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Primary key index with a DATETIME as first part of the compound key is never used
Posted by: jeremy cohen solal
Date: December 30, 2011 08:10AM

I have a problem with INDEXING a DATETIME (or even a date) as first part of my PRIMARY KEY.

I use MySQL 5.5

Here are my two tables:

-- This is my standard table with dateDim as a dateTime

CREATE TABLE `stats` (
`dateDim` datetime NOT NULL,
`accountDim` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL,
`execCodeDim` smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL,
`operationTypeDim` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
`junkDim` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
`ipCountryDim` smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL,
`count` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`amount` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`dateDim`,`accountDim`,`execCodeDim`,`operationTypeDim`,`junkDim`,`ipCountryDim`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8


-- Here is a copy with datDim as an integer

CREATE TABLE `stats_todays` (
`dateDim` int(11) unsigned NOT NULL,
`accountDim` mediumint(8) unsigned NOT NULL,
`execCodeDim` smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL,
`operationTypeDim` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
`junkDim` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
`ipCountryDim` smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL,
`count` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`amount` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`dateDim`,`accountDim`,`execCodeDim`,`operationTypeDim`,`junkDim`,`ipCountryDim`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8


I fill both table with exactly the same data (near 10 000 000)

But:

* stats table use a DATETIME for dateDim
* stats_todays use un INTEGER with TO_DAYS() for dateDim


My question is: why MySQL does'nt USE the PRIMARY KEY when the first part of the index is a datetime ???
It is very strange since With the same data but consolidated with an INTEGER and TO_DAYS(dateDim) the same request rocks....

Example with stats table (and datetime):

SELECT *
FROM `stats`
WHERE
dateDim = '2014-04-03 00:00:00'
AND accountDim = 4
AND execCodeDim = 9
AND operationTypeDim = 1
AND junkDim = 5
AND ipCountryDim = 3

=> 1 result (4.5sec)

Explain:

id select_type table type possible_keys key key_len ref rows Extra
1 SIMPLE stats ALL NULL NULL NULL NULL 8832329 Using where


Same request on the other table stats_todays (With INTEGER and TO_DAYS() )


EXPLAIN SELECT *
FROM `stats_todays`
WHERE
dateDim = TO_DAYS('2014-04-03 00:00:00')
AND accountDim = 4
AND execCodeDim = 9
AND operationTypeDim = 1
AND junkDim = 5
AND ipCountryDim = 3

=> Result 1 row (0.0003 sec)

Explain:

id select_type table type possible_keys key key_len ref rows Extra
1 SIMPLE stats_todays const PRIMARY PRIMARY 13 const,const,const,const,const,const 1

If you read the full post, you understand that is not a low cardinality problem since the request work with exactly the same cardinality with an INTEGER dateDim field....


Here is some advanced details:

SELECT COUNT( DISTINCT dateDim )
FROM stats_todays
UNION ALL
SELECT COUNT( DISTINCT dateDim )
FROM stats;

Result:


COUNT(DISTINCT dateDim)
2192
2192

Here is the INDEX description:

SHOW INDEXES FROM `stats`

Table Non_unique Key_name Seq_in_index Column_name Collation Cardinality Sub_part Packed Null Index_type Comment Index_comment
stats 0 PRIMARY 1 dateDim A 6921 NULL NULL BTREE
stats 0 PRIMARY 2 accountDim A 883232 NULL NULL BTREE
stats 0 PRIMARY 3 execCodeDim A 8832329 NULL NULL BTREE
stats 0 PRIMARY 4 operationTypeDim A 8832329 NULL NULL BTREE
stats 0 PRIMARY 5 junkDim A 8832329 NULL NULL BTREE
stats 0 PRIMARY 6 ipCountryDim A 8832329 NULL NULL BTREE

SHOW INDEXES FROM `stats_todays`

Table Non_unique Key_name Seq_in_index Column_name Collation Cardinality Sub_part Packed Null Index_type Comment Index_comment
stats_todays 0 PRIMARY 1 dateDim A 7518 NULL NULL BTREE
stats_todays 0 PRIMARY 2 accountDim A 4022582 NULL NULL BTREE
stats_todays 0 PRIMARY 3 execCodeDim A 8045164 NULL NULL BTREE
stats_todays 0 PRIMARY 4 operationTypeDim A 8045164 NULL NULL BTREE
stats_todays 0 PRIMARY 5 junkDim A 8045164 NULL NULL BTREE
stats_todays 0 PRIMARY 6 ipCountryDim A 8045164 NULL NULL BTREE


SELECT dateDim, COUNT(*) FROM stats GROUP BY dateDim WITH ROLLUP

* tells there is 2192 different dates, and the repartition is smooth (approx 3000 - 4000 rows by date)
* there is 8 831 990 rows in the table
* The same for the other table
* I tried with COVERING INDEX (replacing * by all PK columns) => nothing changed
* I tried force|use index => nothing changed
* The same with date field instead datetime
* The same with INDEX or UNIQUE instead of primary key

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Primary key index with a DATETIME as first part of the compound key is never used
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December 30, 2011 08:10AM


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