MySQL : Group By Clause Not Using Index when used with Case - mysql

Question

Im using MySQL
I cant change the DB structure, so thats not an option sadly
THE ISSUE:
When i use GROUP BY with CASE (as need in my situation), MYSQL uses
file_sort and the delay is humongous (approx 2-3minutes):
http://sqlfiddle.com/#!9/f97d8/11/0
But when i dont use CASE just GROUP BY group_id , MYSQL easily uses
index and result is fast:
http://sqlfiddle.com/#!9/f97d8/12/0
Scenerio: DETAILED
Table msgs, containing records of sent messages, with fields:
id,
user_id, (the guy who sent the message)
type, (0=> means it's group msg. All the msgs sent under this are marked by group_id. So lets say group_id = 5 sent 5 msgs, the table will have 5 records with group_id =5 and type=0. For type>0, the group_id will be NULL, coz all other types have no group_id as they are individual msgs sent to single recipient)
group_id (if type=0, will contain group_id, else NULL)
Table contains approx 10 million records for user id 50001 and with different types (i.e group as well as individual msgs)
Now the QUERY:
SELECT
msgs.*
FROM
msgs
INNER JOIN accounts
ON (
msgs.user_id = accounts.id
)
WHERE 1
AND msgs.user_id IN (50111)
AND msgs.type IN (0, 1, 5, 7)
GROUP BY CASE `msgs`.`type` WHEN 0 THEN `msgs`.`group_id` ELSE `msgs`.`id` END
ORDER BY `msgs`.`group_id` DESC
LIMIT 100
I HAVE to get summary in a single QUERY,
so msgs sent to group lets say 5 (have 5 records in this table) will be shown as 1 record for summary (i may show COUNT later, but thats not an issue).
The individual msgs have NULL as group_id, so i cant just put 'GROUP BY group_id ' coz that will Group all individual msgs to single record which is not acceptable.
Sample output can be something like:
id owner_id, type group_id COUNT
1 50001 0 2 5
1 50001 1 NULL 1
1 50001 4 NULL 1
1 50001 0 7 5
1 50001 5 NULL 1
1 50001 5 NULL 1
1 50001 5 NULL 1
1 50001 0 10 5
Now the problem is that the GROUP condition after using CASE (which i currently think that i have to because i only need to group by group_id if type=0) is causing alot of delay coz it's not using indexes which it does if i dont use CASE (like just group by group_id ). Please view SQLFiddles above to see the explain results
Can anyone plz give an advice how to get it optimized
UPDATE
I tried a workaround , that does somehow works out (drops INITIAL queries to 1sec). Using union, what it does is, to minimize the resultset by union that forces SQL to write on disk for filesort (due to huge resultset), limit the resultset of group msgs, and individual msgs (view query below)
-- first part of union retrieves group msgs (that have type 0 and needs to be grouped by group_id). Applies the limit to captivate the out of control result set
-- The second query retrieves individual msgs, (those with type !=0, grouped by msgs.id - not necessary but just to be save from duplicate entries due to joins). Applies the limit to captivate the out of control result set
-- JOins the two to retrieve the desired resultset
Here's the query:
SELECT
*
FROM
(
(
SELECT
msgs.id as reference_id, user_id, type, group_id
FROM
msgs
INNER JOIN accounts
ON (msgs.user_id = accounts.id)
WHERE 1
AND accounts.id IN (50111 ) AND type = 0
GROUP BY msgs.group_id
ORDER BY msgs.id DESC
LIMIT 40
)
UNION
ALL
(
SELECT
msgs.id as reference_id, user_id, type, group_id
FROM
msgs
INNER JOIN accounts
ON (
msgs.user_id = accounts.id
)
WHERE 1
AND msgs.type != 0
AND accounts.id IN (50111)
GROUP BY msgs.id
ORDER BY msgs.id
LIMIT 40
)
) AS temp
ORDER BY reference_id
LIMIT 20,20
But has alot of caveats,
-I need to handle the limit in inner queries as well. Lets say 20recs per page, and im on page 4. For inner queries , i need to apply limit 0,80, since im not sure which of the two parts had how many records in the previous 3 pages. So, as the records per page and number of pages grow, my query grows heavier. Lets say 1k rec per page, and im on page 100 , or 1K, the load gets heavier and time exponentially increases
I need to handle ordering in inner queries and then apply on the resultset prepared by union , conditions need to be applied on both inner queries seperately(but not much of an issue)
-Cant use calc_found_rows, so will need to get count using queries seperately
The main issue is the first one. The higher i go with the pagination , the heavier it gets

Answer 1

Would this run faster?
SELECT id, user_id, type, group_id
FROM
( SELECT id, user_id, type, group_id, IFNULL(group_id, id) AS foo
FROM msgs
WHERE user_id IN (50111)
AND type IN (0, 1, 5, 7)
)
GROUP BY foo
ORDER BY `group_id` DESC
LIMIT 100
It needs INDEX(user_id, type).
Does this give the 'correct' answer?
SELECT DISTINCT *
FROM msgs
WHERE user_id IN (50111)
AND type IN (0, 1, 5, 7)
GROUP BY IFNULL(group_id, id)
ORDER BY `group_id` DESC
LIMIT 100
(It needs the same index)