The document provides 15 pro-tips for MySQL users, beginning with basic tips like using the correct MySQL version and understanding EXPLAIN plans, and progressing to more advanced tips involving backups, queries, indexing, and database design. Key recommendations include knowing important configuration settings, backing up at the table level, avoiding SELECT * queries, using triggers for consistency, and separating volatile and non-volatile data.

1. 15 Pro-tips for MySQL Users PFCongress - 17 september 2011 Utrecht - Netherlands

2. Joshua Thijssen Senior Software Engineer @ Enrise Development in PHP, Python, Perl, C, Java.... Email: [email_address] Twitter: @jaytaph Blogs: http://www.adayinthelifeof.nl http://www.enrise.com/blog

8. Tip 1: Know your EXPLAIN (2) mysql> desc varchartest;+----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |+----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+| id | int(11) | NO | PRI | 0 | || name | varchar(255) | NO | MUL | NULL | || utf8name | varchar(255) | NO | MUL | NULL | |+----------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

9. Tip 1: Know your EXPLAIN (3) mysql> EXPLAIN EXTENDED -> SELECT * FROM varchartest WHERE name LIKE 'joshua';+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | filtered | Extra |+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+| 1 | SIMPLE | varchartest | range | idx_name | idx_name | 257 | NULL | 1 | 100.00 | Using where |+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+1 row in set, 1 warning (0.01 sec)

10. Tip 1: Know your EXPLAIN (4) mysql> SHOW WARNINGS+-------+------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+| Level | Code | Message |+-------+------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+| Note | 1003 | select `pfz`.`varchartest`.`id` AS `id`,`pfz`.`varchartest`.`name` AS `name`,`pfz`.`varchartest`.`utf8name` AS `utf8name` from `pfz`.`varchartest` where (`pfz`.`varchartest`.`name` like 'joshua') |+-------+------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

11. Tip 1: Know your PROFILER (1) mysql> SET profiling=1;mysql> SELECT * FROM table; mysql> SHOW PROFILE CPU, BLOCK IO; +--------------------------------+----------+----------+------------+--------------+---------------+| Status | Duration | CPU_user | CPU_system | Block_ops_in | Block_ops_out |+--------------------------------+----------+----------+------------+--------------+---------------+| starting | 0.000930 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 8 || checking query cache for query | 0.000547 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || checking permissions | 0.000045 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || Opening tables | 0.000142 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || System lock | 0.000030 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || Table lock | 0.000045 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || init | 0.000207 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || optimizing | 0.000007 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || statistics | 0.000068 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || preparing | 0.001393 | 0.004000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || Creating tmp table | 0.001658 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 8 || executing | 0.000005 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || Copying to tmp table | 0.000834 | 0.000000 | 0.004001 | 0 | 8 || Sorting result | 0.000179 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || Sending data | 0.000089 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || end | 0.000022 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || removing tmp table | 0.000089 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || end | 0.000005 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || query end | 0.000004 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || freeing items | 0.000844 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || logging slow query | 0.000023 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 || logging slow query | 0.000060 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 8 || cleaning up | 0.000007 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |+--------------------------------+----------+----------+------------+--------------+---------------+

13. Tip 2: My.cnf settings (1) Know the most important ones: key_buffer_size, innodb_buffer_pool_size, sort_buffer_size, max_connections

20. Tip 4: Select * (2) mysql> SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `covering`;+--------------+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Collation | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +--------------+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+| id | int(10) unsigned | NULL | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment || email | varchar(255) | ascii_general_ci | NO | MUL | NULL | | | want_mailing | tinyint(1) | NULL | NO | MUL | NULL | | | extra_info | varchar(255) | ascii_general_ci | NO | MUL | NULL | |+--------------+------------------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+3 rows in set (0.00 sec)mysql> SHOW INDEXES FROM `covering`;+----------+------------+------------+--------------+--------------+-----------+-------------+| Table | Non_unique | Key_name | Seq_in_index | Column_name | Collation | Cardinality | +----------+------------+------------+--------------+--------------+-----------+-------------+| covering | 0 | PRIMARY | 1 | id | A | 3 || covering | 1 | idx_email | 1 | email | A | 3 || covering | 1 | idx_email | 2 | want_mailing | A | 3 || covering | 1 | idx_email2 | 1 | want_mailing | A | 1 || covering | 1 | idx_email2 | 2 | email | A | 3 |+----------+------------+------------+--------------+--------------+-----------+-------------+5 rows in set (0.01 sec)

21. Tip 4: Select * (2) mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT want_mailing FROM `covering` WHERE email LIKE ' [email_address] ';+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+| 1 | SIMPLE | covering | range | idx_email | idx_email | 257 | NULL | 1 | Using where; Using index |+----+-------------+----------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+--------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

29. Tip 8: Sharding (1) mysql> SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `pages`;+------------+------------------+-------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-------+| Field | Type | Collation | Null | Key | Default | Extra |+------------+------------------+-------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-------+| page_id | int(10) unsigned | NULL | NO | PRI | NULL | || created_dt | timestamp | NULL | NO | | CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | || creator_id | int(11) | NULL | NO | | NULL | || title | varchar(100) | latin1_swedish_ci | NO | | NULL | || contents | text | latin1_swedish_ci | NO | | NULL | || hit_count | int(11) | NULL | NO | | 0 | |+------------+------------------+-------------------+------+-----+-------------------+-------+6 rows in set (0.01 sec)

