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Plan to deprecate PROCEDURE ANALYSE

In the MySQL team, we have been refactoring the SQL parser to be more maintainable. Gleb Shchepa lists the goals of this project in more details on the MySQL Server Team blog.

As part of this, we have identified the feature PROCEDURE ANALYSE as something that we would like to deprecate. For added context, here is a demonstration:

mysql> SELECT * FROM City procedure analyse()\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
             Field_name: world.city.ID
              Min_value: 1
              Max_value: 4079
             Min_length: 1
             Max_length: 4
       Empties_or_zeros: 0
                  Nulls: 0
Avg_value_or_avg_length: 2040.0000
                    Std: 1177.5058
      Optimal_fieldtype: SMALLINT(4) UNSIGNED NOT NULL
*************************** 2. row ***************************
             Field_name: world.city.Name
              Min_value: A Coruña (La Coruña)
              Max_value: ´s-Hertogenbosch
             Min_length: 3
             Max_length: 33
       Empties_or_zeros: 0
                  Nulls: 0
Avg_value_or_avg_length: 8.5295
                    Std: NULL
      Optimal_fieldtype: VARCHAR(33) NOT NULL
*************************** 3. row ***************************
             Field_name: world.city.CountryCode
              Min_value: ABW
              Max_value: ZWE
             Min_length: 3
             Max_length: 3
       Empties_or_zeros: 0
                  Nulls: 0
Avg_value_or_avg_length: 3.0000
                    Std: NULL
      Optimal_fieldtype: ENUM('ABW','AFG','AGO','AIA','ALB','AND','ANT','ARE','ARG','ARM','ASM','ATG','AUS','AUT','AZE','BDI','BEL','BEN','BFA','BGD','BGR','BHR','BHS','BIH','BLR','BLZ','BMU','BOL','BRA','BRB','BRN','BTN','BWA','CAF','CAN','CCK','CHE','CHL','CHN','CIV','CMR','COD','COG','COK','COL','COM','CPV','CRI','CUB','CXR','CYM','CYP','CZE','DEU','DJI','DMA','DNK','DOM','DZA','ECU','EGY','ERI','ESH','ESP','EST','ETH','FIN','FJI','FLK','FRA','FRO','FSM','GAB','GBR','GEO','GHA','GIB','GIN','GLP','GMB','GNB','GNQ','GRC','GRD','GRL','GTM','GUF','GUM','GUY','HKG','HND','HRV','HTI','HUN','IDN','IND','IRL','IRN','IRQ','ISL','ISR','ITA','JAM','JOR','JPN','KAZ','KEN','KGZ','KHM','KIR','KNA','KOR','KWT','LAO','LBN','LBR','LBY','LCA','LIE','LKA','LSO','LTU','LUX','LVA','MAC','MAR','MCO','MDA','MDG','MDV','MEX','MHL','MKD','MLI','MLT','MMR','MNG','MNP','MOZ','MRT','MSR','MTQ','MUS','MWI','MYS','MYT','NAM','NCL','NER','NFK','NGA','NIC','NIU','NLD','NOR','NPL','NRU','NZL','OMN','PAK','PAN','PCN','PER','PHL','PLW','PNG','POL','PRI','PRK','PRT','PRY','PSE','PYF','QAT','REU','ROM','RUS','RWA','SAU','SDN','SEN','SGP','SHN','SJM','SLB','SLE','SLV','SMR','SOM','SPM','STP','SUR','SVK','SVN','SWE','SWZ','SYC','SYR','TCA','TCD','TGO','THA','TJK','TKL','TKM','TMP','TON','TTO','TUN','TUR','TUV','TWN','TZA','UGA','UKR','URY','USA','UZB','VAT','VCT','VEN','VGB','VIR','VNM','VUT','WLF','WSM','YEM','YUG','ZAF','ZMB','ZWE') NOT NULL
*************************** 4. row ***************************
             Field_name: world.city.District
              Min_value: Abhasia [Aphazeti]
              Max_value: –
             Min_length: 1
             Max_length: 20
       Empties_or_zeros: 4
                  Nulls: 0
Avg_value_or_avg_length: 9.0194
                    Std: NULL
      Optimal_fieldtype: VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL
*************************** 5. row ***************************
             Field_name: world.city.Population
              Min_value: 42
              Max_value: 10500000
             Min_length: 2
             Max_length: 8
       Empties_or_zeros: 0
                  Nulls: 0
Avg_value_or_avg_length: 350468.2236
                    Std: 723686.9870
      Optimal_fieldtype: MEDIUMINT(8) UNSIGNED NOT NULL
5 rows in set (0.01 sec)

