原文地址:http://blog.codinglabs.org/articles/theory-of-mysql-index.html
InnoDB使用B+Tree作为索引结构
最左前缀原理与相关优化
以employees.titles表为例,下面先查看其上都有哪些索引:
- SHOW INDEX FROM employees.titles;
- +--------+------------+----------+--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+------+------------+
- | Table | Non_unique | Key_name | Seq_in_index | Column_name | Collation | Cardinality | Null | Index_type |
- +--------+------------+----------+--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+------+------------+
- | titles | 0 | PRIMARY | 1 | emp_no | A | NULL | | BTREE |
- | titles | 0 | PRIMARY | 2 | title | A | NULL | | BTREE |
- | titles | 0 | PRIMARY | 3 | from_date | A | 443308 | | BTREE |
- | titles | 1 | emp_no | 1 | emp_no | A | 443308 | | BTREE |
- +--------+------------+----------+--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+------+------------+
从结果中可以到titles表的主索引为<emp_no, title, from_date>,还有一个辅助索引<emp_no>。为了避免多个索引使事情变复杂(MySQL的SQL优化器在多索引时行为比 较复杂),这里我们将辅助索引drop掉:
- ALTER TABLE employees.titles DROP INDEX emp_no;
这样就可以专心分析索引PRIMARY的行为了。
情况一:全列匹配。
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no='10001' AND title='Senior Engineer' AND from_date='1986-06-26';
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------+-------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------+-------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | const | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 59 | const,const,const | 1 | |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------+-------+
很明显,当按照索引中所有列进行精确匹配(这里精确匹配指“=”或“IN”匹配)时,索引可以被用到。这里有一点需要注意,理论上索引对顺序是敏感 的,但是由于MySQL的查询优化器会自动调整where子句的条件顺序以使用适合的索引,例如我们将where中的条件顺序颠倒:
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE from_date='1986-06-26' AND emp_no='10001' AND title='Senior Engineer';
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------+-------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------+-------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | const | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 59 | const,const,const | 1 | |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+-------------------+------+-------+
效果是一样的。
情况二:最左前缀匹配。
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no='10001';
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 4 | const | 1 | |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------+
当查询条件精确匹配索引的左边连续一个或几个列时,如<emp_no>或<emp_no, title>,所以可以被用到,但是只能用到一部分,即条件所组成的最左前缀。上面的查询从分析结果看用到了PRIMARY索引,但是 key_len为4,说明只用到了索引的第一列前缀。
情况三:查询条件用到了索引中列的精确匹配,但是中间某个条件未提供。
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no='10001' AND from_date='1986-06-26';
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 4 | const | 1 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------------+
此时索引使用情况和情况二相同,因为title未提供,所以查询只用到了索引的第一列,而后面的from_date虽然也在索引中,但是由于 title不存在而无法和左前缀连接,因此需要对结果进行扫描过滤from_date(这里由于emp_no唯一,所以不存在扫描)。如果想让 from_date也使用索引而不是where过滤,可以增加一个辅助索引<emp_no, from_date>,此时上面的查询会使用这个索引。除此之外,还可以使用一种称之为“隔离列”的优化方法,将emp_no与from_date 之间的“坑”填上。
首先我们看下title一共有几种不同的值:
- SELECT DISTINCT(title) FROM employees.titles;
- +--------------------+
- | title |
- +--------------------+
- | Senior Engineer |
- | Staff |
- | Engineer |
- | Senior Staff |
- | Assistant Engineer |
- | Technique Leader |
- | Manager |
- +--------------------+
只有7种。在这种成为“坑”的列值比较少的情况下,可以考虑用“IN”来填补这个“坑”从而形成最左前缀:
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles
- WHERE emp_no='10001'
- AND title IN ('Senior Engineer', 'Staff', 'Engineer', 'Senior Staff', 'Assistant Engineer', 'Technique Leader', 'Manager')
- AND from_date='1986-06-26';
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | range | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 59 | NULL | 7 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
这次key_len为59,说明索引被用全了,但是从type和rows看出IN实际上执行了一个range查询,这里检查了7个key。看下两种查询的性能比较:
- SHOW PROFILES;
- +----------+------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | Query_ID | Duration | Query |
- +----------+------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | 10 | 0.00058000 | SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no='10001' AND from_date='1986-06-26'|
- | 11 | 0.00052500 | SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no='10001' AND title IN ... |
- +----------+------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
“填坑”后性能提升了一点。如果经过emp_no筛选后余下很多数据,则后者性能优势会更加明显。当然,如果title的值很多,用填坑就不合适了,必须建立辅助索引。
情况四:查询条件没有指定索引第一列。
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE from_date='1986-06-26';
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 443308 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
由于不是最左前缀,索引这样的查询显然用不到索引。
情况五:匹配某列的前缀字符串。
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no='10001' AND title LIKE 'Senior%';
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | range | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 56 | NULL | 1 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
此时可以用到索引,但是如果通配符不是只出现在末尾,则无法使用索引。(原文表述有误,如果通配符%不出现在开头,则可以用到索引,但根据具体情况不同可能只会用其中一个前缀)
情况六:范围查询。
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no < '10010' and title='Senior Engineer';
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | range | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 4 | NULL | 16 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
范围列可以用到索引(必须是最左前缀),但是范围列后面的列无法用到索引。同时,索引最多用于一个范围列,因此如果查询条件中有两个范围列则无法全用到索引。
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles
- WHERE emp_no < '10010'
- AND title='Senior Engineer'
- AND from_date BETWEEN '1986-01-01' AND '1986-12-31';
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | range | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 4 | NULL | 16 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
可以看到索引对第二个范围索引无能为力。这里特别要说明MySQL一个有意思的地方,那就是仅用explain可能无法区分范围索引和多值匹配,因为在type中这两者都显示为range。同时,用了“between”并不意味着就是范围查询,例如下面的查询:
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles
- WHERE emp_no BETWEEN '10001' AND '10010'
- AND title='Senior Engineer'
- AND from_date BETWEEN '1986-01-01' AND '1986-12-31';
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | range | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 59 | NULL | 16 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+-------------+
看起来是用了两个范围查询,但作用于emp_no上的“BETWEEN”实际上相当于“IN”,也就是说emp_no实际是多值精确匹配。可以看到这个查询用到了索引全部三个列。因此在MySQL中要谨慎地区分多值匹配和范围匹配,否则会对MySQL的行为产生困惑。
情况七:查询条件中含有函数或表达式。
很不幸,如果查询条件中含有函数或表达式,则MySQL不会为这列使用索引(虽然某些在数学意义上可以使用)。例如:
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no='10001' AND left(title, 6)='Senior';
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | ref | PRIMARY | PRIMARY | 4 | const | 1 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+---------+-------+------+-------------+
虽然这个查询和情况五中功能相同,但是由于使用了函数left,则无法为title列应用索引,而情况五中用LIKE则可以。再如:
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.titles WHERE emp_no - 1='10000';
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | titles | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 443308 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
