Query Statistics in MySQL

The important statistics collected for a performed query, including time, temporary tables, indexes, joins, and more, are gathered in the Query Stats SQL editor results tab (see the following two figures).

Requirements

Enabled query, and collect performance schema statistics.
The performance_schema has statement instrumentation enabled.

SQL Editor: Query Stats

Visual Explain Plan

By utilizing the additional data included in the enhanced JSON format, the visual explain feature creates and presents a visual depiction of the MySQL EXPLAIN statement. All EXPLAIN formats, including the standard format, the raw extended JSON, and the visual query plan, are available in MySQL Workbench for executed queries.

Visually Demonstrate Use

Execute your query in the SQL editor, then choose Execution Process from the query results menu to receive a visual explanation of the execution plan. The execution plan contains a Tabular Explain view that resembles what you see when you run EXPLAIN in the MySQL client in addition to the Visual Explain view, which is the default. See Optimizing Queries with EXPLAIN for details on how MySQL executes statements.

Visual Explain Conventions

A visual explanation diagram should be read from bottom to top and from left to right. An overview of the graphic, textual, and informational conventions used to represent various elements of the visual explanation plans is given in the diagram examples that follow. To learn more details, see −

Graphic Standards
Informational and Textual Conventions

The first figure's visual explain diagram provides a visual depiction of the following query.

select  * FROM employee_table

A Visual Explain Example

Graphic Conventions

Standard Boxes: tables
Rounded boxes: operations such as GROUP and SORT
Framed boxes: subqueries
Diamonds: joins

Textual and Informational Conventions

Standard text below boxes: table (or alias) name
Bold text below boxes: key/index that was used
Number in top right of a box: number of rows used from the table after filtering
Number in top left of a box: relative cost of accessing that table (requires MySQL 5.7 or higher)
Number to the right of nested loop (or hash join) diamonds: number of rows produced by the JOIN
Number above the diamonds: relative cost of the JOIN (requires MySQL 5.7 or higher)

The following table shows the associated colors and descriptions used in the visual explain diagram. For more information about cost estimates, see The Optimizer Cost Model.

Visual Explain Diagram Information

System Name	Color	Text on Visual Diagram	Tooltip Related Information
SYSTEM	Blue	Single row: system constant	Very low cost
CONST	Blue	Single row: constant	Very low cost
EQ_REF	Green	Unique Key Lookup	Low cost -- The optimizer is able to find an index that it can use to retrieve the required records. It is fast because the index search directly leads to the page with all the row data
REF	Green	Non-Unique Key Lookup	Low-medium -- Low if the number of matching rows is small; higher as the number of rows increases
FULLTEXT	Yellow	Fulltext Index Search	Specialized FULLTEXT search. Low -- for this specialized search requirement
REF_OR_NULL	Green	Key Lookup + Fetch NULL Values	Low-medium -- if the number of matching rows is small; higher as the number of rows increases
INDEX_MERGE	Green	Index Merge	Medium -- look for a better index selection in the query to improve performance
UNIQUE_SUBQUERY	Orange	Unique Key Lookup into table of subquery	Low -- Used for efficient Subquery processing
INDEX_SUBQUERY	Orange	Non-Unique Key Lookup into table of subquery	Low -- Used for efficient Subquery processing
RANGE	Orange	Index Range Scan	Medium -- partial index scan
INDEX	Red	Full Index Scan	High -- especially for large indexes
ALL	Red	Full Table Scan	Very High − very costly for large tables, but less of an impact for small ones. No usable indexes were found for the table, which forces the optimizer to search every row. This could also mean that the search range is so broad that the index would be useless.
UNKNOWN	Black	unknown	Note: This is the default, in case a match cannot be determined