #database optimization #database patch #incremental refresh #materialized views #open source patch

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Originally reported by Reddit r/programming

⚡ Key Takeaways

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