2.6.1.10. Database query optimization

This article explains the logic of optimizing database queries, since most programmers test their programs with a small number of records in the tables, and the site owner’s problems begin later, when he fills the product catalogs.

For example, there is a request:

SELECT 
   p.product_id, 
  (SELECT AVG(rating) AS total FROM mc_review r1 WHERE r1.product_id = p.product_id AND r1.STATUS ='1' GROUP BY r1.product_id) AS rating 
FROM mc_product p 
LEFT JOIN mc_product_description pd ON (p.product_id = pd.product_id) 
LEFT JOIN mc_product_to_store p2s ON (p.product_id = p2s.product_id) 
WHERE 
   pd.language_id = '2' AND 
   p.STATUS = '1' AND 
   p.date_available <= NOW() AND 
   p2s.store_id = '0' AND 
   p.product_id IN (SELECT pt.product_id FROM mc_product_tag pt WHERE pt.language_id = '2' AND LOWER(pt.tag) LIKE '%roxolana%') 
ORDER BY rating ASC 
LIMIT 0,20

If the request is executed with the condition EXPLAIN at the beginning, we will get the query execution scheme:

Sample type Table Type Possible keys Key Key length Link Strings Add. information
PRIMARY p ALL PRIMARY 2907 Using where;
Using filesort
PRIMARY pd eq_ref PRIMARY PRIMARY 8 mebelnyc_db.p.product_id, const 1 Using where;
Using index
PRIMARY p2s eq_ref PRIMARY PRIMARY 8 mebelnyc_db.p.product_id, const 1 Using where;
Using index
DEPENDENT SUBQUERY pt ALL 6803 Using where
DEPENDENT SUBQUERY r1 ref product_id product_id 4 mebelnyc_db.p.product_id 1 Using where
  1. If we remove from this query the condition LIMITthen it will return 2907 records. It is 2907 times that the nested in the condition will be executed SELECT inquiry. If this part of the query is put into a separate query, then it will reduce the load on the database by 2907/20 = 145 times. Although, judging by the name of the request, we can conclude that in such an interesting way the author of the program tries to count product statistics every time a visitor visits the site, which can be recalculated, for example, once a day or even better — when adding a review to the product and added to a separate column of the table mc_productto get rid of this subquery.
  2. In condition WHERE we see a subquery that is executed in the condition IN... If the author of the program in the condition IN specified not a subquery, but just static values, for example IN (121, 1235, 43554)then MySQL would use the index and run quickly. But with nested queries, the situation is completely different — MySQL executes them without using indexes, or rather like this — FIN_IN_SET(p.product_id, '121,1235,43554')... In such cases, you need to write the request separately, and then substitute the result of its execution into the condition IN.
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