Data modification behavior of EXPLAIN with INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE commands

[chan ryu]

Hello!

Recently, I've observed that using the EXPLAIN command with INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE operations does not actually alter the data, which I confirmed through testing. However, I found it challenging to locate a clear explanation or official documentation on this matter, so I decided to seek guidance here.

As far as I understand, EXPLAIN is employed to display the execution plan of a query without actually running the query. Additionally, while EXPLAIN ANALYZE in PostgreSQL executes the query once providing both the execution plan and statistics, the functionality seems to operate differently in MySQL.

I have two specific questions:

Could anyone provide a technical explanation as to why EXPLAIN does not result in data modification when used with INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE commands?
I would love to learn more about how EXPLAIN ANALYZE specifically operates in MySQL and how we can verify its behavior.
I am aiming to deepen my understanding of MySQL's mechanisms and would greatly appreciate it if anyone could share their experiences or point me to useful resources related to this topic.

Thank you for your time and assistance.