Sams Teach Yourself MySQL

Using Indexes in MySQL

You can define a column that will be indexed in MySQL when you create a new table as a clause in the CREATE TABLE statement, or on an existing table using the CREATE INDEX command.

Defining Key Columns

You have already seen that the primary key on a table can be defined by adding the keywords PRIMARY KEY after a column in the table definition. You also can add a key definition as a separate item in the CREATE TABLE statement.

A primary key is specified using the keywords PRIMARY KEY followed by the name of the column in parentheses. You can also specify a UNIQUE KEY or UNIQUE INDEX, or simply a KEY or INDEX with no further constraints. The column name is given in parentheses after the key type.

The following statement ...