MySQL 8 Cookbook

Using EXPLAIN

The explain plan gives information on how the optimizer is going to execute the query. You just need to prefix the EXPLAIN keyword to the query:

mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT dept_name FROM dept_emp JOIN employees ON dept_emp.emp_no=employees.emp_no JOIN departments ON departments.dept_no=dept_emp.dept_no WHERE employees.first_name='Aamer'\G*************************** 1. row ***************************           id: 1  select_type: SIMPLE        table: employees   partitions: NULL         type: refpossible_keys: PRIMARY,name          key: name      key_len: 58          ref: const         rows: 228     filtered: 100.00        Extra: Using index*************************** 2. row ***************************           id: 1  select_type: SIMPLE        table: dept_emp   partitions: NULL         type: refpossible_keys: PRIMARY,dept_no ...