Consider these expressions, where col_name is an indexed column:

col_name IN(val1, ..., valN)
col_name = val1 OR ... OR col_name = valN

Each expression is true if col_name is equal to any of several values. These comparisons are equality range comparisons (where the “range” is a single value). The optimizer estimates the cost of reading qualifying rows for equality range comparisons as follows:

With index dives, the optimizer makes a dive at each end of a range and uses the number of rows in the range as the estimate. For example, the expression col_name IN (10, 20, 30) has three equality ranges and the optimizer makes two dives per range to generate a row estimate. Each pair of dives yields an estimate of the number of rows that have the given value.

Index dives provide accurate row estimates, but as the number of comparison values in the expression increases, the optimizer takes longer to generate a row estimate. Use of index statistics is less accurate than index dives but permits faster row estimation for large value lists.

The eq_range_index_dive_limit system variable enables you to configure the number of values at which the optimizer switches from one row estimation strategy to the other. To disable use of statistics and always use index dives, set eq_range_index_dive_limit to 0. To permit use of index dives for comparisons of up to N equality ranges, set eq_range_index_dive_limit to N + 1.

eq_range_index_dive_limit is available as of MySQL 5.6.5. Before 5.6.5, the optimizer uses index dives, which is equivalent to eq_range_index_dive_limit=0.

To update table index statistics for best estimates, use ANALYZE TABLE.