MySQL : Indexes for View based on an aggregated query - mysql

Question

I have a working, nice, indexed SQL query aggregating notes (sum of ints) for all my users and others stuffs. This is "query A".
I want to use this aggregated notes in others queries, say "query B".
If I create a View based on "query A", will the indexes of the original query will be used when needed if I join it in "query B" ?
Is that true for MySQL ? For others flavors of SQL ?
Thanks.

Answer 1

In MySQL, you cannot create an index on a view. MySQL uses indexes of the underlying tables when you query data against the views that use the merge algorithm. For the views that use the temptable algorithm, indexes are not utilized when you query data against the views.
https://www.percona.com/blog/2007/08/12/mysql-view-as-performance-troublemaker/

Answer 2

Here's a demo table. It has a userid attribute column and a note column.
mysql> create table t (id serial primary key, userid int not null, note int, key(userid,note));
If you do an aggregation to get the sum of note per userid, it does an index-scan on (userid, note).
mysql> explain select userid, sum(note) from t group by userid;
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | t | index | userid | userid | 9 | NULL | 1 | Using index |
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+-------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
If we create a view for the same query, then we can see that querying the view uses the same index on the underlying table. Views in MySQL are pretty much like macros — they just query the underlying table.
mysql> create view v as select userid, sum(note) from t group by userid;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.03 sec)
mysql> explain select * from v;
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+-------------+
| 1 | PRIMARY | <derived2> | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 2 | NULL |
| 2 | DERIVED | t | index | userid | userid | 9 | NULL | 1 | Using index |
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+-------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
So far so good.
Now let's create a table to join with the view, and join to it.
mysql> create table u (userid int primary key, name text);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)
mysql> explain select * from v join u using (userid);
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+-------------+---------+---------------+------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+-------------+---------+---------------+------+-------------+
| 1 | PRIMARY | u | ALL | PRIMARY | NULL | NULL | NULL | 1 | NULL |
| 1 | PRIMARY | <derived2> | ref | <auto_key0> | <auto_key0> | 4 | test.u.userid | 2 | NULL |
| 2 | DERIVED | t | index | userid | userid | 9 | NULL | 1 | Using index |
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+-------------+---------+---------------+------+-------------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)
I tried to use hints like straight_join to force it to read v then join to u.
mysql> explain select * from v straight_join u on (v.userid=u.userid);
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+----------------------------------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+----------------------------------------------------+
| 1 | PRIMARY | <derived2> | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 7 | NULL |
| 1 | PRIMARY | u | ALL | PRIMARY | NULL | NULL | NULL | 1 | Using where; Using join buffer (Block Nested Loop) |
| 2 | DERIVED | t | index | userid | userid | 9 | NULL | 7 | Using index |
+----+-------------+------------+-------+---------------+--------+---------+------+------+----------------------------------------------------+
"Using join buffer (Block Nested Loop)" is MySQL's terminology for "no index used for the join." It's just looping over the table the hard way -- by reading batches of rows from start to finish of the table.
I tried to use force index to tell MySQL that type=ALL is to be avoided.
mysql> explain select * from v straight_join u force index(PRIMARY) on (v.userid=u.userid);
+----+-------------+------------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------+------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+------------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------+------+-------------+
| 1 | PRIMARY | <derived2> | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 7 | NULL |
| 1 | PRIMARY | u | eq_ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 4 | v.userid | 1 | NULL |
| 2 | DERIVED | t | index | userid | userid | 9 | NULL | 7 | Using index |
+----+-------------+------------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------+------+-------------+
Maybe this is using an index for the join? But it's weird that table u is before table t in the EXPLAIN. I'm frankly not sure how to understand what it's doing, given the order of rows in this EXPLAIN report. I would expect the joined table should come after the primary table of the query.
I only put a few rows of data into each table. One might get some different EXPLAIN results with a larger representative sample of test data. I'll leave that to you to try.