SQLite & MySQL Compound Index vs Single index - mysql

I have a table with two fields: a,b
Both fields are indexed separately -- no compound index.
While trying to run a select query with both fields:
select * from table where a=<sth> and b=<sth>
It took over 400ms. while
select * from table where a=<sth>
took only 30ms;
Do I need set a compound index for (a,b)?
Reasonably, if I have indexes on both a and b, it should be fast for queries of a AND b like above right?

For this query:
select *
from table
where a = <sth> and b = <sth>;
The best index is on table(a, b). This can also be used for your second query as well.

Usually (but not always).
In your case the number of different values in a (and b) and the number of columns you use in your select can change the way db decide to use index / table.
For example,
if in table you have,say, 100.000 records and 80.000 of them have the same value for a, when you query for:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE a=<your value>
db engine could decide to "scan" directly the table without using the index, while if you query
SELECT a, b FROM table WHERE a=<your value>
and in index you added column b too (in index directly or with INCLUDE) it's quite probable that db engine will use the index.
Try to give a look on internet for index tips and give a look too to How can I index these queries?

The SQLite documentation explains how index lookups work.
Once the database has used an index to look up some rows, the other index is no longer efficient to use (there is no easy method to filter the results of the first lookup because the other index refers to rows in the original table, not to entries in the first index). See Multiple AND-Connected WHERE-Clause Terms.
To make index lookups on two columns as fast as possible, you need Multi-Column Indices.

Related

My SQL indexing on int field doesn't work

I have a table with index on a int column.
Create table sample(
col1 varchar,
col2 int)
Create index idx1 on sample(col2);
When I explain the following query
Select * from sample where col2>2;
It does a full table scan.
Why doesn't the indexing work here?
How can i optimize such queries when table has around 20 million records?
Just because you create an index, does not mean MySQL will always use it. According to the docs, here are several reasons why it may choose to use a full table scan over the index:
The table is so small that it is faster to perform a table scan than to bother with a key lookup. This is common for tables with fewer than 10 rows and a short row length.
There are no usable restrictions in the ON or WHERE clause for indexed columns.
You are comparing indexed columns with constant values and MySQL has calculated (based on the index tree) that the constants cover too large a part of the table and that a table scan would be faster. See Section 8.2.1.1, “WHERE Clause Optimization”.
You are using a key with low cardinality (many rows match the key value) through another column. In this case, MySQL assumes that by using the key it probably will do many key lookups and that a table scan would be faster.
You can use FORCE INDEX to ensure your query uses the index instead of allowing the optimizer to determine the appropriate path, although usually MySQL will take the most efficient approach.
SELECT * FROM t1, t2 FORCE INDEX (index_for_column) WHERE t1.col_name=t2.col_name;
Reference: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/table-scan-avoidance.html

MySQL Index sometimes not being used

I have a table with 150k rows of data, and I have column with a UNIQUE INDEX, It has a type of VARCHAR(10) and stores 10 digit account numbers.
Now whenever I query, like a simple one:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE account_number LIKE '0103%'
It results 30,000+ ROWS, and when I run a EXPLAIN on my query It shows no INDEX is used.
But when I do:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE account_number LIKE '0104%'
It results 4,000+ ROWS, with the INDEX used.
Anyone can explain this?
I'm using MySQL 5.7 Percona XtraDB.
30k+/150k > 20% and I guess it is faster to do table scan. From 8.2.1.19 Avoiding Full Table Scans:
The output from EXPLAIN shows ALL in the type column when MySQL uses a full table scan to resolve a query. This usually happens under the following conditions:
You are using a key with low cardinality (many rows match the key value) through another column. In this case, MySQL assumes that by using the key it probably will do many key lookups and that a table scan would be faster.
If you don't need all values try to use:
SELECT account_number FROM table WHERE account_number LIKE '0103%'
instead of SELECT *. Then your index will become covering index and optimizer should always use it (as long as WHERE condition is SARGable).
The most database uses B tree for indexing. In this case the database optimizer don't use the index because its faster to scan without index. Like #lad2025 explained.
Your database column is unique and i think your cardinality of your index is high. But since your query using the like filter the database optimizer decides for you to choose not to use the index.
You can use try force index to see the result. Your using varchar with unique index. I would choose another data type or change your index type. If your table only contains numbers change it to numbers. This will help to optimize you query a lot.
In some cases when you have to use like you can use full text index.
If you need help with optimizing your query and table. Provide us more info and which info you want to fetch from your table.
lad2025 is correct. The database is attempting to make an intelligent optimization.
Benchmark with:
SELECT * FROM table FORCE INDEX(table_index) WHERE account_number LIKE '0103%'
and see who is smarter :-) You can always try your hand at questioning the optimizer. That's what index hints are for...
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/index-hints.html

