Optimizing a query returning a lot of records, a way to avoid hundreds of join. Is it a smart solution?

Question

I am not so int SQL and I have the following doubt about how to optimize a query. I am using MySql

I have this DB schema:

And this is t

Answer 1

You've done a reasonably good job of writing an efficient query.

You didn't use SELECT *, which can mess up performance in a query with lots of joins, because it generates bloated and redundant intermediate result sets. But your intermediate result set -- the one you apply ORDER BY to -- is not bloated.

Your WHERE col = val clauses mostly mention primary keys of tables (I guess). That's good.

Your big table Market_Commodity_Price_Series could maybe use a compound covering index. Similarly, some other tables may need that kind of index. But that should be the topic of another question.

Your proposed optimization -- ordering an intermediate result set consisting mostly of id values -- would help a lot if you were doing ORDER BY ... LIMIT and using the LIMIT function to discard most of your results. But you are not doing that.

Without knowing more about your data, it's hard to offer a crisp opinion. But, if it were me I'd use your first query. I'd keep an eye on it as you go into production (and on other complex queries). When (not if) performance starts to deteriorate, then you can do EXPLAIN and figure out the best way to index your tables. You've done a good job of writing a query that will get your application up and running. Go with it!