How to estimate SQL query timing? - mysql

Question

I'm trying to get an rough (order-of-magnitude) estimate of how long time the following query could take:
mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT t1.col1, t1_col4 FROM t1 LEFT JOIN t2 ON t1.col1=t2.col1 WHERE col2=0 AND col3 IS NULL;
+----+-------------+--------------------+------+---------------+------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+--------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+--------------------+------+---------------+------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+--------------------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | t1 | ref | foobar | foobar | 4 | const | 9715129 | |
| 1 | SIMPLE | t2 | ref | col1 | col1 | 4 | db2.t1.col1 | 42318 | Using where; Using index |
+----+-------------+--------------------+------+---------------+------------+---------+-----------------------------+---------+--------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql>

Answer 1

This can be done when using SHOW PROFILES syntax.
When you open a MySQL session, you could set the variable "profiling" to 1 or ON.
mysql> SET profiling = 1;
So all the statements sent to the server will be profiled and stored in a historical and shown later by typing the command:
mysql> SHOW PROFILES;
See, from MySQL manual:
mysql> SET profiling = 1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> DROP TABLE IF EXISTS t1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.00 sec)
mysql> CREATE TABLE T1 (id INT);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> SHOW PROFILES;
+----------+----------+--------------------------+
| Query_ID | Duration | Query |
+----------+----------+--------------------------+
| 0 | 0.000088 | SET PROFILING = 1 |
| 1 | 0.000136 | DROP TABLE IF EXISTS t1 |
| 2 | 0.011947 | CREATE TABLE t1 (id INT) |
+----------+----------+--------------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SHOW PROFILE;
+----------------------+----------+
| Status | Duration |
+----------------------+----------+
| checking permissions | 0.000040 |
| creating table | 0.000056 |
| After create | 0.011363 |
| query end | 0.000375 |
| freeing items | 0.000089 |
| logging slow query | 0.000019 |
| cleaning up | 0.000005 |
+----------------------+----------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SHOW PROFILE FOR QUERY 1;
+--------------------+----------+
| Status | Duration |
+--------------------+----------+
| query end | 0.000107 |
| freeing items | 0.000008 |
| logging slow query | 0.000015 |
| cleaning up | 0.000006 |
+--------------------+----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SHOW PROFILE CPU FOR QUERY 2;
+----------------------+----------+----------+------------+
| Status | Duration | CPU_user | CPU_system |
+----------------------+----------+----------+------------+
| checking permissions | 0.000040 | 0.000038 | 0.000002 |
| creating table | 0.000056 | 0.000028 | 0.000028 |
| After create | 0.011363 | 0.000217 | 0.001571 |
| query end | 0.000375 | 0.000013 | 0.000028 |
| freeing items | 0.000089 | 0.000010 | 0.000014 |
| logging slow query | 0.000019 | 0.000009 | 0.000010 |
| cleaning up | 0.000005 | 0.000003 | 0.000002 |
+----------------------+----------+----------+------------+
References (updated at: 2014-09-04):
- SHOW PROFILE Syntax
- The INFORMATION_SCHEMA PROFILING Table
- How To Use MySQL Query Profiling (The Digital Ocean recently published a great article concerning this issue.)