Question

I’m trying to speed up some code that I wrote years ago for my employer’s purchase authorization app. Basically I have a SLOW subquery that I’d like to replace with a JOIN (if it’s faster).

When the director logs into the application he sees a list of purchase requests he has yet to authorize or deny. That list is generated with the following query:

SELECT * FROM SA_ORDER WHERE ORDER_ID NOT IN
    (SELECT ORDER_ID FROM SA_SIGNATURES WHERE TYPE = 'administrative director');

There are only about 900 records in sa_order and 1800 records in sa_signature and this query still takes about 5 seconds to execute. I’ve tried using a LEFT JOIN to retrieve records I need, but I’ve only been able to get sa_order records with NO matching records in sa_signature, and I need sa_order records with “no matching records with a type of ‘administrative director'”. Your help is greatly appreciated!

The schema for the two tables is as follows:

The tables involved have the following layout:

CREATE TABLE sa_order
(
    `order_id`        BIGINT       PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `order_number`    BIGINT       NOT NULL,
    `submit_date`     DATE         NOT NULL,
    `vendor_id`       BIGINT       NOT NULL,
    `DENIED`          BOOLEAN      NOT NULL DEFAULT FALSE,
    `MEMO`            MEDIUMTEXT,
    `year_id`         BIGINT       NOT NULL,
    `advisor`         VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    `deleted`         BOOLEAN      NOT NULL DEFAULT FALSE
);

CREATE TABLE sa_signature
(
    `signature_id`        BIGINT          PRIMARY KEY AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `order_id`            BIGINT          NOT NULL,
    `signature`           VARCHAR(255)    NOT NULL,
    `proxy`               BOOLEAN         NOT NULL DEFAULT FALSE,
    `timestamp`           TIMESTAMP       NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW(),
    `username`            VARCHAR(255)    NOT NULL,
    `type`                VARCHAR(255)    NOT NULL
);

Answer 1

Create an index on sa_signatures (type, order_id).

This is not necessary to convert the query into a LEFT JOIN unless sa_signatures allows nulls in order_id. With the index, the NOT IN will perform as well. However, just in case you’re curious:

SELECT  o.*
FROM    sa_order o
LEFT JOIN
        sa_signatures s
ON      s.order_id = o.order_id
        AND s.type = 'administrative director'
WHERE   s.type IS NULL

You should pick a NOT NULL column from sa_signatures for the WHERE clause to perform well.