The range
access method
uses a single index to retrieve a subset of table rows that
are contained within one or several index value intervals. It
can be used for a single-part or multiple-part index. The
following sections give a detailed description of how
intervals are extracted from the WHERE
clause.
For a single-part index, index value intervals can be
conveniently represented by corresponding conditions in the
WHERE
clause, denoted as
range conditions
rather than “intervals.”
The definition of a range condition for a single-part index is as follows:
For both
BTREE
andHASH
indexes, comparison of a key part with a constant value is a range condition when using the=
,<=>
,IN()
,IS NULL
, orIS NOT NULL
operators.Additionally, for
BTREE
indexes, comparison of a key part with a constant value is a range condition when using the>
,<
,>=
,<=
,BETWEEN
,!=
, or<>
operators, orLIKE
comparisons if the argument toLIKE
is a constant string that does not start with a wildcard character.For all index types, multiple range conditions combined with
OR
orAND
form a range condition.
“Constant value” in the preceding descriptions means one of the following:
Here are some examples of queries with range conditions in
the WHERE
clause:
SELECT * FROM t1
WHERE key_col > 1
AND key_col < 10;
SELECT * FROM t1
WHERE key_col = 1
OR key_col IN (15,18,20);
SELECT * FROM t1
WHERE key_col LIKE 'ab%'
OR key_col BETWEEN 'bar' AND 'foo';
Some nonconstant values may be converted to constants during the optimizer constant propagation phase.
MySQL tries to extract range conditions from the
WHERE
clause for each of the possible
indexes. During the extraction process, conditions that
cannot be used for constructing the range condition are
dropped, conditions that produce overlapping ranges are
combined, and conditions that produce empty ranges are
removed.
Consider the following statement, where
key1
is an indexed column and
nonkey
is not indexed:
SELECT * FROM t1 WHERE
(key1 < 'abc' AND (key1 LIKE 'abcde%' OR key1 LIKE '%b')) OR
(key1 < 'bar' AND nonkey = 4) OR
(key1 < 'uux' AND key1 > 'z');
The extraction process for key key1
is as
follows:
Start with original
WHERE
clause:(key1 < 'abc' AND (key1 LIKE 'abcde%' OR key1 LIKE '%b')) OR (key1 < 'bar' AND nonkey = 4) OR (key1 < 'uux' AND key1 > 'z')
Remove
nonkey = 4
andkey1 LIKE '%b'
because they cannot be used for a range scan. The correct way to remove them is to replace them withTRUE
, so that we do not miss any matching rows when doing the range scan. Replacing them withTRUE
yields:(key1 < 'abc' AND (key1 LIKE 'abcde%' OR TRUE)) OR (key1 < 'bar' AND TRUE) OR (key1 < 'uux' AND key1 > 'z')
Collapse conditions that are always true or false:
(key1 LIKE 'abcde%' OR TRUE)
is always true(key1 < 'uux' AND key1 > 'z')
is always false
Replacing these conditions with constants yields:
(key1 < 'abc' AND TRUE) OR (key1 < 'bar' AND TRUE) OR (FALSE)
Removing unnecessary
TRUE
andFALSE
constants yields:(key1 < 'abc') OR (key1 < 'bar')
Combining overlapping intervals into one yields the final condition to be used for the range scan:
(key1 < 'bar')
In general (and as demonstrated by the preceding example),
the condition used for a range scan is less restrictive than
the WHERE
clause. MySQL performs an
additional check to filter out rows that satisfy the range
condition but not the full WHERE
clause.
The range condition extraction algorithm can handle nested
AND
/OR
constructs of arbitrary depth, and its output does not
depend on the order in which conditions appear in
WHERE
clause.
MySQL does not support merging multiple ranges for the
range
access method for
spatial indexes. To work around this limitation, you can use
a UNION
with identical
SELECT
statements, except
that you put each spatial predicate in a different
SELECT
.
Range conditions on a multiple-part index are an extension of range conditions for a single-part index. A range condition on a multiple-part index restricts index rows to lie within one or several key tuple intervals. Key tuple intervals are defined over a set of key tuples, using ordering from the index.
For example, consider a multiple-part index defined as
key1(
, and the
following set of key tuples listed in key order:
key_part1
,
key_part2
,
key_part3
)
key_part1 key_part2 key_part3
NULL 1 'abc'
NULL 1 'xyz'
NULL 2 'foo'
1 1 'abc'
1 1 'xyz'
1 2 'abc'
2 1 'aaa'
The condition
defines this interval:
key_part1
= 1
(1,-inf,-inf) <= (key_part1,key_part2,key_part3) < (1,+inf,+inf)
The interval covers the 4th, 5th, and 6th tuples in the preceding data set and can be used by the range access method.
