Re: Explain plan question

[Harrison Fisk]

Hi,

With the first row of the first EXPLAIN, notice that the 'type' is index. That means that MySQL is doing a full index scan where by it has to read every single entry in the index. It can occur when you normally do a full-table scan, but there is a covering index, so it instead reads the entire index without using the normal index properties.

The reason it doesn't show up in possible_keys is because it isn't actually possible to use it for reducing the rows being returned (which is what a normal index lookup does). However it still decides to use it for a full index scan, so it is still picked. You will always see this behavior with a 'type' of index.

Harrison Fisk, Trainer and Consultant
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com