We usually try to avoid subselects because sometimes they force the use of a temporary table and limits the use of indexes. But, when is good to use a subselect?
This example was tested over table a (1310723 rows), b, c and d ( 5 rows each) and with MySQL version 5.5 and 5.6.
Let’s suppose we have a query like this:
select a.name,sum(a.count) aSum,avg(a.position) aAVG,b.col1,c.col2,d.col3 from a join b on (a.bid = b.id) join c on (a.cid = c.id) join d on (a.did = d.id) group by a.name,b.id,c.id,d.id
What will MySQL do? First it will take the entire data set – this means that will go through each row scanning the value of “bid,” “cid” and “did” and then apply the join to each table. At this point it has the complete data set and then it will start to cluster it, executing the sum and the average functions.
Let’s analyze it step by step:
- Scan each row of table a which …