By contrast, the condition
does not define a single interval and cannot
be used by the range access method.
key_part3
=
'abc'
The following descriptions indicate how range conditions work for multiple-part indexes in greater detail.
For
HASH
indexes, each interval containing identical values can be used. This means that the interval can be produced only for conditions in the following form:key_part1 cmp const1 AND key_part2 cmp const2 AND ... AND key_partN cmp constN;
Here,
const1
,const2
, … are constants,cmp
is one of the=
,<=>
, orIS NULL
comparison operators, and the conditions cover all index parts. (That is, there areN
conditions, one for each part of anN
-part index.) For example, the following is a range condition for a three-partHASH
index:key_part1 = 1 AND key_part2 IS NULL AND key_part3 = 'foo'
For the definition of what is considered to be a constant, see Range Access Method for Single-Part Indexes.
For a
BTREE
index, an interval might be usable for conditions combined withAND
, where each condition compares a key part with a constant value using=
,<=>
,IS NULL
,>
,<
,>=
,<=
,!=
,<>
,BETWEEN
, orLIKE '
(wherepattern
''
does not start with a wildcard). An interval can be used as long as it is possible to determine a single key tuple containing all rows that match the condition (or two intervals ifpattern
'<>
or!=
is used).The optimizer attempts to use additional key parts to determine the interval as long as the comparison operator is
=
,<=>
, orIS NULL
. If the operator is>
,<
,>=
,<=
,!=
,<>
,BETWEEN
, orLIKE
, the optimizer uses it but considers no more key parts. For the following expression, the optimizer uses=
from the first comparison. It also uses>=
from the second comparison but considers no further key parts and does not use the third comparison for interval construction:key_part1 = 'foo' AND key_part2 >= 10 AND key_part3 > 10
The single interval is:
('foo',10,-inf) < (key_part1,key_part2,key_part3) < ('foo',+inf,+inf)
It is possible that the created interval contains more rows than the initial condition. For example, the preceding interval includes the value
('foo', 11, 0)
, which does not satisfy the original condition.If conditions that cover sets of rows contained within intervals are combined with
OR
, they form a condition that covers a set of rows contained within the union of their intervals. If the conditions are combined withAND
, they form a condition that covers a set of rows contained within the intersection of their intervals. For example, for this condition on a two-part index:(key_part1 = 1 AND key_part2 < 2) OR (key_part1 > 5)
The intervals are:
(1,-inf) < (key_part1,key_part2) < (1,2) (5,-inf) < (key_part1,key_part2)
In this example, the interval on the first line uses one key part for the left bound and two key parts for the right bound. The interval on the second line uses only one key part. The
key_len
column in theEXPLAIN
output indicates the maximum length of the key prefix used.In some cases,
key_len
may indicate that a key part was used, but that might be not what you would expect. Suppose thatkey_part1
andkey_part2
can beNULL
. Then thekey_len
column displays two key part lengths for the following condition:key_part1 >= 1 AND key_part2 < 2
But, in fact, the condition is converted to this:
key_part1 >= 1 AND key_part2 IS NOT NULL
For a description of how optimizations are performed to combine or eliminate intervals for range conditions on a single-part index, see Range Access Method for Single-Part Indexes. Analogous steps are performed for range conditions on multiple-part indexes.
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:
If there is a unique index on
col_name
, the row estimate for each range is 1 because at most one row can have the given value.Otherwise, any index on
col_name
is nonunique and the optimizer can estimate the row count for each range using dives into the index or index statistics.
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
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.
col_name
IN (10, 20,
30)
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 permit use of index
dives for comparisons of up to N
equality ranges, set
eq_range_index_dive_limit
to N
+ 1. To disable use of
statistics and always use index dives regardless of
N
, set
eq_range_index_dive_limit
to 0.
To update table index statistics for best estimates, use
ANALYZE TABLE
.
Even under conditions when index dives would otherwise be used, they are skipped for queries that satisfy all these conditions:
A single-index
FORCE INDEX
index hint is present. The idea is that if index use is forced, there is nothing to be gained from the additional overhead of performing dives into the index.The index is nonunique and not a
FULLTEXT
index.No subquery is present.
No
DISTINCT
,GROUP BY
, orORDER BY
clause is present.
Those dive-skipping conditions apply only for single-table queries. Index dives are not skipped for multiple-table queries (joins).