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Chapter 21: EXPLAIN and DESCRIBE

Examples

DESCRIBE tablename;

DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN are synonyms. DESCRIBE on a tablename returns the definition of the columns.

DESCRIBE tablename;

Exmple Result:

COLUMN_NAME COLUMN_TYPE IS_NULLABLE COLUMN_KEY COLUMN_DEFAULT EXTRA
id int(11) NO PRI 0
auto_increment
test varchar(255) YES (null)

Here you see the column names, followed by the columns type. It shows if null is allowed in the
column and if the column uses an Index. the default value is also displayed and if the table
contains any special behavior like an auto_increment.

EXPLAIN Select query

An Explain infront of a select query shows you how the query will be executed. This way you to
see if the query uses an index or if you could optimize your query by adding an index.

Example query:

explain select * from user join data on user.test = data.fk_user;

Example result:

id select_type table type possible_keys key key_len ref rows Extra
1 SIMPLE user index test test 5 (null) 1 Using where;
Using index
1 SIMPLE data ref fk_user fk_user 5 user.test 1 (null)

on type you see if an index was used. In the column possible_keys you see if the execution plan
can choose from different indexes of if none exists. key tells you the acutal used index. key_len
shows you the size in bytes for one index item. The lower this value is the more index items fit into
the same memory size an they can be faster processed. rows shows you the expected number of
rows the query needs to scan, the lower the better.

Read EXPLAIN and DESCRIBE online: https://riptutorial.com/sql/topic/2928/explain-and-describe

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