Slow performance on handler `primary` first

[christian nieling]

I'm trying to let our legacy cobol application talk to MySQL, for this I'm using the MySQL HANDLER statement.

In stead of the cobol start command, I now use:
HANDLER MYTABLE READ `PRIMARY` FIRST WHERE ALPAHKEY>='1%';

This will put the pointer on the first record starting with `1`, no problems here.

However the further I get into the table the longer it will take to execute the mysql handler statement.
HANDLER MYTABLE READ `PRIMARY` FIRST WHERE ALPAHKEY>='Z%';
Will take more the 10 seconds to execute on a large table?

ALPHAKEY is the primay key field of MYTABLE.

Shouldn't it just put the pointer on the first record starting with `Z` using the primary key? does anyone know how to speed this up, or knwo any other soluition?

Thanks.