MySQL covering index optimization? [duplicate]

I've just heard the term covered index in some database discussion - what does it mean?
A covering index is an index that contains all of, and possibly more, the columns you need for your query.
For instance, this:
SELECT *
FROM tablename
WHERE criteria
will typically use indexes to speed up the resolution of which rows to retrieve using criteria, but then it will go to the full table to retrieve the rows.
However, if the index contained the columns column1, column2 and column3, then this sql:
SELECT column1, column2
FROM tablename
WHERE criteria
and, provided that particular index could be used to speed up the resolution of which rows to retrieve, the index already contains the values of the columns you're interested in, so it won't have to go to the table to retrieve the rows, but can produce the results directly from the index.
This can also be used if you see that a typical query uses 1-2 columns to resolve which rows, and then typically adds another 1-2 columns, it could be beneficial to append those extra columns (if they're the same all over) to the index, so that the query processor can get everything from the index itself.
Here's an article: Index Covering Boosts SQL Server Query Performance on the subject.
Covering index is just an ordinary index. It's called "covering" if it can satisfy query without necessity to analyze data.
example:
CREATE TABLE MyTable
(
ID INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
Foo INT
)
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX index1 ON MyTable(ID, Foo)
SELECT ID, Foo FROM MyTable -- All requested data are covered by index
This is one of the fastest methods to retrieve data from SQL server.
Covering indexes are indexes which "cover" all columns needed from a specific table, removing the need to access the physical table at all for a given query/ operation.
Since the index contains the desired columns (or a superset of them), table access can be replaced with an index lookup or scan -- which is generally much faster.
Columns to cover:
parameterized or static conditions; columns restricted by a parameterized or constant condition.
join columns; columns dynamically used for joining
selected columns; to answer selected values.
While covering indexes can often provide good benefit for retrieval, they do add somewhat to insert/ update overhead; due to the need to write extra or larger index rows on every update.
Covering indexes for Joined Queries
Covering indexes are probably most valuable as a performance technique for joined queries. This is because joined queries are more costly & more likely then single-table retrievals to suffer high cost performance problems.
in a joined query, covering indexes should be considered per-table.
each 'covering index' removes a physical table access from the plan & replaces it with index-only access.
investigate the plan costs & experiment with which tables are most worthwhile to replace by a covering index.
by this means, the multiplicative cost of large join plans can be significantly reduced.
For example:
select oi.title, c.name, c.address
from porderitem poi
join porder po on po.id = poi.fk_order
join customer c on c.id = po.fk_customer
where po.orderdate > ? and po.status = 'SHIPPING';
create index porder_custitem on porder (orderdate, id, status, fk_customer);
See:
http://literatejava.com/sql/covering-indexes-query-optimization/
Lets say you have a simple table with the below columns, you have only indexed Id here:
Id (Int), Telephone_Number (Int), Name (VARCHAR), Address (VARCHAR)
Imagine you have to run the below query and check whether its using index, and whether performing efficiently without I/O calls or not. Remember, you have only created an index on Id.
SELECT Id FROM mytable WHERE Telephone_Number = '55442233';
When you check for performance on this query you will be dissappointed, since Telephone_Number is not indexed this needs to fetch rows from table using I/O calls. So, this is not a covering indexed since there is some column in query which is not indexed, which leads to frequent I/O calls.
To make it a covered index you need to create a composite index on (Id, Telephone_Number).
For more details, please refer to this blog:
https://www.percona.com/blog/2006/11/23/covering-index-and-prefix-indexes/

MySQL - Does SELECT * need an index of all table fields?

