DESCRIBE provides information about the columns in a table:

mysql> DESCRIBE City;
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field      | Type     | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Id         | int(11)  | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| Name       | char(35) | NO   |     |         |                |
| Country    | char(3)  | NO   | UNI |         |                |
| District   | char(20) | YES  | MUL |         |                |
| Population | int(11)  | NO   |     | 0       |                |
+------------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

DESCRIBE is a shortcut for SHOW COLUMNS. These statements also display information for views. The description for SHOW COLUMNS provides more information about the output columns. See Section 15.7.7.5, “SHOW COLUMNS Statement”.

By default, DESCRIBE displays information about all columns in the table. col_name, if given, is the name of a column in the table. In this case, the statement displays information only for the named column. wild, if given, is a pattern string. It can contain the SQL % and _ wildcard characters. In this case, the statement displays output only for the columns with names matching the string. There is no need to enclose the string within quotation marks unless it contains spaces or other special characters.

The DESCRIBE statement is provided for compatibility with Oracle.

The SHOW CREATE TABLE, SHOW TABLE STATUS, and SHOW INDEX statements also provide information about tables. See Section 15.7.7, “SHOW Statements”.

The explain_format system variable, added in MySQL 8.0.32, has no effect on the output of EXPLAIN when used to obtain information about table columns.

The EXPLAIN statement provides information about how MySQL executes statements:

EXPLAIN requires the same privileges required to execute the explained statement. Additionally, EXPLAIN also requires the SHOW VIEW privilege for any explained view. EXPLAIN ... FOR CONNECTION also requires the PROCESS privilege if the specified connection belongs to a different user.

The explain_format system variable introduced in MySQL 8.0.32 determines the format of the output from EXPLAIN when used to display a query execution plan. This variable can take any of the values used with the FORMAT option, with the addition of DEFAULT as a synonym for TRADITIONAL. The following example uses the country table from the world database which can be obtained from MySQL: Other Downloads:

mysql> USE world; # Make world the current database
Database changed

Checking the value of explain_format, we see that it has the default value, and that EXPLAIN (with no FORMAT option) therefore uses the traditional tabular output:

mysql> SELECT @@explain_format;
+------------------+
| @@explain_format |
+------------------+
| TRADITIONAL      |
+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT Name FROM country WHERE Code Like 'A%';
+----+-------------+---------+------------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table   | partitions | type  | possible_keys | key     | key_len | ref  | rows | filtered | Extra       |
+----+-------------+---------+------------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
|  1 | SIMPLE      | country | NULL       | range | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 12      | NULL |   17 |   100.00 | Using where |
+----+-------------+---------+------------+-------+---------------+---------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

If we set the value of explain_format to TREE, then rerun the same EXPLAIN statement, the output uses the tree-like format:

mysql> SET @@explain_format=TREE;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT @@explain_format;
+------------------+
| @@explain_format |
+------------------+
| TREE             |
+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT Name FROM country WHERE Code LIKE 'A%';
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| EXPLAIN                                                                                                      |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| -> Filter: (country.`Code` like 'A%')  (cost=3.67 rows=17)
    -> Index range scan on country using PRIMARY over ('A' <= Code <= 'A????????')  (cost=3.67 rows=17)  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

As stated previously, the FORMAT option overrides this setting. Executing the same EXPLAIN statement using FORMAT=JSON instead of FORMAT=TREE shows that this is the case:

mysql> EXPLAIN FORMAT=JSON SELECT Name FROM country WHERE Code LIKE 'A%';
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| EXPLAIN                                                                      |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| {
  "query_block": {
    "select_id": 1,
    "cost_info": {
      "query_cost": "3.67"
    },
    "table": {
      "table_name": "country",
      "access_type": "range",
      "possible_keys": [
        "PRIMARY"
      ],
      "key": "PRIMARY",
      "used_key_parts": [
        "Code"
      ],
      "key_length": "12",
      "rows_examined_per_scan": 17,
      "rows_produced_per_join": 17,
      "filtered": "100.00",
      "cost_info": {
        "read_cost": "1.97",
        "eval_cost": "1.70",
        "prefix_cost": "3.67",
        "data_read_per_join": "16K"
      },
      "used_columns": [
        "Code",
        "Name"
      ],
      "attached_condition": "(`world`.`country`.`Code` like 'A%')"
    }
  }
}                                                                              |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

To return the default output of EXPLAIN to the tabular format, set explain_format to TRADITIONAL. Alternatively, you can set it to DEFAULT, which has the same effect, as shown here:

mysql> SET @@explain_format=DEFAULT;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT @@explain_format;
+------------------+
| @@explain_format |
+------------------+
| TRADITIONAL      |
+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

With the help of EXPLAIN, you can see where you should add indexes to tables so that the statement executes faster by using indexes to find rows. You can also use EXPLAIN to check whether the optimizer joins the tables in an optimal order. To give a hint to the optimizer to use a join order corresponding to the order in which the tables are named in a SELECT statement, begin the statement with SELECT STRAIGHT_JOIN rather than just SELECT. (See Section 15.2.13, “SELECT Statement”.)

