关于mysql explain中key_len的计算方法讲解-木庄网络博客

本文摘自PHP中文网，作者jacklove，侵删。

mysql的explain命令可以分析sql的性能，其中有一项是key_len（索引的长度）的统计。本文将分析mysql explain中key_len的计算方法。

1.创建测试表及数据

CREATE TABLE `member` ( `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, `name` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL, `age` tinyint(3) unsigned DEFAULT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (`id`), KEY `name` (`name`)

) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;INSERT INTO `member` (`id`, `name`, `age`) VALUES (NULL, 'fdipzone', '18'), (NULL, 'jim', '19'), (NULL, 'tom', '19');

2.查看explain

name的字段类型是varchar(20)，字符编码是utf8，一个字符占用3个字节，那么key_len应该是 20*3=60。

mysql> explain select * from `member` where name='fdipzone';
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+| id | select_type | table  | type | possible_keys | key  | key_len | ref   | rows | Extra                 |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+|  1 | SIMPLE      | member | ref  | name          | name | 63      | const |    1 | Using index condition |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+

explain的key_len为63，多出了3。
name字段是允许NULL，把name改为NOT NULL再测试

ALTER TABLE `member` CHANGE `name` `name` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL;mysql> explain select * from `member` where name='fdipzone';
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+| id | select_type | table  | type | possible_keys | key  | key_len | ref   | rows | Extra                 |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+|  1 | SIMPLE      | member | ref  | name          | name | 62      | const |    1 | Using index condition |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+

现在key_len为62，比刚才少了1，但还是多了2。可以确定，字段为NULL会多占用一个字节。
name字段类型为varchar，属于变长字段，把varchar改为char再测试

ALTER TABLE `member` CHANGE `name` `name` CHAR(20) NOT NULL;mysql> explain select * from `member` where name='fdipzone';
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+| id | select_type | table  | type | possible_keys | key  | key_len | ref   | rows | Extra                 |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+|  1 | SIMPLE      | member | ref  | name          | name | 60      | const |    1 | Using index condition |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------+