44. Tip 12: UTF-8 (1) mysql> SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM `varchartest`;+----------+--------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+| Field | Type | Collation | Null | Key | Default | Extra |+----------+--------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+| id | int(11) | NULL | NO | PRI | 0 | || name | varchar(255) | latin1_swedish_ci | NO | MUL | NULL | || utf8name | varchar(255) | utf8_general_ci | NO | MUL | NULL | |+----------+--------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+3 rows in set (0.01 sec)mysql> SHOW INDEXES FROM `varchartest`;+-------------+------------+--------------+--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+| Table | Non_unique | Key_name | Seq_in_index | Column_name | Collation | Cardinality |+-------------+------------+--------------+--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+| varchartest | 0 | PRIMARY | 1 | id | A | 3 || varchartest | 1 | idx_name | 1 | name | A | 3 || varchartest | 1 | idx_utf8name | 1 | utf8name | A | 3 |+-------------+------------+--------------+--------------+-------------+-----------+-------------+3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

45. Tip 12: UTF-8 (1) mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM `varchartest` WHERE name LIKE 'jthijssen';+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+-------------+| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+-------------+| 1 | SIMPLE | varchartest | range | idx_name | idx_name | 257 | NULL | 1 | Using where |+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+-------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM `varchartest` WHERE utf8name LIKE 'jthijssen';+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+--------------+---------+------+------+-------------+| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+--------------+---------+------+------+-------------+| 1 | SIMPLE | varchartest | range | idx_utf8name | idx_utf8name | 767 | NULL | 1 | Using where |+----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+--------------+---------+------+------+-------------+1 row in set (0.01 sec)

49. Tip 13: Cardinality & Selectivity (2)

54. Tip 14: Query caching (1) mysql> show status like '%qcache%';+-------------------------+----------+| Variable_name | Value |+-------------------------+----------+| Qcache_free_blocks | 1 || Qcache_free_memory | 16768400 || Qcache_hits | 3860 || Qcache_inserts | 975 || Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 || Qcache_not_cached | 486 || Qcache_queries_in_cache | 0 || Qcache_total_blocks | 1 |+-------------------------+----------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select * from varchartest;+----+------+----------+| id | name | utf8name |+----+------+----------+| 1 | j | joshua || 2 | j | jeroen || 3 | d | david |+----+------+----------+3 rows in set (0.00 sec)mysql> show status like '%qcache%';+-------------------------+----------+| Variable_name | Value |+-------------------------+----------+| Qcache_free_blocks | 1 || Qcache_free_memory | 16766864 || Qcache_hits | 3860 || Qcache_inserts | 976 || Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 || Qcache_not_cached | 486 || Qcache_queries_in_cache | 1 || Qcache_total_blocks | 4 |+-------------------------+----------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

55. Tip 14: Query caching (2) mysql> select * from varchartest;+----+------+----------+| id | name | utf8name |+----+------+----------+| 1 | j | joshua || 2 | j | jeroen || 3 | d | david |+----+------+----------+3 rows in set (0.00 sec)mysql> show status like '%qcache%';+-------------------------+----------+| Variable_name | Value |+-------------------------+----------+| Qcache_free_blocks | 1 || Qcache_free_memory | 16766864 || Qcache_hits | 3861 || Qcache_inserts | 976 || Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 || Qcache_not_cached | 486 || Qcache_queries_in_cache | 1 || Qcache_total_blocks | 4 |+-------------------------+----------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select * from varchartest;+----+------+----------+| id | name | utf8name |+----+------+----------+| 1 | j | joshua || 2 | j | jeroen || 3 | d | david |+----+------+----------+3 rows in set (0.00 sec)mysql> show status like '%qcache%';+-------------------------+----------+| Variable_name | Value |+-------------------------+----------+| Qcache_free_blocks | 1 || Qcache_free_memory | 16766864 || Qcache_hits | 3860 || Qcache_inserts | 976 || Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 || Qcache_not_cached | 486 || Qcache_queries_in_cache | 1 || Qcache_total_blocks | 4 |+-------------------------+----------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

56. Tip 14: Query caching (3) mysql> select * from varchartest;+----+------+----------+| id | name | utf8name |+----+------+----------+| 1 | j | joshua || 2 | j | jeroen || 3 | d | david |+----+------+----------+3 rows in set (0.00 sec)mysql> show status like '%qcache%';+-------------------------+----------+| Variable_name | Value |+-------------------------+----------+| Qcache_free_blocks | 1 || Qcache_free_memory | 16766864 || Qcache_hits | 3861 || Qcache_inserts | 976 || Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 || Qcache_not_cached | 486 || Qcache_queries_in_cache | 1 || Qcache_total_blocks | 4 |+-------------------------+----------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> select * from varchartest ORDER BY RAND();+----+------+----------+| id | name | utf8name |+----+------+----------+| 2 | j | jeroen || 1 | j | joshua || 3 | d | david |+----+------+----------+3 rows in set (0.05 sec)mysql> show status like '%qcache%';+-------------------------+----------+| Variable_name | Value |+-------------------------+----------+| Qcache_free_blocks | 1 || Qcache_free_memory | 16766864 || Qcache_hits | 3861 || Qcache_inserts | 976 || Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 || Qcache_not_cached | 487 || Qcache_queries_in_cache | 1 || Qcache_total_blocks | 4 |+-------------------------+----------+8 rows in set (0.00 sec)

57. SELECT * FROM table WHERE YEAR(created_dt) < YEAR(NOW()); vs SELECT * FROM table WHERE YEAR(created_dt) < ‘2010’; Tip 14: Query caching (4)

62. Daycamp for developers http://www.enrise.com http://www.daycamp4developers.com /