The optimizer trace may sometimes provide information complementary to that of EXPLAIN. However, the optimizer trace format and content are subject to change between versions. For details, see Section 10.15, “Tracing the Optimizer”.

If you have a problem with indexes not being used when you believe that they should be, run ANALYZE TABLE to update table statistics, such as cardinality of keys, that can affect the choices the optimizer makes. See Section 15.7.3.1, “ANALYZE TABLE Statement”.

MySQL 8.0.18 introduces EXPLAIN ANALYZE, which runs a statement and produces EXPLAIN output along with timing and additional, iterator-based, information about how the optimizer's expectations matched the actual execution. For each iterator, the following information is provided:

The query execution information is displayed using the TREE output format, in which nodes represent iterators. EXPLAIN ANALYZE always uses the TREE output format. In MySQL 8.0.21 and later, this can optionally be specified explicitly using FORMAT=TREE; formats other than TREE remain unsupported.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE can be used with SELECT statements, as well as with multi-table UPDATE and DELETE statements. Beginning with MySQL 8.0.19, it can also be used with TABLE statements.

Beginning with MySQL 8.0.20, you can terminate this statement using KILL QUERY or CTRL-C.

EXPLAIN ANALYZE cannot be used with FOR CONNECTION.

Example output:

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM t1 JOIN t2 ON (t1.c1 = t2.c2)\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Inner hash join (t2.c2 = t1.c1)  (cost=4.70 rows=6)
(actual time=0.032..0.035 rows=6 loops=1)
    -> Table scan on t2  (cost=0.06 rows=6)
(actual time=0.003..0.005 rows=6 loops=1)
    -> Hash
        -> Table scan on t1  (cost=0.85 rows=6)
(actual time=0.018..0.022 rows=6 loops=1)

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM t3 WHERE i > 8\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Filter: (t3.i > 8)  (cost=1.75 rows=5)
(actual time=0.019..0.021 rows=6 loops=1)
    -> Table scan on t3  (cost=1.75 rows=15)
(actual time=0.017..0.019 rows=15 loops=1)

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM t3 WHERE pk > 17\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Filter: (t3.pk > 17)  (cost=1.26 rows=5)
(actual time=0.013..0.016 rows=5 loops=1)
    -> Index range scan on t3 using PRIMARY  (cost=1.26 rows=5)
(actual time=0.012..0.014 rows=5 loops=1)

The tables used in the example output were created by the statements shown here:

CREATE TABLE t1 (
    c1 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    c2 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE t2 (
    c1 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL,
    c2 INTEGER DEFAULT NULL
);

CREATE TABLE t3 (
    pk INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    i INTEGER DEFAULT NULL
);

Values shown for actual time in the output of this statement are expressed in milliseconds.

As of MySQL 8.0.32, the explain_format system variable has the following effects on EXPLAIN ANALYZE:

We illustrate the behavior described in the second point here, re-using the last EXPLAIN ANALYZE statement from the previous example:

mysql> SET @@explain_format=JSON;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT @@explain_format;
+------------------+
| @@explain_format |
+------------------+
| JSON             |
+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT * FROM t3 WHERE pk > 17\G
ERROR 1235 (42000): This version of MySQL doesn't yet support 'EXPLAIN ANALYZE with JSON format'

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE FORMAT=TRADITIONAL SELECT * FROM t3 WHERE pk > 17\G
ERROR 1235 (42000): This version of MySQL doesn't yet support 'EXPLAIN ANALYZE with TRADITIONAL format'

mysql> EXPLAIN ANALYZE FORMAT=TREE SELECT * FROM t3 WHERE pk > 17\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Filter: (t3.pk > 17)  (cost=1.26 rows=5)
(actual time=0.013..0.016 rows=5 loops=1)
    -> Index range scan on t3 using PRIMARY  (cost=1.26 rows=5)
(actual time=0.012..0.014 rows=5 loops=1)

Using FORMAT=TRADITIONAL or FORMAT=JSON with EXPLAIN ANALYZE always raises an error, regardless of the value of explain_format.

Beginning with MySQL 8.0.33, numbers in the output of EXPLAIN ANALYZE and EXPLAIN FORMAT=TREE are formatted according to the following rules: