Re: optimizing/indexing date column

[Mark Daly]

No problem. Case 2 (http://hackmysql.com/case2) has some data that's relevant to you as well.

In your explain, the "Type: All" tells you that a full tablescan is going on, even with the indices. If you don't have time to make it through the cases, the short answer is...

Better:
CREATE INDEX arr_dep ON history (arrival, departure);

Best:
CREATE INDEX arr_dep ON history (arrival, departure, ...the columns in your select statement...);