Please teach me how to optimize this MySQL query - mysql

Question

I have two tables, main_part (3k records) and part_details (25k records)
I tried the following indexes but explain always returns full table scan of 25k records as opposed to about 2k of matched records and Using where; Using temporary; Using filesort
ALTER TABLE `main_part` ADD INDEX `main_part_index_1` (`unit`);
ALTER TABLE `part_details` ADD INDEX `part_details_index_1` (`approved`, `display`, `country`, `id`, `price`);
Here is my query:
SELECT a.part_id, b.my_title,
b.price, a.type,
a.unit, a.certification,
b.my_image,
b.price/a.unit AS priceW
FROM main_part AS a
INNER JOIN part_details AS b ON a.part_id=b.id
WHERE b.approved = 'Yes'
AND b.display = 'On'
AND b.country = 'US'
AND a.unit >= 300
ORDER BY b.price ASC LIMIT 50
One thing that I am aware of is that a.part_id is not a Primary Key in main_part table. Could this be a culprit?
Create tables SQL:
CREATE TABLE `main_part` (
`id` smallint(6) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`part_id` mediumint(9) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
`type` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`unit` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`certification` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
CREATE TABLE `part_details` (
`id` mediumint(9) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`asn` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`country` varchar(5) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`my_title` varchar(200) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`display` varchar(5) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'On',
`approved` varchar(5) NOT NULL DEFAULT 'No',
`price` decimal(7,3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.000',
`my_image` varchar(250) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`update_date` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `countryasn` (`country`,`asn`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Answer 1

For your query the more important index is the JOIN condition and as you are already aware a.part_id isn't primary key, so doesn't have a default index and your first try should be:
ALTER TABLE `main_part` ADD INDEX `main_part_index_1` (`part_id`,`unit`);
Because we are interested on the JOIN condition first you should also change the second index to
ALTER TABLE `part_details` ADD INDEX `part_details_index_1`
(`id`, `approved`, `display`, `country`, `price`);
order matters in the index
Another tip is you start with the basic query:
SELECT *
FROM main_part AS a
INNER JOIN part_details AS b ON a.part_id=b.id
Add index for part_id and id check the explain plan and then start adding condition and updating the index if required.

Answer 2

It seems that most columns used for filtering in part_details aren't very selective (display is probably an On/off switch, country is probably very similar in many products, etc.).
In some cases, when the WHERE clause is not very selective, MySQL may choose to use an index that better suits the ORDER BY clause.
I would try to create this index as well and check in the explain plan if there is any changes:
ALTER TABLE `part_details` ADD INDEX `part_details_price_index` (`price`);

Answer 3

For this query:
SELECT mp.part_id, pd.my_title, pd.price, mp.type,
mp.unit, mp.certification, pd.my_image,
pd.price/mp.unit AS priceW
FROM main_part mp INNER JOIN
part_details pd
ON mp.part_id = pd.id
WHERE pd.approved = 'Yes' AND
pd.display = 'On' AND
pd.country = 'US' AND
mp.unit >= 300
ORDER BY pd.price ASC
LIMIT 50;
For this query, I would start with indexes on part_details(country, display, approved, id, price) and main_part(part_id, unit).
The index on part_details can be used for filtering before the join. It is not easy to get rid of the sort for the order by.