ANALYSE() examines the result from a query and returns an analysis of the results that suggests optimal data types for each column that may help reduce table sizes.

Our justification for wanting to deprecate PROCEDURE ANALYSE is as follows:

  • There are no other uses of SELECT * FROM table PROCEDURE. This syntax is used exclusively by ANALYSE, and uses the UK English spelling.
  • The name PROCEDURE predates the addition of stored procedures as a MySQL feature. Ideally this feature would use a different name (CHANNEL?) to avoid confusion in usage. It also exists as an extension to the SQL standard.
  • There are numerous advantages to a feature similar to this being external to the MySQL server. The server must follow a stable release cycle, with core functionality being unchanged once it is declared GA. As an external tool, it is much easier to develop in an agile way, and provide new functionality without having to provide the same level of backward compatibility.

    By “external” I am implying that this could either be a script or as a view or stored procedure in MySQL. Shlomi has a good example of how to show auto_increment column capacity in common_schema!

Our current plan is to deprecate PROCEDURE ANALYSE in MySQL 5.7, for removal as soon as MySQL 5.8. We are inviting feedback from the MySQL Community and would like to hear from you if you use PROCEDURE ANALYSE. Please leave a comment, or get in touch!

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An update on GROUP BY implicit sort

In the MySQL team, we have been planning for some time to remove the implicit sorting that is provided by GROUP BY. In doing so, we will make a number of existing queries faster (by no longer requiring a sort) as well as unlock opportunities to implement further optimizations.

This is one of the more complicated behaviours to remove, because it is not possible to tell if an application relies upon implicit ordering. Since a GROUP BY query without an ORDER BY clause is a valid query, it is also not reasonable to issue deprecation warnings.

However, one piece of the puzzle that was missing when I last wrote about this problem, is that MySQL 5.7 will support server-side query rewrite. What this means, is that Database Administrators will have the ability to inject an ORDER BY into queries that require this legacy behaviour. This is useful in the case where modifying the application directly is not possible.

The second part to this update, is that we also plan to deprecate the closely related syntax GROUP BY .. [ASC|DESC]. I am sure many users are probably unaware that exists, but you can change the implicit ordering to be in descending order with:

SELECT MAX(Population), Name FROM Country GROUP BY Name DESC;

(Note the missing “ORDER BY”).

This represents an extension from the SQL standard, that what I can tell is not present in other databases.

Our current plan is to make GROUP BY .. [ASC|DESC] deprecated as of MySQL 5.7, with removal in 5.8. As part of this, we also plan to remove the implicit GROUP BY sort as early as MySQL 5.8.

We are inviting feedback from the MySQL Community regarding this plan. Please leave a comment, or get in touch! I would love to hear from you.

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SHOW ENGINE INNODB MUTEX is back!

We received feedback from a number of users in the MySQL community that the command SHOW ENGINE INNODB MUTEX remains useful in a number of scenarios. We listened, and the command is scheduled to make a return in MySQL 5.7.8.

To lessen overhead, the command will now feature a mechanism to enable and disable metrics collection. This is documented in the manual here:

SET GLOBAL innodb_monitor_enable='latch';
SET GLOBAL innodb_monitor_disable='latch';

Thank you for helping make a better MySQL!