Optimizing MySQL Left join query between 3 tables to reduce execution time - mysql

Question

I have the following query:
SELECT region.id, region.world_id, min_x, min_y, min_z, max_x, max_y, max_z, version, mint_version
FROM minecraft_worldguard.region
LEFT JOIN minecraft_worldguard.region_cuboid
ON region.id = region_cuboid.region_id
AND region.world_id = region_cuboid.world_id
LEFT JOIN minecraft_srvr.lot_version
ON id=lot
WHERE region.world_id = 10
AND region_cuboid.world_id=10;
The Mysql slow query log tells me that it takes more than 5 seconds to execute, returns 2300 rows but examines 15'404'545 rows to return it.
The three tables each have bout 6500 rows only with unique keys on the id and lot fields as well as keys on the world_id fields. I tried to minimize the amount of rows examined by filtering both cuboid and world by their ID and the double WHERE on world_id, but it did not seem to help.
Any idea how I can optimize this query?
Here is the sqlfiddle with the indexes as of current status.

Answer 1

MySQL can't use index in this case because joined fields has different data types:
`lot` varchar(20) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL
`id` varchar(128) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL
If you change types of this fields to general type (for example, region.id to utf8_unicode_ci), MySQL uses primary key (fiddle).
According to docs:
Comparison of dissimilar columns (comparing a string column to a
temporal or numeric column, for example) may prevent use of indexes if
values cannot be compared directly without conversion.

Answer 2

You have joined the two tables "minecraft_worldguard.region" and "minecraft_worldguard.region_cuboid", on region.world_id and region_cuboid.world_id. So WHERE clause wouldn't require two conditions.
The two columns in the WHERE clause have been equated in the JOIN condition, hence you wouldn't require checking both the conditions in the WHERE clause. Remove one of them in the WHERE clause and add an index on the column that is remaining on the WHERE condition.
In your example, leave the WHERE clause as below:
WHERE region.world_id = 10
and add an index on the region.world_id column, that would improve the performance a bit.
NOTE: observe that I am suggesting you to discard "AND region_cuboid.world_id=10;" part of the WHERE clause.
Hope that helps.

Answer 3

First, when writing queries that have multiple tables, it is a very good thing to get used to "alias" references to the tables so you don't have to retype the entire long name throughout. Also, it is a really good idea to identify which tables the columns are coming from to allow users to better understand what is where which can also help improve performance (such as suggesting a covering index).
That said, I have applied aliases to your original query, but AM GUESSING the table per the respective columns, but you can obviously identify quickly and adjust.
SELECT
R.id,
R.world_id,
RC.min_x,
RC.min_y,
RC.min_z,
RC.max_x,
RC.max_y,
RC.max_z,
LV.version,
LV.mint_version
FROM
minecraft_worldguard.region R
LEFT JOIN minecraft_worldguard.region_cuboid RC
ON R.id = RC.region_id
AND R.world_id = RC.world_id
LEFT JOIN minecraft_srvr.lot_version LV
ON R.id = LV.lot
WHERE
R.world_id = 10
I also removed from the where clause your "region_cuboid.world_id = 10" as that is redundant as a result of the JOIN clause based on region AND world.
For suggestion of indexes, and if I have the proper alias references to the columns, I would suggest a covering index on the region table of
( world_id, id ). The "World_id" in the first position quickly qualifies the WHERE clause, and the "id" is there for the RC and LV tables.
For the region_cuboid table, I would also have an index on ( world_id, region_id) to match the region table being joined to it.
For the lot_version table, and index on (lot) or a covering index on (lot, version, mint_version)