显然这个查询等价于查询emp_no为10001的函数,但是由于查询条件是一个表达式,MySQL无法为其使用索引。看来MySQL还没有智能到 自动优化常量表达式的程度,因此在写查询语句时尽量避免表达式出现在查询中,而是先手工私下代数运算,转换为无表达式的查询语句。
索引选择性与前缀索引
既然索引可以加快查询速度,那么是不是只要是查询语句需要,就建上索引?答案是否定的。因为索引虽然加快了查询速度,但索引也是有代价的:索引文件 本身要消耗存储空间,同时索引会加重插入、删除和修改记录时的负担,另外,MySQL在运行时也要消耗资源维护索引,因此索引并不是越多越好。一般两种情 况下不建议建索引。
第一种情况是表记录比较少,例如一两千条甚至只有几百条记录的表,没必要建索引,让查询做全表扫描就好了。至于多少条记录才算多,这个个人有个人的看法,我个人的经验是以2000作为分界线,记录数不超过 2000可以考虑不建索引,超过2000条可以酌情考虑索引。
另一种不建议建索引的情况是索引的选择性较低。所谓索引的选择性(Selectivity),是指不重复的索引值(也叫基数,Cardinality)与表记录数(#T)的比值:
Index Selectivity = Cardinality / #T
显然选择性的取值范围为(0, 1],选择性越高的索引价值越大,这是由B+Tree的性质决定的。例如,上文用到的employees.titles表,如果title字段经常被单独查询,是否需要建索引,我们看一下它的选择性:
- SELECT count(DISTINCT(title))/count(*) AS Selectivity FROM employees.titles;
- +-------------+
- | Selectivity |
- +-------------+
- | 0.0000 |
- +-------------+
title的选择性不足0.0001(精确值为0.00001579),所以实在没有什么必要为其单独建索引。
有一种与索引选择性有关的索引优化策略叫做前缀索引,就是用列的前缀代替整个列作为索引key,当前缀长度合适时,可以做到既使得前缀索引的选择性 接近全列索引,同时因为索引key变短而减少了索引文件的大小和维护开销。下面以employees.employees表为例介绍前缀索引的选择和使 用。
从图12可以看到employees表只有一个索引<emp_no>,那么如果我们想按名字搜索一个人,就只能全表扫描了:
- EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM employees.employees WHERE first_name='Eric' AND last_name='Anido';
- +----+-------------+-----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
- | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
- +----+-------------+-----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
- | 1 | SIMPLE | employees | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 300024 | Using where |
- +----+-------------+-----------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
如果频繁按名字搜索员工,这样显然效率很低,因此我们可以考虑建索引。有两种选择,建<first_name>或<first_name, last_name>,看下两个索引的选择性:
- SELECT count(DISTINCT(first_name))/count(*) AS Selectivity FROM employees.employees;
- +-------------+
- | Selectivity |
- +-------------+
- | 0.0042 |
- +-------------+
- SELECT count(DISTINCT(concat(first_name, last_name)))/count(*) AS Selectivity FROM employees.employees;
- +-------------+
- | Selectivity |
- +-------------+
- | 0.9313 |
- +-------------+
<first_name>显然选择性太低,<first_name, last_name>选择性很好,但是first_name和last_name加起来长度为30,有没有兼顾长度和选择性的办法?可以考虑用 first_name和last_name的前几个字符建立索引,例如<first_name, left(last_name, 3)>,看看其选择性:
- SELECT count(DISTINCT(concat(first_name, left(last_name, 3))))/count(*) AS Selectivity FROM employees.employees;
- +-------------+
- | Selectivity |
- +-------------+
- | 0.7879 |
- +-------------+
选择性还不错,但离0.9313还是有点距离,那么把last_name前缀加到4:
- SELECT count(DISTINCT(concat(first_name, left(last_name, 4))))/count(*) AS Selectivity FROM employees.employees;
- +-------------+
- | Selectivity |
- +-------------+
- | 0.9007 |
- +-------------+
这时选择性已经很理想了,而这个索引的长度只有18,比<first_name, last_name>短了接近一半,我们把这个前缀索引 建上:
- ALTER TABLE employees.employees
- ADD INDEX `first_name_last_name4` (first_name, last_name(4));
此时再执行一遍按名字查询,比较分析一下与建索引前的结果:
- SHOW PROFILES;
- +----------+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | Query_ID | Duration | Query |
- +----------+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
- | 87 | 0.11941700 | SELECT * FROM employees.employees WHERE first_name='Eric' AND last_name='Anido' |
- | 90 | 0.00092400 | SELECT * FROM employees.employees WHERE first_name='Eric' AND last_name='Anido' |
- +----------+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
性能的提升是显著的,查询速度提高了120多倍。
前缀索引兼顾索引大小和查询速度,但是其缺点是不能用于ORDER BY和GROUP BY操作,也不能用于Covering index(即当索引本身包含查询所需全部数据时,不再访问数据文件本身)。