te
      regardless of whether or not the data has changed. (This normal behavior
      makes updates run faster, since no checking is required, and is also
      useful in certain cases.)
    </P
><P
>      Ideally, you should normally avoid running updates that don't actually
      change the data in the record. Redundant updates can cost considerable
      unnecessary time, especially if there are lots of indexes to alter,
      and space in dead rows that will eventually have to be vacuumed.
      Howev