How to Improve a MySQL Query on a 1 Million Record Table

Question

I have a 1 million record MySQL table with 7 columns. I have a primary key and a fulltext index column. The table stands for a dictionary (size on disk ~300 MB).

The columns are:

    'id', 'int(11)', 'NO', 'PRI', NULL, 'auto_increment'
    'writtenForm', 'varchar(255)' - Fulltext index
    'languageIdentifier', 'varchar(255)'
    'partOfSpeech', 'varchar(255)'
    '_index', 'int(11)'
    'writtenText', 'longtext'
    'lexiconid', 'varchar(255)'

When I run this query:

select * from tablename where writtenForm = 'herstellen'

I get the results in 4,5 seconds. For me is way too much, as this table is simple, the query has no joins and I run it locally on my PC.

I have noticed that the fulltext index has no collation. Might this be a problem? If yes, please let me know how to add collation to an index.

I have also noticed that any alteration I bring to the table itself (add column, drop column) takes more than 5 minutes (last column drop took around 15).

Answer 1

Since you're using = and not a fulltext search, could you:

a) Remove the fulltext index and replace it with a regular index

or

b) Add a regular index alongside the fulltext index

I suspect your query is doing a full table scan and not using the fulltext index because you're not actually doing a MATCH fulltext search

Answer 2

MySQL Workbench also includes a Visual Explain diagram to help with such matters. For additional information, see the related tutorial titled Using Visual Explain to improve query performance.