The optimizer_switch
system variable enables control over optimizer behavior. Its value is a set of flags, each of which has a value of on
or off
to indicate whether the corresponding optimizer behavior is enabled or disabled. This variable has global and session values and can be changed at runtime. The global default can be set at server startup.
To see the current set of optimizer flags, select the variable value:
mysql> SELECT @@optimizer_switch\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
@@optimizer_switch: index_merge=on,index_merge_union=on,
index_merge_sort_union=on,
index_merge_intersection=on
To change the value of optimizer_switch
, assign a value consisting of a comma-separated list of one or more commands:
SET [GLOBAL|SESSION] optimizer_switch='command
[,command
]...';
Each command
value should have one of the forms shown in the following table.
Command Syntax | Meaning |
---|---|
default |
Reset every optimization to its default value |
|
Set the named optimization to its default value |
|
Disable the named optimization |
|
Enable the named optimization |
The order of the commands in the value does not matter, although the default
command is executed first if present. Setting an opt_name
flag to default
sets it to whichever of on
or off
is its default value. Specifying any given opt_name
more than once in the value is not permitted and causes an error. Any errors in the value cause the assignment to fail with an error, leaving the value of optimizer_switch
unchanged.
The following table lists the permissible opt_name
flag names.
Flag Name | Meaning |
---|---|
index_merge |
Controls all Index Merge optimizations |
index_merge_intersection |
Controls the Index Merge Intersection Access optimization |
index_merge_sort_union |
Controls the Index Merge Sort-Union Access optimization |
index_merge_union |
Controls the Index Merge Union Access optimization |
For information about Index Merge, see Section 8.3.1.4, “Index Merge Optimization”.
When you assign a value to optimizer_switch
, flags that are not mentioned keep their current values. This makes it possible to enable or disable specific optimizer behaviors in a single statement without affecting other behaviors. The statement does not depend on what other optimizer flags exist and what their values are. Suppose that all Index Merge optimizations are enabled:
mysql> SELECT @@optimizer_switch\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
@@optimizer_switch: index_merge=on,index_merge_union=on,
index_merge_sort_union=on,
index_merge_intersection=on
If the server is using the Index Merge Union or Index Merge Sort-Union access methods for certain queries and you want to check whether the optimizer will perform better without them, set the variable value like this:
mysql> SET optimizer_switch='index_merge_union=off,index_merge_sort_union=off';
mysql> SELECT @@optimizer_switch\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
@@optimizer_switch: index_merge=on,index_merge_union=off,
index_merge_sort_union=off,
index_merge_intersection=on