I would like to know if it is necessary to create an index for all fields within a table if one of your queries will use SELECT *.
To explain, if we had a table that 10M records and we did a SELECT * query on it would the query run faster if we have created an index for all fields within the table or does MySQL handle SELECT * in a different way to SELECT first_field, a_field, last_field.
To my understanding, if I had a query that did SELECT first_field, a_field FROM table then it would bring performance benefits if we created an index on first_field, a_field but if we use SELECT * is there even a benefit from creating an index for all fields?
Performing a SELECT * FROM mytable query would have to read all the data from the table. This could, theoretically, be done from an index if you have an index on all the columns, but it would be just faster for the database to read the table itself.
If you have a where clause, having an index on (some of) the columns you have conditions on may dramatically improve the query's performance. It's a gross simplification, but what basically happens is the following:
The appropriate rows are filtered according to the where clause. It's much faster to search for these rows in an index (which is, essentially, a sorted tree) than a table (which is an unordered set of rows).
For the columns that where in the index used in the previous step the values are returned.
For the columns that aren't, the table is accessed (according to a pointer kept in the index).
indexing a mysql table for a column improves performance when there is a need to search or edit a row/record based on that column of that table.
for example, if there is an 'id' column and if it is a primary key; And in that case if you want to search a record using where clause on that 'id' column then you don't need to create index for the 'id' column because primary key column will act as an indexed column.
In another case, if there is an 'pid' column in the table and if it is not a primary key; Then in order to search based on 'pid' column then to improve performance it is better to create an index for the 'pid' column. That will make query fast to search the expected record.

Performance LIKE including wildcards (%)

If I execute this query:
SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE '%girl%'
It returns all records where name contains 'girl'. However, because of the first wildcard % in the LIKE statment, it cannot (or does not) use indexes as stated here: Mysql Improve Search Performance with wildcards (%%)
Then I changed the query to:
SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE 'girl%' OR name LIKE '%girl%'
On the leftside of the OR I removed the wildcard so it can use indexes. But the performance win depends on how MySQL evaluates the query.
Hence my question: Does the performance of my query increases when I add the OR statement?
No, the performance will be the same. MySQL still has to evaluate the first condition (LIKE '%girl%') because of the OR. Then it can evaluate the second condition using index. You can see this info when you EXPLAIN your query (mysql will show that it stills needs to do a full table scan, which means check each row):
EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE 'girl%' OR name LIKE '%girl%'
For better performance for these kinds of queries you would need to use Fulltext indexes and special syntax for querying them. But FT indexes behave different and are not suited for everything.
(This answer provides a summary of the comments, plus contradicts some of the previous notes.)
Leading wildcard:
SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE 'girl%' OR name LIKE '%girl%'
SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE '%girl%'
Either of those will do a table scan and ignore any indexes. This both because of the leading wild card and the OR. (It will not use the index for 'girl%', contrary to what #Marki555 says -- it's not worth the extra effort.)
Range query via LIKE (no leading wildcard):
SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE 'girl%'
will probably use INDEX(name) in the following way:
Drill down the BTree for that index to the first name starting with "girl";
Scan forward (in the index) until the last row starting with "girl";
For each item in step 2, reach over into the data to get *.
Since Step 3 can be costly, the optimizer first estimates how many rows will need to be touched in Step 2. If more than 20% (approx) of the table, it will revert to a table scan. (Hence, my use of "probably".)
"Covering index":
SELECT name FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE '%girl%'
This will always use INDEX(name). That is because the index "covers". That is, all the columns in the SELECT are found in the INDEX. Since an INDEX looks and feels like a table, scanning the index is the best way to do the query. Since an index is usually smaller than the table, an index scan is usually faster than a table scan.
Here's a less obvious "covering index", but it applies only to InnoDB:
PRIMARY KEY(id)
INDEX(name)
SELECT id FROM table1 WHERE name LIKE '%girl%'
Every secondary key (name) in InnoDB implicitly includes the PK (id). Hence the index looks like (name, id). Hence all the columns in the SELECT are in the index. Hence it is a "covering index". Hence it will use the index and do an "index scan".
A "covering index" is indicated by Using index showing up in the EXPLAIN SELECT ....