MySQL :: MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual :: 13.8.2 EXPLAIN Statement

5.7
5.6

MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual / ... / EXPLAIN Statement

13.8.2 EXPLAIN Statement

{EXPLAIN | DESCRIBE | DESC}
    tbl_name [col_name | wild]

{EXPLAIN | DESCRIBE | DESC}
    [explain_type]
    {explainable_stmt | FOR CONNECTION connection_id}

{EXPLAIN | DESCRIBE | DESC} ANALYZE [FORMAT = TREE] select_statement

explain_type: {
    FORMAT = format_name
}

format_name: {
    TRADITIONAL
  | JSON
  | TREE
}

explainable_stmt: {
    SELECT statement
  | TABLE statement
  | DELETE statement
  | INSERT statement
  | REPLACE statement
  | UPDATE statement
}

The DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN statements are synonyms. In practice, the DESCRIBE keyword is more often used to obtain information about table structure, whereas EXPLAIN is used to obtain a query execution plan (that is, an explanation of how MySQL would execute a query).

The following discussion uses the DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN keywords in accordance with those uses, but the MySQL parser treats them as completely synonymous.

Obtaining Table Structure Information

DESCRIBE provides information about the columns in a table:

mysql> DESCRIBE City;
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type     | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Id         | int(11)  | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| Name       | char(35) | NO   |     |         |                |
| Country    | char(3)  | NO   | UNI |         |                |
| District   | char(20) | YES  | MUL |         |                |
| Population | int(11)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

DESCRIBE is a shortcut for SHOW COLUMNS. These statements also display information for views. The description for SHOW COLUMNS provides more information about the output columns. See Section 13.7.7.5, “SHOW COLUMNS Statement”.

By default, DESCRIBE displays information about all columns in the table. col_name, if given, is the name of a column in the table. In this case, the statement displays information only for the named column. wild, if given, is a pattern string. It can contain the SQL % and _ wildcard characters. In this case, the statement displays output only for the columns with names matching the string. There is no need to enclose the string within quotation marks unless it contains spaces or other special characters.

The DESCRIBE statement is provided for compatibility with Oracle.

The SHOW CREATE TABLE, SHOW TABLE STATUS, and SHOW INDEX statements also provide information about tables. See Section 13.7.7, “SHOW Statements”.

Obtaining Execution Plan Information

The EXPLAIN statement provides information about how MySQL executes statements:

EXPLAIN works with SELECT, DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, and UPDATE statements. In MySQL 8.0.19 and later, it also works with TABLE statements.
When EXPLAIN is used with an explainable statement, MySQL displays information from the optimizer about the statement execution plan. That is, MySQL explains how it would process the statement, including information about how tables are joined and in which order. For information about using EXPLAIN to obtain execution plan information, see Section 8.8.2, “EXPLAIN Output Format”.
When EXPLAIN is used with FOR CONNECTION connection_id rather than an explainable statement, it displays the execution plan for the statement executing in the named connection. See Section 8.8.4, “Obtaining Execution Plan Information for a Named Connection”.
For explainable statements, EXPLAIN produces additional execution plan information that can be displayed using SHOW WARNINGS. See Section 8.8.3, “Extended EXPLAIN Output Format”.
EXPLAIN is useful for examining queries involving partitioned tables. See Section 24.3.5, “Obtaining Information About Partitions”.
The FORMAT option can be used to select the output format. TRADITIONAL presents the output in tabular format. This is the default if no FORMAT option is present. JSON format displays the information in JSON format. In MySQL 8.0.16 and later, TREE provides tree-like output with more precise descriptions of query handling than the TRADITIONAL format; it is the only format which shows hash join usage (see Section 8.2.1.4, “Hash Join Optimization”) and is always used for EXPLAIN ANALYZE.

EXPLAIN requires the same privileges required to execute the explained statement. Additionally, EXPLAIN also requires the SHOW VIEW privilege for any explained view. EXPLAIN ... FOR CONNECTION also requires the PROCESS privilege if the specified connection belongs to a different user.

With the help of EXPLAIN, you can see where you should add indexes to tables so that the statement executes faster by using indexes to find rows. You can also use EXPLAIN to check whether the optimizer joins the tables in an optimal order. To give a hint to the optimizer to use a join order corresponding to the order in which the tables are named in a SELECT statement, begin the statement with SELECT STRAIGHT_JOIN rather than just SELECT. (See Section 13.2.10, “SELECT Statement”.)

The optimizer trace may sometimes provide information complementary to that of EXPLAIN. However, the optimizer trace format and content are subject to change between versions. For details, see MySQL Internals: Tracing the Optimizer.

If you have a problem with indexes not being used when you believe that they should be, run ANALYZE TABLE to update table statistics, such as cardinality of keys, that can affect the choices the optimizer makes. See Section 13.7.3.1, “ANALYZE TABLE Statement”.

Note

MySQL Workbench has a Visual Explain capability that provides a visual representation of EXPLAIN output. See Tutorial: Using Explain to Improve Query Performance.

Obtaining Information with EXPLAIN ANALYZE

MySQL 8.0.18 introduces EXPLAIN ANALYZE, which runs a statement and produces EXPLAIN output along with timing and additional, iterator-based, information about how the optimizer's expectations matched the actual execution. For each iterator, the following information is provided:

Estimated execution cost
(Some iterators are not accounted for by the cost model, and so are not included in the estimate.)
Estimated number of returned rows
Time to return first row
Time to return all rows (actual cost), in milliseconds
(When there are multiple loops, this figure shows the average time per loop.)
Number of rows returned by the iterator
Number of loops

The query execution information is displayed using the TREE output format, in which nodes represent iterators. EXPLAIN ANALYZE always uses the TREE output format. In MySQL 8.0.21 and later, this can optionally be specified explicitly using FORMAT=TREE; formats other than TREE remain unsupported.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE can be used with SELECT statements, as well as with multi-table UPDATE and DELETE statements. Beginning with MySQL 8.0.19, it can also be used with TABLE statements.

Beginning with MySQL 8.0.20, you can terminate this statement using KILL QUERY or CTRL-C.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE cannot be used with FOR CONNECTION.

Example output:

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM t1 JOIN t2 ON (t1.c1 = t2.c2)\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Inner hash join (t2.c2 = t1.c1)  (cost=4.70 rows=6)
(actual time=0.032..0.035 rows=6 loops=1)
    -> Table scan on t2  (cost=0.06 rows=6)
(actual time=0.003..0.005 rows=6 loops=1)
    -> Hash
        -> Table scan on t1  (cost=0.85 rows=6)
(actual time=0.018..0.022 rows=6 loops=1)

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM t3 WHERE i > 8\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Filter: (t3.i > 8)  (cost=1.75 rows=5)
(actual time=0.019..0.021 rows=6 loops=1)
    -> Table scan on t3  (cost=1.75 rows=15)
(actual time=0.017..0.019 rows=15 loops=1)

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM t3 WHERE pk > 17\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Filter: (t3.pk > 17)  (cost=1.26 rows=5)
(actual time=0.013..0.016 rows=5 loops=1)
    -> Index range scan on t3 using PRIMARY  (cost=1.26 rows=5)
(actual time=0.012..0.014 rows=5 loops=1)

The tables used in the example output were created by the statements shown here:

CREATE TABLE t1 (
    c1 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    c2 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE t2 (
    c1 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    c2 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE t3 (
    pk INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    i INTEGER DEFAULT NULL
);

Values shown for actual time in the output of this statement are expressed in milliseconds.

PREV HOME UP NEXT