Explain Development Tutorials, Guides & Insights

Use the EXPLAIN command to analyze how a query uses indexes and to identify potential improvements:

EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM users WHERE last_name = 'Smith';

Use EXPLAIN to identify full table scans (type = ALL) and optimize them by adding appropriate indexes.

Joins can be resource-intensive. Optimizing them is crucial for query performance.

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
WHERE department = 'Engineering' AND salary > 70000
ORDER BY salary DESC
LIMIT 5;

Keep result set lean with only needed fields.