Join on 3 tables insanely slow on giant tables - mysql

Question

I have a query which goes like this:
SELECT insanlyBigTable.description_short,
insanlyBigTable.id AS insanlyBigTable,
insanlyBigTable.type AS insanlyBigTableLol,
catalogpartner.id AS catalogpartner_id
FROM insanlyBigTable
INNER JOIN smallerTable ON smallerTable.id = insanlyBigTable.catalog_id
INNER JOIN smallerTable1 ON smallerTable1.catalog_id = smallerTable.id
AND smallerTable1.buyer_id = 'xxx'
WHERE smallerTable1.cont = 'Y' AND insanlyBigTable.type IN ('111','222','33')
GROUP BY smallerTable.id;
Now, when I run the query first time it copies the giant table into a temp table... I want to know how I can prevent that? I am considering a nested query, or even to reverse the join (not sure the effect would be to run faster), but that is well, not nice. Any other suggestions?

Answer 1

To figure out how to optimize your query, we first have to boil down exactly what it is selecting so that we can preserve that information while we change things around.
What your query does
So, it looks like we need the following
The GROUP BY clause limits the results to at most one row per catalog_id
smallerTable1.cont = 'Y', insanelyBigTable.type IN ('111','222','33'), and buyer_id = 'xxx' appear to be the filters on the query.
And we want data from insanlyBigTable and ... catalogpartner? I would guess that catalogpartner is smallerTable1, due to the id of smallerTable being linked to the catalog_id of the other tables.
I'm not sure on what the purpose of including the buyer_id filter on the ON clause was for, but unless you tell me differently, I'll assume the fact it is on the ON clause is unimportant.
The point of the query
I am unsure about the intent of the query, based on that GROUP BY statement. You will obtain just one row per catalog_id in the insanelyBigTable, but you don't appear to care which row it is. Indeed, the fact that you can run this query at all is due to a special non-standard feature in MySQL that lets you SELECT columns that do not appear in the GROUP BY statement... however, you don't get to select WHICH columns. This means you could have information from 4 different rows for each of your selected items.
My best guess, based on column names, is that you are trying to bring back a list of items that are in the same catalog as something that was purchased by a given buyer, but without any more than one item per catalog. In addition, you want something to connect back to the purchased item in that catalog, via the catalogpartner table's id.
So, something probably akin to amazon's "You may like these items because you purchased these other items" feature.
The new query
We want 1 row per insanlyBigTable.catalog_id, based on which catalog_id exists in smallerTable1, after filtering.
SELECT
ibt.description_short,
ibt.id AS insanlyBigTable,
ibt.type AS insanlyBigTableLol,
(
SELECT smallerTable1.id FROM smallerTable1 st
WHERE st.buyer_id = 'xxx'
AND st.cont = 'Y'
AND st.catalog_id = ibt.catalog_id
LIMIT 1
) AS catalogpartner_id
FROM insanlyBigTable ibt
WHERE ibt.id IN (
SELECT (
SELECT ibt.id AS ibt_id
FROM insanlyBigTable ibt
WHERE ibt.catalog_id = sti.catalog_id
LIMIT 1
) AS ibt_id
FROM (
SELECT DISTINCT(catalog_id) FROM smallerTable1 st
WHERE st.buyer_id = 'xxx'
AND st.cont = 'Y'
AND EXISTS (
SELECT * FROM insanlyBigTable ibt
WHERE ibt.type IN ('111','222','33')
AND ibt.catalog_id = st.catalog_id
)
) AS sti
)
This query should generate the same result as your original query, but it breaks things down into smaller queries to avoid the use (and abuse) of the GROUP BY clause on the insanlyBigTable.
Give it a try and let me know if you run into problems.