One can check that table elimination is working by looking at the output of EXPLAIN [EXTENDED] and not finding there the tables that were eliminated:

MySQL [test]> explain select ACRAT_rating from actors where ACNAM_name=’Gary Oldman’;
+----+--------------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
| id | select_type        | table     | type   | possible_keys | key     | key_len | ref                  | rows | Extra       |
+----+--------------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
|  1 | PRIMARY            | ac_anchor | index  | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | NULL                 |    2 | Using index |
|  1 | PRIMARY            | ac_name   | eq_ref | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | test.ac_anchor.AC_ID |    1 | Using where |
|  1 | PRIMARY            | ac_rating | ref    | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | test.ac_anchor.AC_ID |    1 |             |
|  3 | DEPENDENT SUBQUERY | sub       | ref    | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | test.ac_rating.AC_ID |    1 | Using index |
+----+--------------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
4 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Note that ac_dob table is not in the output. Now let's try getting birthdate instead:

MySQL [test]> explain select ACDOB_birthdate from actors where ACNAM_name=’Gary Oldman’;
+----+-------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table     | type   | possible_keys | key     | key_len | ref                  | rows | Extra       |
+----+-------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
|  1 | PRIMARY     | ac_anchor | index  | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | NULL                 |    2 | Using index |
|  1 | PRIMARY     | ac_name   | eq_ref | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | test.ac_anchor.AC_ID |    1 | Using where |
|  1 | PRIMARY     | ac_dob    | eq_ref | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | test.ac_anchor.AC_ID |    1 |             |
+----+-------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
3 rows in set (0.01 sec)

The ac_dob table is there while ac_rating and the subquery are gone. Now, if we just want to check the name of the actor:

MySQL [test]> explain select count(*) from actors where ACNAM_name=’Gary Oldman’;
+----+-------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table     | type   | possible_keys | key     | key_len | ref                  | rows | Extra       |
+----+-------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
|  1 | PRIMARY     | ac_anchor | index  | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | NULL                 |    2 | Using index |
|  1 | PRIMARY     | ac_name   | eq_ref | PRIMARY       | PRIMARY | 4       | test.ac_anchor.AC_ID |    1 | Using where |
+----+-------------+-----------+--------+---------------+---------+---------+----------------------+------+-------------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)

In this case it will eliminate both the ac_dob and ac_rating tables.

Removing tables from a query does not make the query slower, and it does not cut off any optimization opportunities, so table elimination is unconditional and there are no plans on having any kind of query hints for it.

For debugging purposes there is a table_elimination=on|off switch in debug builds of the server.

See also

• This page is based on the following blog post about table elimination: http://s.petrunia.net/blog/?p=58