Simple ordered MySQL query running very slow on a large table

Question

I have a table with ~ 1.500.000 records:

CREATE TABLE `item_locale` (
  `item_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
  `language` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `name` varchar(256) COLLATE utf8_czech_ci NOT NULL,
  `text` text COLLATE utf8_czech_ci)
  PRIMARY KEY (`item_id`,`language`),
  KEY `name` (`name`(255))
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_czech_ci;

With item_id , language as primary keys and index on name with size 255.

With following query:

select item_id, name from item_locale order by name limit 50;

The select takes around 3 seconds event though only 50 rows were required.

What can I do to speed up such query?

EDIT: Some of you suggested adding an INDEX. I mentioned above, that the name column is indexed with size 255.

I runned explain on the command:

+----+-------------+---------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+----------------+
| id | select_type | table         | type | possible_keys | key  | key_len | ref  | rows    | Extra          |
+----+-------------+---------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+----------------+
|  1 | SIMPLE      | item_locale | ALL  | NULL          | NULL | NULL    | NULL | 1558653 | Using filesort |
+----+-------------+---------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+----------------+

Strange thing is that it is seems not to use any index...

Answer 1

Retrieving 50 Records is heavier too. Limit them to 10 Since you are using Order by also..

Answer 2

Try to use query hint:

select item_id, name 
 from item_locale USE INDEX FOR ORDER BY (name) 
  order by name limit 50;

also try to use

select item_id, name 
 from item_locale FORCE INDEX (name) 
  order by name limit 50;

Answer 3

In the end, there was some kind of problem with indexes - I dropped them all and recreated them again. And it finally works. Thanks.

Answer 4

在名称字段上应用索引，这可能会加快索引速度。