Optimizing MySQL queries / database structure

Question

I have in my MySQL database these two tables:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `articles` (
  `id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
  `url` varchar(255) collate utf8_bin NOT NULL,
  `img` varchar(255) collate utf8_bin NOT NULL,
  `name` varchar(255) character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `url_key` varchar(255) character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `type_code` varchar(255) character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `likes_count` int(11) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`),
  KEY `type` (`type`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_bin;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `articles_types` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `code` varchar(255) character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `url_key` varchar(255) character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  `name` varchar(255) character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`),
  UNIQUE KEY `name` (`code`),
  KEY `type` (`name`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_czech_ci;

And I'm trying to run this query:

SELECT a.* FROM `articles` a INNER JOIN articles_types at ON at.`code`=a.type ORDER BY p.likes_count DESC LIMIT 1

Which returns 1 row, in 1sec.

The table articles consists of aproximately over 70k rows, articles_types only about 70 rows.

Is there any chance to optimize the structure (maybe engine?) of that tables, or optimize the query itself to make it faster?

Answer 1

You should examine the output of EXPLAIN on your query

It's likely the order by that gets you, so create an index on articles.likes_count